When I first came across the blurb for *The Ministry of Time*, my curiosity was piqued, and it instantly became one of my most eagerly awaited releases of the year. I was not let down! *The Ministry of Time* offers a novel twist on time travel narratives by emphasizing how people from the past adapt and assimilate into modern culture. This setup provides an excellent framework to delve into important topics such as racism, colonization, feminism, gender equality, religion, and climate crises, all while delivering plenty of humour.

The prose was captivating, beautifully crafted, and infused with British wit that had me laughing out loud multiple times. The characters were compelling and lovable, written in a way that made me genuinely care about their successful adaptation and happiness.

This was an outstanding debut, and I look forward to reading more from Kate in the future.

Time travel, espionage, romance, even race and gender relations, this book covers a lot of themes. "The Ministry of Time" is a very original concept. A small group of people from history, on the brink of death, are brought forward to "modern day" London. They are each assigned a bridge to acclimate to their current circumstances. Most of these bridges, especially our unnamed main character, didn't even know what they were applying for until they were accepted because of the extreme secrecy around the project. Every character is flawed and Kaliane Bradley makes her main characters appear so real and human. When two of them fall into a relationship, it is messy and not the air brushed romance typical of so many stories. I love time travel stories, even when they make my brain hurt, and this book is no exception. It took a while for the twists to start coming, but they sure did.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy. My opinion is my own.

The book was chosen purely based on its cover and might possibly be my favorite book of the year. A historical time drama with a mystery wrapped in a romance. I truly did not know what to expect and by the second day could not put it down. I appreciate the author’s note that gives context for the story. It really showed how this idea blossomed into such a beautiful piece of fiction. I am relatively new to the sci-if genre and am sure that there will be many comparisons for time cops, etc. but the end reminded me a lot of Eternal Sunshine, where actions and consequences start to matter exponentially more and every little thing feels precious. Above all, this is a love story. I really enjoyed this book.

I was really looking forward to reading this book, as it was advertised as a rom com meets sci-fi book. I wouldn't call this a rom-com. But it was definitely a sci-fi. Something about the way the book was written was really off-putting, and felt a little passive. However, about 75% into the book, I found myself sucked into what was happening, and by the end I decided that if Bradley wrote another book in this universe, I would buy and read it.

I think I really liked this book, but I might have to give it another read to be sure. It's a mashup of time-travel sci-fi, spy novel, romance, and (I suspect) memoir, held together by a strange, edgy sadness that haunted me beautifully while reading the book and that now, after finishing, feels like its main affect. There are some weird and jarring similes in this one, and the prose is often overwrought. While the amount of historical detail, degree of character development, and immersiveness of the world-building are truly impressive, I'm not giving The Ministry of Time five stars since, well, I had trouble teasing out the implications of the spy-and-time-travel plot due to aforementioned overwrought-ness. I had trouble following the narrator's motives, particularly her relationship to state power--and, by extension, to white supremacy, empire, and, ultimately, Graham--only that she appears to be complicit with it for, like, the whole novel. Mostly, I vibed on her melancholy. The ending felt blurry.

I loved this genre mashup. I was hesitant because I don’t read sci-fi and was pleasantly surprised to find that this was just the perfect blend of fantasy, romance, dystopian fiction. It was a pleasure to read and I’m in love with Graham Gore, as I’m sure anyone who has read this book is as well. Such a gem!

"The Ministry of Time" by Kaliane Bradley is a slow-burner time traveling extravaganza!

A fun read about a woman who is tasked by the Ministry to help Commander Graham Gore navigate life in modern day time. "The Ministry of Time" had a lot of interesting aspects which sometimes made the story feel crowded but in the end this is a great book about one of the most beloved science-fiction themes: time travel.

I would recommend this story to fans of science fiction, "The Cloisters", and readers who are looking for a story about time-travel.

Thanks to Avid Reader Press and Netgalley for the arc.

Thanks to Avid Reader Press/Simon&Schuster and Netgalley for the ARC and thank you to the author Kaliane Bradley.

The Ministry of Time - part spy thriller, time travel mystery, and surprisingly sexy slow burn romance - posits the deceptively simple question: What would the world look like if the British government got its hands on time travel tech?

Here we meet a civil servant tasked with acting as a bridge between past and present for an 19th century naval captain - introducing him to spotify, weed, and motorcycles while absolutely crossing the lines of appropriate work assignment behavior.

The ministry and their end goal is shrouded in mystery and conspiracy- you know everyone in the project is a pawn in some way - but you explore the ethics of power and complicity from the cocoon of an unlikely camaraderie and affectionately doomed romance.

Though there is a lot to like about this book (Kaliane Bradley sets a scene with accuracy and mirth, equating London in late august to a used tea bag made me genuinely laugh out loud), I did find parts a bit uneven.

The timey-whimey (yes an official dictionary and literary term) bits in the end left me a bit confused. I’m not totally sure where that leaves us in terms of timelines or futures, but by that point I was kind of smitten by Commander Gore and his rag tag group of expats, and I hope they find peace in whatever world they make for themselves

This one is sure to provoke some internal questioning about our collective future which will spill over into conversations you’ll be dying to have.

4.5 stars, rounded down.

This was such a fun read! It was well written and more emotional than I expected and while I had complicated feelings about most characters, I was rooting for them the entire time. I love the genre-bending nature of the story—it will appeal to a wide range of readers.

There is a small deduction in the rating for some pacing issues and a twist that wasn’t as surprising as it should have been. That said, I highly enjoyed it and look forward to reading more from this author.

Wow! This was great! I love anything to do with time travel. This book, was so original and creative. I loved how there were so many different genres, including sci fi, romance and mystery. It’s even a bit twisty, with a plot you never see coming. As I read this book I could imagine the mini series adaptation. I really hope they do one. This was n excellent red nd I look forward to more from the author.

The premise of this book sounded right up my alley. Time travel is one of my favorite things to read about. However, this book fell flat for me. The idea of a “bridge” helping an “expat” from the past adjust to modern life while falling in love sounded so fun. Sadly, I just found it boring. DNF at 50%

📚Book review📚 :: The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

Story premise: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Character development: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Writing style: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Ending: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley has everything I love in a book: Time travel, quirky characters, the downfall of late-stage capitalism. It's unique and strange, sci-fi with subtle depth and complexity. It tackles not only global political incompetencies but also humanity's many failings over the last few centuries (including climate devastation, colonialism, slavery, racism, etc).

The writing style wasn't exactly what I tend to gravitate toward. I felt similarly to how I feel about Emily St. John Mandel's books. I would die for the story premises, the ideas but I struggle, for some reason, go connect to it the way I want to. It's 100% stylistic preference and doesn't reflect on the authors or these incredible books.

The Ministry of Time is a slow burn. It took me a very long time to get invested in the story. The romance was a nice spark and written really captivatingly. However, the plot came and went for me quite a few times. I lost track along the way of who was who and what side they were on (and what year?!). I think I'll read this book again soon in the future to answer the questions that are still lingering.

Overall, this is an important book. It's so much more than it appears to be at first glance.

The Ministry of Time and my love for it were both slow burns, but I can now say it's easily one of my favorite reads of the year. The different advertised aspects of the book are charming and not un-accurate, but the overall work and experience is greater than the sum of its parts. Our unnamed narrator begins the novel in perhaps the worst arguably-non-lethal situation you can find yourself in -- a job interview. Only after winning the job does she discover what the role entails. She is to be a mentor, liaison, or "bridge" for a person who has been kidnapped from the Past and is now an "expat" in 21st century London. To test time-travel technology, the British government has retrieved a handful of people close to death, so as to not affect the timeline. Commander Graham Gore, who otherwise would have died on an expedition to find the Northwest Passage in 1847, has been assigned to our narrator. A majority of the novel is spent in the small scale. Our narrator observes and learns about Gore with the same, albeit bashful, obsession that Gore does the Present. Over time, you watch them delicately dance around each other's anachronistic methods of dealing with timeless feelings. Graham and the other expats provide enough charisma and entertainment to get you through stretches of time with little plot. The expats are fond of Spotify, but have mixed feelings on films. The food and Tinder are fun, but modern people have odd manners. There is an overarching apprehension of the purpose and future of the experiment, slated for a year, that leave an ominous edge to the fish-out-of-water shenanigans.

Happily invested in the charming characters and looming intrigue you don’t initially realize you're in the middle of a deftly constructed deconstruction of colonialism and both its aftermath and evolution. The narrator's relationship to her identity as the daughter of a Cambodian refugee adds wonderful depth and perspective to these quandaries. She is constantly weighing the questions of national versus personal identity and ethics, and what that means in all points of the timeline. Graham, a man from and of a British Empire past, is now able to influence and alter both the Present and the Future of the British Empire, not to mention the Present and Future of our narrator. Faced with the personified contradiction of these ideas, all previous notions crumble.

There are so many tangents and angles to follow or approach The Ministry of Time, but the sum of them all is a supremely stimulating and satisfying read. Following the theme of contradictions, it's both the perfect book to read on your own or to discuss and dissect with friends.

The time-toggling plot focuses on a British civil servant who takes a high-paying job on a secret mission, working as a “bridge” to help time-traveling “expats” resettle in 21st-century London. She falls hard for her charge, Commander Gore. As their relationship turns from the strictly professional into something more and uneasy truths begin to emerge, they are forced to face the reality of the project that brought them together.

Drama, intrigue, and romance ensue. This futuristic tale of time never appears to take itself too seriously. It offers a meaningful perspective on the challenges we face on the way we live and love today or does it? I’m not sure. I found this science fiction novel to not be a favorite time travel book. At times, it is very funny but it doesn’t change my feeling of something missing.

I loved the premise of this book. However, the author used so many ridiculous words that I was constantly looking them up to understand what was happening. As a reader, it made me feel like the author was in a competition for using the most poetic or profound vocabulary possible. This had promise but fell flat for me.

I so badly wanted to like this more than I did. Normally, I love a good time travel story but found this one to be very underwhelming. It was sadly disappointing. I had a hard time getting into it, and the writing style seemed disjointed. Also, the pacing seemed off. So much of the book was the characters just telling us every minute detail of their everyday life. Then suddenly everything just happens without much of any lead up. It's unfortunate because this really did have so much potential.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Could you imagine being snatched out of a distant time period and brought into this one?! If nobody has snapped up film rights to this book yet, I'd shocked. This book had a little bit of everything in it: time travel, suspense, thrills, romance, intrigue, you name it. It was fun! It was fresh! Time travel has been done to death and not well sometimes. The author kept it new and exciting because of all the other things going on. And tell me I'm not the only one who has fallen in love with Graham Gore! I loved the friendships he had with the others and how he cared for his bridge, his "little cat."

I have to say, this would have been a 5* book for me, but for the ending. I understood, I guess, why the story ended the way it did, but I don't know that I was entirely happy with it. There were some parts that were a little confusing, but overall, I really enjoyed the book. 4.5* read for me.

Thank you, Kaliane Bradley, I hope you keep writing. Thank you, NetGalley, for the chance to read and review this book. All opinions expressed are mine and freely given.

The Ministry of Time follows a woman as she begins a new job within the Ministry. The Ministry is extracting people from the past who were going to meet their demise anyway and bringing them to the future. The main character has been tasked with being a “bridge” for her expat, which means she will help him assimilate into modern day Britain. His name is Commander Graham Gore, who is based on a real person from the past.

Seeing the expats navigate the present was the most interesting part of the novel. I enjoyed them experiencing modern day for the first time and most of the time it was humorous. The main characters relationships with the expats and the relationships between the expats kept the novel going, without them I doubt I would have finished the novel.

There were multiple times dynamics were introduced but were never fleshed out. For example, a character makes a revelation about a relationship and it is never brought back again. I felt like this was a missed opportunity to expand on technology’s impact in the novel.
The Ministry of Time promises sci-fi, thriller, and romance; however, it fails to deliver. It tries to do too much in too little time. I would classify this book as sci-fi due to the blending of past, present, and future, as well as the technology and overall premise. The “thriller” aspect of this novel was not exciting, not suspenseful, and when the big “plot twist” happened, I thought “eh.” The romance was awkward, uncomfortable, and not very believable. Add a dash of the main character trying to figure out her identity and ta-da, you have this book.

The characters in this novel needed to be more fully developed, the book needed to focus on one to two genres tops, and it could have easily become two novels to do everything justice.

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The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley is described as "a time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingenious exploration of the nature of power and the potential for love to change it all." This book was fun in parts, but it dragged a bit in other parts. And that description promised a lot more than was given. I do think that this book has a somewhat unique premise, and I enjoyed the historical references. Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

I think this book was really good, it just wasn't a book for me. I found myself getting bored and just not caring to pick it up but I have heard very positive reviews otherwise. I may try again at a different time but it didn't pull me in this time around.