Love and Other Paradoxes had an intriguing premise—time travel, a mysterious book from the future, and a moody Cambridge setting in 2004—but the execution didn’t land for me. Joe, a poetry student crippled by writer’s block, meets Esi, a time traveler with a mission tied to his future, but their connection felt shallow and inconsistent, with Joe falling in and out of love far too easily to sell the supposed depth of their bond. Esi’s motivations were muddled and underwhelming, and despite the book’s promise of emotional stakes, I didn’t feel any real grief or urgency from her or Joe. Secondary characters like Diana and Ray barely registered, and though Diana had a flicker of spark near the end, the payoff was weak. The flow of the story was disjointed, and the time travel logic collapsed into “I guess it doesn’t matter” territory by the finale, which made me laugh—unfortunately not in the way the author intended. If you’re looking for About Time–level feels, this one won’t get you there.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperAudio for this ARC!

I’m sorry but this book was just not for me one bit. There was truly nothing about this book that I liked at all. This maybe a book for someone but not for me.

I'm a little stuck on how I feel about Love and Other Paradoxes. I loved the premise of whether you could change your life if you had the chance to see what it would become, and the time-traveling tourism bit with the mysterious gifts that appear for Joe in his mailbox was fun. I truly enjoyed Joe and his roommate Rob and I loved Esi immediately when she came into the story, but felt that the story got a bit lost when she went missing from it for a stretch. I will definitely recommend this title to my patrons who love magical realism as I think it would right up their alley. Thank you to Harper Audio and NetGalley for the early listen in exchange for my honest opinion. 3.5 stars

Very sweet, fun, time-travel romance that checks all the boxes and satisfies most of the simple questions a lay reader has about the physics of time travel.

Fairly wholesome, no spice.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #HarperAudio for an advance listening copy of #LoveAndOtherPatadoxes.

The narrator was great and the writing was fine but the book just didn't gel for me. 3 stars.

Entertaining and engaging. A recommended purchase for collections where romance and time travel are popular.

I’m sure this one will be for a lot of people, but it didn’t quite do it for me. While I think the premise is really interesting, and some of the subplots were really compelling, I find I just…couldn’t care about the protagonist’s main struggle. I don’t need a likeable protagonist to enjoy a book, but the precise flavor of unlikeable Joe was really became tough for me to root for. I found the Assassin game and Esi’s quest to be far more compelling, and would have happily read a whole novel about that and Rob. I didn’t really need Joe and his preoccupation with his own deserved greatness, or him trying to pull the hot actress. Idk man this one could have been something I would love, but as it is it’s just not for me.

That said, I LOVED the audio performance. Nicholas Ralph did a spectacular job, and I’d love to hear him on more books. No massively noticeable blips in editing, meaning I can’t recall any!

This is a fresh, funny, and slightly nerdy take on a time-traveling romance. A student at Cambridge University destined to be a great poet runs into a time traveler on a time-traveling tour, who has an alternative objective. This is one where the characters start messing with destiny and rewriting history, but it’s all in the name of love.
I thought the characters were endearing and quirky, and the time-travel component wasn’t overly sci-fi-ish, thus making it a cozy rom-com.

🎧 Thank you to @harpercollins #harperaudio for the gifted audio narrated by Nicholas Ralph. Pairing the audiobook with my physical copy enriched my reading experience.

Happy pub week to Love and Other Paradoxes by Catriona Silvey. I love a time travel story and this romcom had me on the edge of my seat. I’m so grateful to @williammorrowbooks for a copy of this one and to HarperAudio for an ALC!

Joe Greene is a philosophy student at Cambridge University in 2005, but instead of studying like he should, he spends his time scribbling poetry and dreaming of having his work published for future generations. Then he meets Esi at a café and she accidentally drops a book of poems written by…Joe Greene. In the future. Apparently she visiting 2005 as part of a time-traveling tour to witness the early life the future famous poet. Him! Joe reads the book and discovers that he’s supposed to meet a fellow student and aspiring actress named Diana who will be his muse throughout his life. But does knowing he’s as big as Shakespeare in the future mess up that future? And why is Esi on this tour at all when she seems to hate his poetry?

This was a really fun romcom that played with the theme of destiny, how much free will is involved, and how much we can change the future. Joe was a pretty adorable character, even though he made a number of questionable choices and unlike most romcoms where the end is pretty obvious from the get go (which is fine; it’s supposed to be that way!), I really couldn’t figure out how this one was going to turn out which absolutely kept me figuratively turning pages. The side characters in this were really fun too. I especially loved Joe’s roommate, a physics major, who was playing a high stakes game of Assassin throughout the story that really brought me back to a different time. In the end this one had me thinking a lot about all the different paths life could have taken me on—or I could have chosen for myself.

Nicholas Ralph narrates the audiobook and brings the perfect sweetness mixed with bumbling boy energy to the reading. His delivery made me feel even more for Joe Greene and his plight even as he did things I wished he wouldn’t. I’d definitely recommend the audiobook for this one.

I'm usually all about a time travel/magical realism romance but sadly this one fell a little flat for me. The premise is cute, with Esi, travelling back to Cambridge University in 2005 to meet a famous poet, Joe only to find herself becoming his de facto dating coach while also trying to change history. Okay on audio, this had lots of potential but was just an okay read for me. Would recommend for fans of books like The time traveller's wife. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest review!