Running away from her old life and old sense of self, Hallie lands in Paris and Millie's bar. Surrounded by other travellers and misfits, it's the closes Hallie has felt to home in a long time - until, that is, she stumbles through a time portal in the basement. At first terrified, then obsessed, can Hallie retain her sense of self as she is drawn again and again to explore the past of this city she has grown to love?

I was fantastically intrigued by the description of this book, and, for a large part, it does deliver. Despite the time travel elements, this isn't really a science fiction kind of a novel. It's borderline on 'New Adult' (YA, but a little older?) or even - eeep! - a bit of romance. And, especially by the end, it's a lot about self-discovery, but in a very good way - in fact, the closing epilogue-y chapter gained this back a few points for me.

Because, while it's well-written, and intriguing, and definitely has some cool ideas, there was also just something that didn't quite click here for me. I'm not entirely sure what. Perhaps I'm just too old and un-travelled to have been quite as swept up by the whole life-in-Paris side, which I'd been hoping to find more evocative. Or perhaps I've just read too much time-travel to not find a few too many loose ends with the storyline. Or, there's just not quite enough of any of these elements pushing through the mix.

Whatever didn't quite satisfy me, I'd still cautiously recommend this book. Full marks for being something a bit different, and while not living up to The Time Traveler's Wife (one of my favourites!), it might still appeal to fans of that.

A confusing book for a regular reader like me. Difficult to understand what happens, looks like a way to present Paris at different times.

A group of people who can travel through time decide to send two people back: a chronometrist and an incumbent. These two people will help to influence another incumbent in Paris 2017, and set off a chain of events that will save the world. Each 'anomaly' (which is what incumbents use to travel though time) has its very own incumbent, who is the only person capable of using it as a door in time.
Hallie's anomaly is in the cellar of a bar (Millie's) in Paris. Long story short, she meets the chronometrist, uses the anomaly and hops through time a bit, using her trips to change history.
I really enjoyed this. There was clearly a reasonable amount of research into the times that she went back to, and a lot of imagination went in to the times she travelled forwards to. I liked Hallie and her crazy, bohemian friends. I especially liked how it showed that small things can influence the big things in society.

Hallie has left her old life behind and made for Paris to start afresh, only to find herself inundated by a whole new set of challenges of a most bizarre nature. A strange woman, reveals another world Hallie would rather not know about, yet the insistent and compelling pull of an anomaly plunges Hallie into greater adventures than she could have ever imagined. Before long she is slipping between past and present and losing herself in the process, a piece at a time.
This is a novel which leaves the reader with a sense of disorientation and that the story is disjointed, as Hallie's strange time slip world begins to coil itself around her and draw her in. This works well because she has just upended her normal existence and is in the process of having her world destabilised even further through erratic shuttling back and forth from present to past and back again. Her first excursion is the most bewildering as the past whorls around Hallie with ferocious speed and blur of activity from its inhabitants. She has to adjust and fast, because she's stuck there until the next anomaly occurs.
Hallie's break from her previous life and relocation to Paris, has forced her to live by her wits until she finds her chaotic job in the bar which has an anomaly in its cellar. All this has prepared her well for these shifts through moments in time. As an intelligent opportunist Hallie quickly adjusts and, left with no choice, sets out to complete the tasks she is set by the Chronometrist (an unpleasant individual who shifts between times by inhabiting bodies and unceremoniously disposing of them when she has finished with them).
E J Swift has done well with the whole concept of time shift and changing the future, as well as the many scenarios that have been packed into this novel. There's a lot going on, both in terms of plot and relationships (which include a love story). Hallie's relationships, developed by the author on the fly as the narrative accumulates pace like a snowball down a hill, might on a cursory read give the impression they lack depth. But as Hallie appears to live through a haze, her ability to build close personal connections feels like an achievement. The interactions with her friends from the bar reflect the way Hallie is trying to hold onto reality and build her new life while the process of time shifting is physically and mentally tearing her apart.
Because of this,bthe story creates a constant sense of unease, making the reader yearn for Hallie to lead a normal life, even though the contribution of her journeys, if successful, will change an apocalyptic future for the better.
There is an exciting twist to the tale which raises an interesting debate about the wisdom of sending someone back in time to rewrite the future (how come Dr Who's self-styled morality hasn't caused utter chaos? Or has it somewhere along the line, but time is so expansive it somehow eventually becomes evened out?).

Review also found at https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/blog/2018/2/1/paris-adrift-by-ej-swift

There comes a time when you leave school or university; move out of the family home or student digs and then face that big question – what the hell do I do now? Not everyone has that amazing career plan or driving ambition; many of us are just stilling working out who we are. We will float around but then sometimes a certain job or group of new work colleagues will slot around us – people we may not immediately have had much in common with but the experiences we share with them give us that first opportunity to start being a fully-fledged adult. In this fantastic story EJ Swift gives us a tale that captures that moment in everyone’s lives when we find that place and what would happen if you add in the ability to time travel with world-ending consequences if it all goes wrong.

The story starts in the far future of 2318 and it is almost all over. A cataclysm is slowly destroying the last remaining areas of humanity and a group known as the House of Janus have one last gamble. A set of Anomalies exist around the world throughout time and each with one owner who gets the ability to travel through time based around that entry point. It’s known that around the turn of the twenty first century an anomaly will be in Paris and that it’s owner may have the ability to change things before it’s too late. The group arrange for it’s oldest member The Chronometrist to go and find and train her.

Skip backward circa 300 years (time-travel my friends) and we meet Hallie a young English student(ish) who has decided to leave the UK and just be someone else. As many have found this means night shift work at a bar. No family, little grasp of French and no previous experience but works for minimum wage so she gets the job. But then she sees ghosts of herself; a talking bird warn her that something is awake, and her shifts just escalate from there…

If you are looking for a hard SF view of time travel, then this isn’t the book for you. The anomalies that lurk around the world are not really explained beyond the core purpose; although they are certainly shown to have some form of sentience and possibly even a sense of ownership do not expect the science to be taught. Nor is this book going to give you a detailed sense of Paris throughout the ages. Instead you’re going to get a story that uses SF to talk about life and in a wider sense our culture. It’s the experience of being in an unfamiliar world where you must decide how to live for yourself that is the more important element in the story but being in a strange place does allow you to try everything!

The early part of the book puts a great emphasis on Hallie and her present-day life. She is clearly feeling lost and running away from her life. Prone to panic attacks; evasive about her past and low in confidence. If you’ve ever had that moment of ‘what’s next?’ then this rings so true and that’s why the focus on Millie’s and the rest of the bar crew, she meets is done. From that moment you find your other geeks who watch the same SF show to you; when you realise that although all these people come from different backgrounds and countries they can still actually all bond in the face of a busy shift facing off to demanding customers. I love a found family story and Swift has really captured that sense of camaraderie you get at your first workplace that you enjoy which slowly rubs off on you so at some point you’re the old hand helping the newcomers. We see Hallie realise that everyone has a past they’re also aimlessly running from. Each member of the shift comes alive from the philosopher to the guy happier to dance on the bar in his underwear. Watching Hallie grow and bond with the team is something that really feels true and adds a lot of soul to the novel.

Of course, once you add in time travel everything gets even more interesting! Initially it adds a sense of terror. Hallie sees ghosts of herself influencing tiny elements of her shift but most chillingly is the Chronometrist. The oldest time traveller with an anomaly has become incorporeal and possesses people. You could be walking down the street or in a bar and suddenly a strange person will start talking to you and its clear they know far more about you than you do. She’s a chilling character and its not clear she is acting purely to Hallie’s benefit. But at the same time the anomaly’s power is seductive. Hallie initially must work out how she can survive stranded in 1875 and through a chance encounter with an expat from London also looking at surviving they find a way to support each other. By later trips Hallie starts to decide to at for others and again there is a running theme of deciding what’s the right thing to do. Can Hallie give up on perpetual experiences of the past and not focus on her future?

Alongside this there is a look at the wider world. These days it’s not hard to believe an apocalypse is possible and we see eventually a fledgling political movement that says there may be a way forward through ideas of helping others at a local level. Hallie and this group ‘s future/past is tied, and it’s done really imaginatively. We also get a slightly different look at a dystopian future. It’s always tempting just to imagine the traditional wasteland but the scarier one is when you realise some people just like the idea of a shiny, cleaner world with all the ‘disruptive elements’ removed from sight. When you see who the culture has memorialised in the future you will feel a shiver…The question for Hallie is can she decide to stop this? It can feel like the addendum to the main plot in modern Paris but for me it really helps act as a logical conclusion but again if you just want a pre SF thriller this is not that type of book and for me works better because of it.

The story has a nice level of honesty. While Hallie finds the experiences, she lives through empowering they are also painful, tragic and won’t heal everything or everyone you care about. But you will always find in life you will have moments you decide what is the best thing to do right now. I thought this was one of the most thoughtful and emotional stories considering Time travel I’ve read in a long time and that feeling of learning independence is captured perfectly. I really think if you want a science fiction story with a lot of heart and character then this is one you need to read right now.

Verdict: Fantastically French, but I lost the plot.

Hallie defers her last year at uni to escaped to France, and now works in a bar in Paris. Portals begin opening up around her...and she experiences France's past and present...Mini adventures ensue.

Okay, that's a bad summary. It's hard to write an honest blurb about this book, because Hallie wasn't an active character. Things happened to her, and she dealt with them as best as possible, but she had no plans or hopes or goals or needs. It gave a sense that the story wasn't going anywhere, and often it didn't.

I'd call this a strange book, and one of the reasons is its unique writing style. It's sharp and direct, blunt in places, but somehow vague overall. It's never really clear what's going on - the bigger picture, the goal, the reasons behind the happenings, the motives - and I couldn't decide whether it was done in a mysterious way or a confusing way. Probably a mix of both.

Near the middle, things started to get political, and in the last 15%, we finally get introduced to the event which must be stopped. But after waiting for long for the point of the book, I wasn't very invested.

So I lost the plot, but I loved the context. There's a mix of English and French dialogue, and atmospheric descriptions of France through different eras. That's what made the book stand out from other time travelling stories, and what gave it an enjoyable edge.

Gabriela is also an interesting character. She fears she cannot leave Clichy, and it's not entirely clear what's holding her back: her psychological issues, or something spookier? She's intense at times, and felt very real to me. Millie is another interesting in her own right, and has her stories to tell. Hallie's family also felt like a good change from the usual 'sickly perfect' or 'orphan' cut outs that characters normally stem from. Those aside, I never really understood the other characters, and there were a lot of them. As I've said earlier, they didn't seem to want anything or it wasn't clear what they needed or why, so it was hard to get a good sense of them.

All in all, I enjoyed this book, but couldn't see how it was supposed to fit together and my interest waned. It's taught me how to swear in French, too.

Source: With thanks to the publishers via NetGalley.com.

Paris Adrift by E.J. Swift is a science fiction fantasy read that features time travel through various times in Paris. This one was a book that I had high hopes for when I saw the beautiful cover and learned that it would be about time traveling but unfortunately it fell a bit short for me.

The story started off seeming to be promising with a look at the future that had me salivating for some good old saving the world reading. But then we get introduced to Hallie as she’s working in a bar and that is where things just sort of stalled out for me. I think really at that point my mind was the one going a bit adrift to be honest.

By the time the time traveling began in the story I was losing hope for falling in love with the book but I had hopes it would still catch my attention a bit more than it did. I think though that what I missed was some really good character building to get a better connection and a bit more happening than what I was finding. I suppose the best way to put it was I’m sure for some this will be a great read but it just wasn’t what I expected it to be and not really my cup of tea in the end unfortunately.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Paris Adrift by E.J. Swift

 3/5 🌟🌟🌟

I was Paris Adrift, in return for my honest review. On behalf of NetGalley and the publisher (s). 

Rebellion/Solaris publishing

Time traveling!!!! This book was at first slow, and confusing. When reading it pay attention closely to the writing. With the detail and flip flop of time it can get confusing. 

It was a slow start but there is a lot of detail. From the past to the future your following the character through her journey through time. 

Paris Adrift may seem overwhelming at times, and even maybe slow but trudge on and I'm sure you will love this amazing time-travel adventure. 

It is set in Paris, at various timelines. Paris was supposed to save Hallie, make things better for her. As she works at the bar, with her friends, Hallie encounters a lot of things. One event inparticular sticks in her mind. She somehow sees herself, walking through the bar! Of course, Hallies' realistic mind can not make sense of the anomaly. 

(The anomalies can become confusing so pay attention.)

Hallow encounters a rather odd woman, who has chosen her to serve her. She introduced herself as, the Chronometrist. A cold, figure with a bird, no a falcon under her coat. 

Can Hallie believe enough to help herself. She saw herself and knew it wasn't right, a dream just dream she tells herself. 

We all know that time travel can change the course of events happening in the other time period. What will Hallies travels cost her, or yet what will it cost Paris? 

Political, and adventurous this time travel tale may just have you second guessing your own course!! 

This book is coming, February 06, 2018!! Watch to get your copy or pre-order now!!
You can find this review, and more on my personal blog,
abookishbeginning.wordpress.com

It was quite confusing at the beginning but when the main elements are already in place things begin to make sense. It's really sci fi, like REALLY. Full of adventure and action and a bit of love on the side.

This started a bit slow but picked up after that. It was a bit up and down at times and felt a little bit disjointed but it suits the subject matter though so not a big deal. It's a bit hard to say if I would recommend this though. For some people I would, for others not so much. It's not the time travel scifi book I expected but I did find it an interesting story told in a novel way. I'll definitely take a look at her other books though as I'd like to see what else she has to offer. I'm glad I read it but I wanted more, but that's not the worst thing to take away from a book.

I am a self-confessed time travel geek – it's easily my favourite aspect of science-fiction, beating down aliens, spacecrafts, post-apocalyptic mutants and even, superheroes! There's something so appealing about revisiting the past, or future and changing events to create brand new timelines. The Back to the Future trilogy is a perfect example of the depth that can be found in time-travel storytelling – each film is filled with nuances and easter eggs that represent the minor changes that messing with the timestream can have. I also love the circular nature of time-travel stories and how, when done right, audiences can view the same events from totally different perspectives within the same film – the British-Australian horror film, Triangle, does this brilliantly. Time Travel is such a versatile storytelling technique and can be used in all manner of genres – horror, action, comedy, romance. It can be dense sci-fi that requires a flowchart to follow, or simple light-hearted fare that services a larger narrative – either way, time travel just makes everything better!

So with that in mind, it is no surprise that the reference to time travel in the synopsis for Paris Adrift caught my interest as I browsed for new titles to review on NetGalley. Coupled with Joey Hi-Fi's mysterious and captivatingj cover, I was almost powerless to resist the siren's call and I immediately requested a copy. Straight off the bat, Paris Adrift had me hooked, and for the next few weeks I would find myself constantly under its thrall. The novel itself is a somewhat unconventional time travel tale, and if I had to describe it using familiar parlance I would say that it is like The Time Traveler's Wife mixed with a dash of Twelve Monkeys. As one would suspect from the ethereal style of the cover artwork and its title, this is a more relaxed time travel story than most, and although the stakes become increasingly more important, it is very much focused on character moments to drive the story forward.

E.J Swift takes her time to firmly establish her heroine, Hallie, and the evocative Parisian landscape that surrounds her, making sure the reader cares about her situation and the network of friends she has. Opening up with a disorientating chapter set in a dystopian future, Swift establishes the story's setting as current day Paris – with plenty of references to the far-right movement and increasing levels of hostility and populism that the world faces today. It becomes a central theme to the plot, and serves as a very timely and relevant warning as to how the rash decisions made by world leaders today could have devastating after-effects for the world tomorrow. For the most part, Swift tells the story from Hallie's point-of-view, allowing readers to piece together the backstory and motivations of those influencing Hallie and her trips back into time, before revealing the truth in a satisfying concluding third act.

Rather than using a time machine or a pimped-out Delorean to travel through the decades, Hallie adopts a more organic form of time travel as she interacts with anomolies – fixed geographical areas that resonate with chosen individuals (incumbents) and transport them back and forth through the timeline. This process results in a symbiotic relationship between anomoly and incumbent, allowing Swift to make travelling in time into an analog for drug addiction and obsession. The chronometrist represents the ultimate indulgence in time travel, and as a result, she has lost her corporeal form and her morals – murdering without conscience to achieve her endgame. She was by far the most interesting character in the book, acting as a devil on Hallie's shoulder throughout the story – it was a shame she didn't have a more prominent role in the second-half of the book as she added an energetic unpredictability to the storyline that I loved.

Hallie is a wonderfully complex central character, lost in Paris during a gap-year and an attempt to find herself. The bulk of the novel is told from her perspective, creating a solid bond between character and reader – while I may have preferred the manic chronometrist, Hallie was the one who anchored me to the novel and kept me coming back for more. The strongest supporting character in this book wasn't the love interest, her best friend or even the villains, but the city of Paris itself. I have only visited the city once, and ironically not the parts shown in the book, but E.J Swift manages to evoke that Parisian feel through her words – and it's not the idealised version of Paris that the brochures wants you to believe in, but a 'warts and all' view of the city. It's particularly raw at times considering the recent terror attacks, which are referenced in the book, and helps position the city as this nexus of potential political disaster which Hallie must prevent from occurring.

E.J Swift's writing is as intoxicating as the cover art that adorns this beautiful novel. Told at a gentle pace, but with enough excitement and emotion to keep those pages turning, Paris Adrift is a time travel story unlike any I've read before. The mechanics of the temporal shifts are wonderfully unique and allows the author to really dig into the emotional ramifications of travelling through multiple centuries. I also learned a significant amount about the Paris Communes and the Royalist Domination – not to mention, the Moulin Rouge and Clichy suburbs. It is a fascinating time period, and it was interesting to see how Swift used it to create parallels with our own times.

Paris Adrift is a rare gem of a novel, and one that deserves to reach a wider audience outside of science-fiction fans. While the time-travel mechanic serves the story well, the book is ultimately a love story to Paris, and will resonate with anyone who has visited the city before. It is refreshing to read a character-driven approach to time travel, and any comparisons to the British Book Award-winning The Time Traveler's Wife will be very richly deserved. In Hallie, E.J Swift has created a strong, capable and fascinating time-travelling heroine to rival the likes of Marty McFly and Doc Brown.

What did I just read? I like time travel books but I have never read one like this, it was certainly different. I liked the central character and some of the others , some of the book was quite creepy and it was certainly atmospheric.I really don't know how to describe it.I like authors who think outside the box and this one never had a box in the first place .This book is a one off in its originality the writer has some imagination for sure,I think I'd be scared to look inside their head if this book is anything to go by, fascinating though and a totally unique voice, If you are prepared to suspend your beliefs and go with the flow and are looking for some thing really different , you have found it you won't get much more original than this book. Thanks to the publishers and netgalley for an ARC.

Puzzling.
Hallie's story had me baffled initially, but as we learn a little more of what is happening I found myself mesmerised.

This book wasn’t really what I was expecting.. Its a little different to my usual but I read the blurb and it sounded intriguing.. It wasn’t bad, I just couldn’t get into the story and not sure if it was because I wasn’t a huge fan of the writing style or if it was just me..

I got a bit confused in places and looking back on some other reviews I have noticed I wasn’t the only one. It took me a while to get to the end, taking time out to read bits of another book because I could feel my mind wandering as I was reading..

All in all, this book wasn’t a winner for me unfortunately.

2.5 stars!

** ARC received via NetGalley **

Sooooooooooo.... okay. I was sort of enjoying this book when it was in Paris, 2017. The aesthetic of the place, the bars, the odd sense of creepiness or eerie occurrence - it was all great. But as soon as we got into the actual time travel moments…. Meh?

Unfortunately, I’m someone who reads mostly for either 1) decent character development or 2) good dramatic tension. And I just really didn’t think this book had either. A fast paced plot is one thing, but without good drmatatic tension or compelling characters, there’s no need for the audience to keep reading. And even the actual plot is… not exactly fast-moving? I’m 42% in and nothing has happened.

I will say I liked the maybe-evil-maybe-losing-her-mind time traveler; she has a ton of potential as a character. But that’s really not enough to keep me reading.

Thank you to Netgalley, EJ Swift and Rebellion Publishing for my ARC of Paris Adrift.

Title: Paris Adrift

Author: EJ Swift

Publication Date: 6th February 2018

Page Count: 320 Pages

Quote: '...houses harbour too, the premonitions of things desired and things that are yet to come; the families we may create, the friends we may meet, the lovers whose bodies we may one day embrace.'

Rating: 4*

Summary

In the very distant future, the world has come to an end. Someone finally nuked someone else and there are barely any survivors, radiation pollutes the air and in the House of Janus, the incumbents must do something, only they, The time travellers hold the key to changing the past and ensuring that the human race survives.

Hallie is an English geology student who has run away to Paris, here she meets an eclectic band of misfits all her for their own reasons. She starts working at a bar called Millie's, but under the dance floor, deep in the keg room, something calls to her. Something you might call an anomaly.

Review

Paris Adrift is a very interesting novel. I really liked the themes of time travel, historical fiction and science fiction all rolled into one. EJ Swift's writing is unusual, it's not very descriptive and she doesn't give a lot of background information on her characters, but I didn't dislike this, it was refreshing, and for me, it was what set the novel apart from others in the genre. The storyline was incredibly interesting which made up for the lack of characterisation and world building.

I liked the character of Hallie, I think because I got her, she's the sort of girl who drifts in and out of things, a bit neglected, nobody really knowing anything about her and I feel like the novel's writing style totally worked around Hallie's character.

I really enjoyed the science fiction and time travel elements, the idea of the end of the world and going back to change it, was again really refreshing, most time travel novels/tv shows/films focus on the idea of not changing the past either because it can't be changed or there will be dire consequences, so it was great to finally read something where changing the past was the whole idea!

I first noticed this book because of the cover, and when I read the description I thought it sounded like the sort of thing I would enjoy. I pictured a fairly typical urban fantasy novel, where a main character discovers there's actually magic of some kind in the world, and with the cool setting of Paris as a bonus. In fact, it's not that sort of story at all. In the opening pages, you learn that this book is about time travel. In the not-too-distant future, the world is ending, and a group of time travellers think they've identified some key points in history where events could be steered a different way, with the help of a young woman who doesn't yet know that she's also a time traveller: Hallie.

Jump back to present day Paris, and Hallie is recently arrived in the city. In many ways, this is a contemporary novel about figuring out who you want to be, and dealing with things from your past. Hallie has basically run away from home instead of starting university. Her job at a popular bar brings her into a friend group of other people who have left something, are looking for something, or just want to have fun and not think about anything for a while. They are racially and culturally diverse, but again and again you see that they have so much in common despite their varied backgrounds.

The other aspect of the book that I particularly enjoyed was that it brings in real-world politics. The bar staff in Summer 2018 are discussing the US president, the refugee crisis, racism. As Halliee starts to visit different periods of time, she sees the effects of different political strategies played out: people starving in the wake of the siege of Paris; occupied Paris during the Second World War; 2040 when tensions between a peaceful party and a fascist one are coming to a head. It seeps quietly in to the story, not overpowering it, but becoming a central part of the book.

Paris Adrift is a fun, clever and moving book, and I definitely recommend it. It's particularly good if you don't usually like fantasy. I love that Hallie evolves over the course of the story, as do many of the staff she works with. My one little niggle about the book is that there are some tiny set up details about how the time travel works which seemed like they were going to be bigger in the story - like they're setting up a series, rather than a single book. It makes me wonder if this is the start of a series, although the book very much wrapped up tidily. Overall, I'm giving Paris Adrift by E. J. Swift 8 out of 10.

This review appears on Goodreads and is scheduled to post on my blog on January 22nd (link below currently inactive).

I ended up really enjoying this, which was a bit of a pleasant surprise.

My first impressions weren't great: the opening chapters were somewhat confusing, with a lot of jargon and an overall impression that it would be the kind of time travel narrative that ties your brain up in knots. But from there it improved, especially once it settled into Hallie's viewpoint after a few chapters. If it had opened with her perspective and then jumped to the jargon-y chapters, it might've been easier to get into, but it didn't take too long.

So, this is a time travel narrative, and in some ways it's the kind I don't like: the plot revolves largely around the time travel itself and the effects that it has (paradoxes and changes to the future and suchlike), rather than just being a journey that leads to a story in another time. However, there were a few adventures in the past, which is always fun, and more to the point, the travel itself managed not to get too tangly. I'm not very good at following narratives involving paradoxes because they tend to make my brain hurt, but this one doesn't require that -- it just requires you to vaguely thread together alternate pasts and futures, in a way that isn't overly challenging.

Hallie is a strange protagonist. She's got a fair bit of emotional baggage -- neglectful artist parents who don't even notice when she takes a year out of uni to live in Paris, for example. But it's hard to say a lot more about her. She talks about how she lacks a singular focus or passion, and maybe that's what made her so hard to pin down: she didn't exactly stand out as a personality. But she was surprisingly engaging despite that; I didn't actually notice it until I tried to single out the traits I liked about her.

She works in a club or bar that sounds like my personal hell on earth, though: every description of her nights at work just made me infinitely glad I'll never have to experience that kind of setting.

Other things I liked about this book include the writing style, which was slightly odd and took a while to adjust to. It's a strangely formal narration, especially coming from a 21st century narrator, but it worked, somehow. And while there weren't many of the kind of lines that blow me away and prompt much highlighting on the Kindle, there were a lot of oddly beautiful descriptions that weren't exactly striking but which had a certain style to them. At first I wasn't a fan, but it definitely grew on me.

The book is also overtly political, responding directly (in many ways) to the rise of the right wing in much of Europe and featuring resistance to fascist regimes, both past and future. Although this came as a slight surprise because I hadn't known about that from the blurb, I sort of like it when books don't shy away from addressing the very real issues in society, even if they do it through time travel and other fantastical approaches.

The ending was ... powerful. There were a few chapters where I all but held my breath, and felt like I was ready to cry if things took a turn for the worse. I didn't cry, but I was there. Ready. Just in case.

I'm still confused about some of the time travel stuff; about Janus, which seems to be some kind of organisation, and about Leon. I didn't entirely fall for the romance plotline, even though it kind of made sense, because hey, I'm me. There were definitely some parts where I could have used some elucidation.

But, overall, I enjoyed it. Especially because it's a while since I read a book that was just... well-written. I've read a couple of disappointingly clumsy books recently, so this made a nice change, even if it took a while for me to adjust to the style.

Paris Adrift starts with a story about anomalies that can be found in this world. These anomalies are waiting for their incumbents, human hosts, who will be able to travel through time via their anomalies. There is a very slim chance of incumbents finding their anomalies, but this story is much larger than one person stumbling into their anomaly, this is a story about saving the world.

The book itself is split into nine parts. The first part starts in 2318, where the last remaining time travellers agree to intervene in history, they do this to make sure that the world they currently inhabit does not come into being. The time travellers send two of their own back to 2017. In part two we are introduced to Hallie, the main protagonist. Paris Adrift from part two is mostly told from Hallie’s point of view but we do get some chapters from other character's perspectives which makes all the difference to the overall story.

Hallie arrives in Paris needing a job, which she finds at Millie’s, a bar in Clichy next to the Moulin Rouge. Once Hallie starts working there she is soon introduced to her new colleagues who will eventually become her friends. These people have great back-stories which you find out throughout the book although some are more in-depth than others. The standout characters being Gabriela, Angel and Leon who take her into their group and look out for her. The crew from Millie’s know how to party and there is a lot of drinking and soul-searching. Little does Hallie know that working in Millie’s will bring her into contact with her anomaly and make her life even more complicated.

Hallie is a realist, so when she sees herself in Millie’s during her shift, she would rather think that she is hallucinating, rather than believe that she can time travel. After meeting The Chronometrist, one of the time travellers from 2318, who tells her to travel to 1875, Hallie has to change her mind from incredulity at the situation she finds herself in, to believing that this is her new reality. The Chronometrist is a cold and scary figure, able to possess the body of people in the time she is in. In 1875, Hallie is tasked with changing the design of the Sacré-Coeur. Hallie is not able to travel back to her present until the anomaly wakes, so Hallie is left to fend for herself in a Paris that she has only read about.

When Hallie does arrive back in 2017, things have subtly changed, yet no one around her knows that these changes have occurred, except for the time travellers. Hallie is then tasked with a number of missions from the Chronometrist, which Hallie accepts even as she is deciding whether she should trust The Chronometrist or not. Hallie wants to help the people in the times she visits in whatever way she can, in the hopes that she is doing the right thing. Yet Hallie’s actions also cause the present to change with a new political movement spreading across Paris with people starting to look out for each other.

Hallie also has to decide if she should tell any of her new friends about her time travelling. Hallie doesn’t know the rules, or if her friends can help her. The interpersonal relationships in this story are really affecting and help to make the characters feel more real. Hallie has always felt alone and now she finally feels like she belongs, yet the anomaly also restricts her movements and choices in ways she can not conceive.

Paris Adrift is a great time travel story, inventive and at times overwhelming. Hallie is a compelling character to read, as she is not all-knowing and manages to keep her sense of disbelief for as long as possible. Hallie through the book comes to find an inner strength that she didn’t know existed as she faces challenges without a lot of resources. I can’t really express how much I enjoyed this story and look forward to reading more from E. J. Swift soon.