Thank you to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for providing me an eARC to review!

For something pitched as a sci-fi romance, I was pleasantly surprised by this! It was giving 'BBC Ghosts if Alison fell in love with the Captain' but it struck a good balance between the sci-fi or the romance.

I enjoyed the conversations around how the bridges and Ministry were basically able to shape the narrative of history however they liked for the time travellers, and what that meant for our protagonist whose maternal line had survived genocide and is still subject to racism though she can kind of pass for being white.

The ending I think lost me a little bit, but overall I had a good time and would definitely recommend!

This is book would make a very TV adaption. It’s a great debut novel and I would expect some great things to come.
Set in London in the relatively near future, The Ministry of Time is created to control the government's new time machine. Not wanting to change the future, they decide to bring people from the past to the future shortly before they died.
The book has humorous moments with expat learning about a world over 200 years on from his world.
The second half is more complicated with the depth of what is going on.

Well I FOR ONE did not anticipate this having several sexual scenes LOL. It's not bad, it was just.. Strange for me personally as I don't often read M18 level sex scenes in my fiction. ANYWAY. I devoured the first half of the book SUPER easily - it was a lot of fun and the characters were so developed that I could see them easily in my minds eye. But the second half went a bit too fast for my liking. Like, the mystery was revealed and solved so easily?? I feel like Kaliane probably is not a SFF person as the weak points were def the time travel aspects. But I still super enjoyed it. :) Love to see a tumblr girlie use her The Terror tv show obsession for good lol.

**I'd like to give this 3.75 but I'm not able to, so I'm just rounding it off.

This fantasy novel sits in an alternate UK where, rather than pay billions of pounds to send a few immigrants to Rwanda, the government has a time scoop and actually repatriates people from time, increasing the population with expats who would otherwise have been dead long ago. Dispel the bizarre reasoning (the true explanation is one of those time catch-22s) and it’s an enjoyable, fun story.

Adele is appointed as a “bridge” for newly repatriated Graham Gore (1809-1847) to help him adjust to the twenty-first century. Gore is one of five internally displaced persons that are picked up across time. He was selected from the notorious Fitzwilliam expedition to find the Northwest passage where everybody died.
There is humour and understanding between the two characters (Adele comes from Cambodia and understands displacement) as Gore gradually becomes integrated into the present day. He has a very dry wit and he adapts very quickly to modern society and uses the this to deflect. In the same way Adele deflects from any questions about her previous experience in Cambodia; to her she is mixed race British and does not want to be constantly repositioned as from another country.
You do get the story of the Northwest passage in separate chapters but nothing about Adele’s past.

A long period of subtle “courtship” and the couple’s relationship blossoms into romance. This is the best bit of the novel and thankfully it is the bulk. It makes me want to read Richard Matheson’s Somewhere in Time.
The last chapters become a twisty-turny, timey-whimey thriller that I found lost some of the charm the reader develops for the characters but overall a great experience.
The interesting experiment of this fiction was to pull an historical figure from the past and re-imagine him so clearly in the present. The only existing image of Graham Gore is placed at the end.

An enjoyable read. I thought the basic plot was very good as it also explores not only how we see the past but how we would perceive the future if we knew it.
Set in the near future, The Ministry of Time is created to control the government's new time machine. Not wanting to change the future unwittingly, they decide to extract people from the past shortly before they died. The story is told from the perspective of the Arctic explorer, Commander Graham Gore's handler (bridge). The first half of the book is slow but it does have some funny and thoughtful moments about the changes over the last 200 years. As the story speeds up to the great reveal, it becomes more of a complicated goodies v. baddies romp. I won't comment too much as I don't want to give any spoilers. Gore's handler does seem very emotional to have been put in that role.

As a first novel, I thought it particularly good, hence I rounded up a three and a half star to four. I think it would make a great TV miniseries.

This is an excellent read. Well written, and well researched, it goes from an Arctic expedition in the 1800s to the near future, where time travel has been discovered. People from the past are brought forward to our times, and each is given a 'bridge' to help them adapt. With engaging characters and a few twists along the way, it will keep you gripped right to the end! Highly recommend.

3,5
This had a bit of a young adult vibe, but it was fun, exciting and had great characters (especially Margaret) and I loved the plot twist near the end.
Thank you Hodder & Stoughton and Netgalley UK for the ARC.

This is great concept for a story. The story builds up slowly as we get to know the different characters and get some feel for how the ministry works and what its aims are. Then as we approach the final third of the book the story ramps up as we reach the brilliantly plotted finale!.

This imaginative story reeled me in from the very beginning. I was unsure when I read the blurb, time travel and bringing people from the past to the present day, but it really worked as a story.
It made me look at the world though a different perspective.
A really good read.!

This was such an odd book! I think mostly in a good way, but it really wasn't what I was expecting.

The story focused on a top-secret project where selected figures from the past have been 'rescued' from death in their own time periods and transported to the future. In this future, each of the 'expats' from history are assigned a 'bridge', a civil servant to help them acclimatise to their new existence. One of these visitors from the past is Commander Gore, an explorer who - as far as the history books are concerned- died on a failed expedition to the Arctic in the Victorian era. He is assigned to a female 'bridge' and so begins the process of learning about the modern age. However, nothing (and especially secret time travel, it seems) is simple and the project soon proves to be more dangerous than was envisaged for all involved.

I really loved that this book defies attempts to categorise it into a clear genre - there's obviously elements of science fiction with all the time-travelling, but also romance and a bits of thriller and also some good historical fiction as we delve into Commander Gore's past. Indeed, Commander Graham Gore was a real person, so be prepared to fall into the Google rabbit hole after reading this book! It's a very clever mash-up and it's packed with thought-provoking ideas and also humour.

Indeed, I could quite happily have read a whole book about Commander Gore's acclimatisation to the future - this was the part of the book I absolutely adored as he grappled with concepts that were totally unfamiliar and also started to build a lovely friendship with his 'bridge'. I wish there was more of this as it was funny and charming and totally engaging. Similarly, finding out about the other time-travellers and the things they found odd was also interesting - I really liked 17th century expat Margaret who took to modern sexual mores and feminism with aplomb!

While I zipped though the first sections of the book for these exact reasons, I was less caught up in the thriller elements towards the end as it became clear that the stakes were high and there was real danger for the expats and their bridges. It is all really cleverly done and well-written, but I felt a bit cheated of the charm and humour from the start. That's just my personal preference - it is a great book and we will all love different elements, I'm sure.

Overall, this is a lively and engaging debut novel that is definitely worth a read. Go into it with an open mind, embrace the genre-shifting throughout and you'll be in for a fun ride.

Review # 27/2024
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
4.5 stars!

This has been a week for quirky storylines that I have been pleasantly surprised by; following on from Richy Craven's Spirit Level I found myself reading another funny genre mash up debut.

The Ministry of Time tells the tale of a UK civil servant who has been given the opportunity to work on a secret program with a substantial monetary package to coincide. In real terms, what that translates to, is being a "bridge" or handler for people of interest who have been brought to the current timeline from the past.

There is great humour in the storytelling as the characters from various periods in the past get to grips with the modern world. It's so well researched, with loads of blending of historical facts to this very modern work of fiction. Particularly for me, the main time travel character, Commander Graham Gore who was part of the doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic. I was familiar with this expedition through the t.v. show The Terror and particularly enjoyed the synergies to the retelling of his story here.

I found myself fiercely invested in the storyline, it's very funny and the plot itself is extremely clever with plenty of surprises along the way, everytime you think you know what this book is, you find another layer and level.

This debut is out on May 16th, available now for preorder.
Many thanks to the publisher Hodder & Stoughton and @netgalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy in return for an honest review.

Initially, this book starts off a bit slow, but let me tell you, it evolves into such a captivating and original read! I absolutely loved how it seamlessly blends science fiction, thriller and romance.

💙⏳𝔹𝕠𝕠𝕜 𝕊𝕡𝕠𝕥𝕝𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥⌛️💙
𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓜𝓲𝓷𝓲𝓼𝓽𝓻𝔂 𝓸𝓯 𝓣𝓲𝓶𝓮 𝓫𝔂 𝓚𝓪𝓵𝓲𝓪𝓷𝓮 𝓑𝓻𝓪𝓭𝓵𝓮𝔂

How do you make a book SO jam packed with diverse, cross-genre content and make it work? Well, ask Kaliane Bradley because she has nailed it with this superb and original debut which is out soon on 16th May! Swipe for the blurb.

This unique story includes (but certainly not limited to!) time travel, romance, history spanning decades, micro-aggressions, generational trauma, slavery, colonialism, climate change, refugees, sexual identity, homophobia, racism, cultural/gender bias, SO many cigarettes smoked (yuck!) and much more!

Our main two characters are a biracial British-Cambodian unnamed (though affectionately referred to as a cat throughout) woman employed as the assigned caretaker of Navy Commander Graham Gore who has been pulled from his era of 1847 into the novels present which is a time in our not too distant future. Our MFC is tasked with helping Gore acclimatise to the present day, a task far more complicated than you might initially assume. The generational differences are apparent from the beginning and lead to some truly witty dialogue between the pair. With spending so much time together living in each others pockets, it becomes inevitable for those professional lines to blur - queue the slow burn romance. And it really is slow! But as there is so much else going on, I didn’t mind this as much as I usually would though the pacing did lag a little in the middle for me - but I am rather impatient and this is definitely a me problem!

I would have liked to have seen more from some of the secondary characters, the eccentric, quirky, queer and loveable Maggie and Arthur - they have my heart!

I found this incredibly clever book to be heartwarming, educational, sad, enchanting , thought provoking and laugh out loud funny in parts! The plot twisting climax was fantastic!

I am looking forward to rereading this as I feel it is one that you take more from on each read.

Thank you @netgalley and @sceptre for the early access to this, I highly recommend, and a reminder that “it’s always worth reading the footnotes”

#TheMinistryofTime #netgalley

𝓢𝓸𝓶𝓮 𝓯𝓪𝓿𝓸𝓾𝓻𝓲𝓽𝓮 𝓺𝓾𝓸𝓽𝓮𝓼:
“𝐵𝑒𝓁𝒾𝑒𝒻 𝒽𝒶𝓈 𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓎 𝓁𝒾𝓉𝓉𝓁𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝒹𝑜 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝓇𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃𝒶𝓁𝑒. 𝒲𝒽𝓎 𝒹𝑒𝓂𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒶 𝓂𝒶𝓅 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓊𝓃𝒸𝒽𝒶𝓇𝓉𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝑒𝓇𝓇𝒾𝓉𝑜𝓇𝓎”
“𝒜𝒸𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃𝓈 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝒸𝑜𝓃𝓈𝑒𝓆𝓊𝑒𝓃𝒸𝑒𝓈. 𝐸𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓎 𝓉𝒾𝓃𝓎 𝒹𝑒𝒸𝒾𝓈𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓂𝒶𝓀𝑒, 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓎 𝒸𝒽𝑜𝒾𝒸𝑒 𝑜𝒻 𝑒𝓍𝓅𝓇𝑒𝓈𝓈𝒾𝑜𝓃, 𝒶𝒻𝒻𝑒𝒸𝓉𝓈 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝑒𝓁𝓈𝑒”
“𝒯𝒾𝓂𝑒 𝒾𝓈 𝒶 𝓁𝒾𝓂𝒾𝓉𝑒𝒹 𝓇𝑒𝓈𝑜𝓊𝓇𝒸𝑒. 𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝑜𝓃𝓁𝓎 𝑔𝑒𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝑒𝓍𝓅𝑒𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓃𝒸𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓁𝒾𝒻𝑒 𝑜𝓃𝒸𝑒”
“𝐼𝓉’𝓈 𝒶𝓁𝓌𝒶𝓎𝓈 𝓌𝑜𝓇𝓉𝒽 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝒹𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒻𝑜𝑜𝓉𝓃𝑜𝓉𝑒𝓈”

The Ministry of Time is a wild ride of a novel, a chaotic blend of time-travelling spy thriller meets rom-com.

It's a fun concept and I wanted to love it, so it's a shame that it reads like self-insert fanfiction, with the added ick of being based on a real historical figure. There are some clever twists and charming characterisation, but with so much packed in it needed a stronger plot to hold all the elements together, and the whole thing unravels at the end.

The Ministry of Time is wonderfully whimsical, but it was a little too weird to win me over.

The Ministry of Time is a fascinating and original read, blending science fiction, thriller and romance. It starts relatively slowly, but the idea of a historical figure living in a modern world caught my attention, and the pace picked up later. Especially once we discover that the Ministry has different plans for the “expats” from what they initially revealed. There is more to this book than the romantic plot the blurb suggests.

What I liked most about this book was the wide cast of characters. They all have distinct personalities and their own stories. The author brought together a modern civil servant and “expats” from different historical periods who do not share experiences or values, creating many comic situations and an unexpectedly close-knit group of friends. I found this book to be a surprising blend of cosy, heartwarming, and funny, with some really sad scenes.

Each chapter in The Ministry of Time starts with an extract from an account of a polar expedition. This felt familiar, although it was not until the third or fourth chapter that the Erebus resonated in my brain. Yes, I read Michael Palin’s account of this ship, including its momentous search for the Northwest Passage, a few years back.

But it was Kaliane Bradley’s brilliant construction that pulled me in and wouldn’t let me go. I was fully gripped, entwined in this thriller with spy-story overtones, that I’ve merely classed as ‘suspense’. The plot is as intricate as a time travel tale can be. The characters not only present themselves in great depth but with the elegance of people yanked from their eras into a twenty-first century political experiment. The creation of accurate responses to different mores, philosophies and ethics is a real tour de force. Yet it is written so cleanly that they seem to belong to both times at once.

I devoured this book. It gripped me in much the same way as Diamond Eye and Lessons in Chemistry gripped me in previous years. Which suggests it could be my book of the year. The only wrinkle was the ending, which was as twisted and baffling as most time-travel thrillers. I think. I’ll have to re-read it.

This book plays with themes of immigration and displacement, and brings new thoughts to the endless discussion of the responsibilities and repercussions of time-travel, whilst managing to be thrilling and funny. I found it very difficult to put it down once I'd started, and it's such a fun mix of genres that I'd recommend it to basically anyone.

First and foremost I'd like to thank Hodder & Stoughton and the author for this ARC and audiobook. I had both the book and audio versions and just loved both. I really enjoyed the performances of the narrators. Katie Leung in particular was great at playing the different characters and changing her tone so you knew just who was speaking without question.

The story itself was beautiful. I was hooked in by the description and I wasn't disappointed. I find with books like these its best to go in without much knowledge but what I will say is if you enjoy time travel, historical and sci fi -esque stories with some romance thrown in for good measure you will love this.

I loved Graham Gores character and the fact that he was a real person in history was so clever. I have thought about him since finishing reading. There is some information in the book about him near the end with a photo of him and it was lovely putting a face to a character. it endeared me more to him. I highly recommend this book and the audio version in particular is fantastic. Such a clever use of historical figures and story telling. I will be checking out this authors work in future for sure.

Thank you Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest unedited review.

The "Ministry of Time" by Kaliane Bradley is "A time travel romance, a speculative spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingeniously constructed exploration of the nature of truth and power and the potential for love to change it."

The plot centres around a biracial British-Cambodian translator who is employed by the Ministry of Time, becoming one of 4 other officers responsible for facilitating the integration of historical figures into the modern day world. Specifically, she is assigned to manage Commander Graham Gore, who was part of the failed Franklin expedition to the Arctic in 1847.

The story follows a genre-bending tale that seamlessly merges elements of romantic comedy, sci-fi, and speculative fiction. Central to the plot is a slow-burning romance that addresses and explores topics such as colonialism, slavery, inherited trauma, and racial identity within the narrative.

With the amalgamation of the two worlds, the historical figures from the past acclimatising to present day, there were so many moments where I would burst out into laughter at their bemusement, curiosity an often shock at just how much the world had changed from how they once knew it.

As the story progresses it does take on a more introspective tone and reflects poignantly on life and society.

The use of characters to bring sensitive issues to the fore was well handled and not preachy/crude in any way. The characters all felt relateable, their motivations and apprehensions were understandable and I love how they were fleshed out in the book - Margaret and Arthur, despite supporting characters made up some of my favourite moments in the book.

The aspects I struggled with was the background/history. Although in this book, it is basic education and readers can read up on it, from a purely subjective POV, where I did not have previous knowledge of the event/an understanding of the consequences, it felt like some concepts of the book went over my head and would feel jarring. The dual timeline with Gore during the Expedition made for great and valuable insight into the experienc of the character but again, sometimes disrupted the flow of the book for me.

Overall, this was such a delightful read and at no point did I want to put it down. "The Ministry of Time" does not disappoint and I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys time-travel, romantic comedy, with a underlying tone of substance and reflection. It definitely made for a hilarious and yet thought-provoking read. I applaud Bradley on a fantastic debut!

Thank you to the author, publishers Sceptre and NetGalley UK for access to this as an advance reader’s ebook. This is an honest and voluntary review.

In an alternative version of our world a time travel door allows people who were recorded as dying to be plucked from history and brought into the present day. Each of these travellers is supported by a ‘bridge’ who helps to settle them into the 21st century and also monitors them for a secretive government department.

An ambitious debut novel that takes complex social commentary, science fiction and a dose of humour and love to create something uniquely wonderful.

The main character carries a lot of the book, and does it so well that I didn’t realise until quite late on that we are never given a name for her. It’s first person perspective so it’s not difficult to manage, but is unusual. What is noticeable is that even in first person narrative the supporting characters are well developed. Travellers Arthur and Maggie are particular favourites.

The story deals really well with not only the transitions for the travellers, but how their own pasts impact on their experience in the future. From Maggie who embraces feminism and film, to Arthur who finds a time where he can be open about his sexuality but where gender norms still restrain him.

I also really enjoyed the bureaucracy of the whole process. That this amazing world-changing technology is drained of its wonder by the filing of reports and the rules and approval processes for every decision. That the travellers are able to find any measure of joy against this backdrop makes that joy and pleasure even brighter.

A wonderful book.