Unpopular opinion alert: I don’t understand the hype around this book.
Having nothing to do with the Spanish series of the same name (the title and time travel are literally the only similarities) the genre mash-up of time-travel, historical fiction, and romance is unique to say the least. Set in almost present-day Britian, the Ministry of Time is tasked with exploring how adjusting small events in history impact out timelines. When the Ministry begins to gather ‘Expats’ from various time periods, civil servants are assigned as ‘bridges’ to help them adjust to the new time period by assisting, living, and monitoring them. So, what happens when we take people out of their intended time periods? The Ministry is here to find out.
The majority of the story is more an introspective look into the year a Bridge spends working and living with the Ministry and their Bridge. We also get some narrative flashbacks to our main Expat – Commander Graham Core, who died on Sir John Franklin’s 1845 expedition to the Arctic. We spend the majority of the book getting a look into the lives of the pair, and how they’re forced to confront the past while navigating the choices of their futures.
We do meet some very interesting characters, but their vastly different dialogues and the switching between their names and them being labeled by the year they were taken from, made it hard for me to keep track of them. The story also spends much of the time explaining things more than showing, and I just felt like too much time was spent just floating through the first year.
I absolutely hate reading books that make me feel dumb. I’m not a genius but I do consider myself to be fairly intelligent. This book made me feel so dumb. Not only did I have a hard time keeping track of characters (especially our ‘expats’) but I’m glad I read this in my Kindle app, because I needed to look up like 46 words every page. That’s an exaggeration but you get the point. I thought about DNFing this book multiple times but was told the ending would be worth it.
The majority of the ‘action’ is crammed into the last 20-15% of the story and it gave me a bit of whiplash to suddenly be ‘on the move’ and out of that original lull. I still have almost fairly idea how the time travel system worked and what exactly certain characters at the end’s (no spoilers) end goal. It was too much work to get through this book than I currently wanted. Instead of a quirky romance, that I got from Sharkheart last year, this story is more focused on a slow burn romance.
It’s a slow read, and while this isn’t a speculative fiction piece of work, if you enjoy books in that genre or lengthy character driven stories, you’ll probably find you enjoy this work. However, if you’re a more plot-based reader, like me, or are looking for something fast paced or more actual time travel related this is not your book. Initially 2 stars but rounded up to 3 just because the concept is interesting, and it’s obviously written well. It just wasn’t for me.
The Ministry of Time comes out May 7, 2024! Huge thank you to Avid Reader Press for my advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion. If you liked this review please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my instagram @speakingof.books or on Tiktok @speakingof.books
