The concept of time-travel is seducing. I love exploring it in fiction. Contrary to books describing time-travel mechanism, Paris Adrift focuses on characters, not on science. The time portal, found in the keg room of a bar, allows book’s protagonist, Hallie, to move through time. Hallie moved to Paris to escape her dull life, and find the meaning of it all (life, her emotions, family stuff). When a woman known as The Chronometrist approaches her, she discovers there’s more than one layer to reality. 
The strength of the novel lies mainly in exploring Hallie’s bar life and her relationships with her newfound family. They lack an agenda or a deeper understanding of life. They drink, dance, flirt, and try to make it through the shift, sober. Emotions and relationships keep them busy and allow not to think what to do with the rest of their life. 
Even though I found Hallie’s behavior irritating, I related to her on some level. She wants more from her life than getting a degree, a work, and family. She’s looking for a deeper meaning of it all, a quest I haven’t finished myself :) Like Hallie, her friends advance into adulthood. In their free time they discuss Brexit, climate change, inequality, refugee crises, and more. They try to change reality, but not too hard and in rather shallow ways. 
A new political party, the Moulin Vert, led by charismatic Aide Lefort, gets their vote. Paris Adrift takes a stance on political issues, but it lacks any deeper insight into them or an idea how to act on a bigger scale. Hallie’s friend, Gabriela, plans to become vegetarian because meat industry hurts the planet. Don’t misunderstand me. I’ve been vegetarian for twenty years, more than half of my life. I just expect something more than that from politically and environmentally engaged novel. A meaningful action plan instead of repeating catchphrases, maybe? 
The time travel mechanism remains unexplained. A handful of people, known as incumbents, can travel through time thanks to “anomalies” tied to individual travelers. Each travel takes a toll and with time leads to an addiction. Hallie is such an incumbent. At first, she can’t believe she actually travels through time. After few trips, though, she can’t resist it and her health suffers. During her travels, she affects the building of the Sacré Coeur, or helps A Jewish musician to escape occupied city. 
In theory, her travels serve a higher goal - stopping the world from becoming a nuclear wasteland. Only Hallie doesn’t know this. Her travels and their goals are, supposedly, planned and designed by members of the mysterious Order of Janus who remain somewhere in the background for most of the novel. As a result, the plot meanders and lacks direction.
Paris Adrift contains many sublots (including a romance), and resolves most of them well. Even though I enjoyed reading it, I feel it lacks substance. It has memorable (if directionless) characters and an important (but shallowly presented) political message. Well worth a read, but something’s lacking.

This felt overly long and unnecessarily so, it could have been shorter or split across two books. I found it funny and entertaining at first but unfortunately it couldn’t keep it up, I think because it just dragged and I lost interest. It picked up at the end and made up for it, but I definitely think it needs shortening or changing.

2.5 Stars

Oh this was so promising! The start of this book was great, so ominous and intriguing. The premise is great, time travel portals that only open for certain people and almost feed on them. A distant future that holds no hope for anyone and a select few events that if nudged in the right direction could change it all! That all sounds amazing! And it was until we headed into the portion of the book that focused around the exploits of our main character Hallie.

When we meet Hallie we stop getting that amazing world building and instead get a rather lukewarm attempt of a character driven novel. At times I found myself confused as to why we were being told aspects of a certain character. It felt almost as if when we met a new character we were just getting a rundown of the character profile, with information that did not have all that much baring on the story. I wanted to love Hallie but I just couldn't find anything to hold on to. Nothing we learned about anyone other than the very beginning seemed a natural evolution of the story. Instead it was stilted and almost felt shoehorned in in an attempt to make them seem more 3D. The only character I truly enjoyed was the Chronometrist. They brought a very natural sass to the conversation and managed to keep their creepy, mysterious nature throughout the book.

The story itself also became a little bland. The elements that Hallie had any influence over became few and far between and we had to wade through descriptions of her drinking, working, and general everyday life just to get to the exciting portions. When she was altering history it just seemed to be easy and something she did as an almost afterthought (see spoiler section below #1). The historical aspects held very little excitement, they just sort of happened. I would have loved more world building and more description of how Paris was in these different time zones but Hallie doesn't seem to be interested in any of it so we don't get that information.

However, in the last 20% the pace picks up and we return to the exciting time travel save the world story that was promised in those first few chapters. I think this also comes with a change of focus onto Leon and his involvement. There is danger and payoff to this section and at least kept my interest longer than the rest of the story. It still doesn't quite hit the mark but it for me was an improvement and kept me reading to the end.

I had a copy of this book early through Netgalley.

There was something dreamlike about this book, as if it was a surrealistic landscape. I still haven′t identified why I get this feeling. In many ways it′s a straightforward time travel book. The protagonist discovers that they can go back in time, there is one long description of the first event, and then shorter as they become accustomed to it. There is an acknowledgement that changing something in the past can affect the future, but on this occasion that change needs to take place. The descriptions of the past are vivid and interesting, and it′s the present that seems more hazy. We don′t learn much about the heroine to start with, and that might be why I felt a little disconnected at the beginning – also the heroine works in a bar and there is a lot of alcohol involved. Characters come and go and we don′t learn much about most of them, even though it seems some will be more important.
I lived in Paris in the eighties and it was good to reimmerse myself in the city, but the present-day Paris in the book seemed very similar to the one I knew, which I was a bit dubious about – surely it can′t have stayed so much the same. The little nudges that are done in the past produce a fascinating Paris, still recognisable, but again that taste of surrealism.
I did enjoy the story and I think the lack of connection is on my part and not the book′s part.

I love a good time travel story and this one did not disappoint. The world building is fantastic, as are the characters. A very atmospheric, sometimes creepy, read and one I am happy to recommend.

Paris Adrift is a standalone dystopian SF/fantasy by E.J. Swift. Due out 4th Feb 2020 from Rebellion Publishing, it's 250 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats (ebook available now). It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.
This is shelved as dystopian speculative fiction, and it is, but what it struck me as primarily is character driven quest fiction. The friends surrounding and helping protagonist Hallie are growing and exploring the increasingly unstable timeline and trying to prevent the end of everything. The main value for me came from the character development and interaction, the scenery and descriptive prose. It's not an action packed read. The denouement is gentle, almost anti-climactic. Much of the plot centers around bar life and working conditions and rang believable and true.

I enjoyed the read, it was absolutely not what I was expecting, but it was beautifully written nonetheless. There are some slight elements of graphic body horror and descriptions. The language is R rated, but nothing extremely egregious.

As a small bit of nostalgia, the eARC of the book contains blurbs from several of the publisher's other imprints and backlist authors. I enjoyed the bonus and a couple of the blurbs appealed to me and I'll be chasing them down. It's always a good day when I find new authors to explore.

Four stars.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book felt very long. It really could have been broken into two books in my own personal opinion. It was well written and it did keep me wanting more, but it also felt like it gave me too much at one time. Give me some cliff hangers or something!!

I love the attention to detail paid to the relationships in this story. E.J. Swift really took their time and built real relationships between the characters.

Thank you kindly for this review copy.

Thoroughly enjoyable novel that brings Paris to life across the years - present, past and future. The mcguffin is sufficiently explained without overwhelming with unnecessary detail - it works and that’s what matters - and that allows the focus to be on personal impact, relationships and the web of history and the consequences of changing the past / future...
Bonus points for being wholly evocative of what it is to work nights in a bar and lose all sense of time and purpose!

What would you do if you could time travel and possibly change tragic events that will occur in the future? Would you risk it?

I have always enjoyed books written about time travel so I was very keen to read this story.

I found the start at first very confusing as it starts in a dark, war torn future and you are not too sure what is going on and what everyones conversations are about. Luckily its a very short prologue and chapter.

Part two of the book is a lot more interesting and it begins to follow a geology student Hallie’s journey written from her point of view. Hallie comes from a family who have no interest in her life and she decides to get away from England and travel to France for a gap year in the busy city life of Paris. She manages to find work in a bar called Millie’s where she makes good friends with the staff there and starts to feel a part of a family at last.

Without giving too much away she finds a time portal that allows her to time travel and she visits Paris in different points in time under the advice of a strange, mysterious person who appears throughout the book called the Chronometrist.

Hallie soon becomes a part of something bigger where she has to try and prevent particular events from happening in the future.

I thought the descriptions of Paris throughout the different time periods to be very well written but I didn’t really warm to many of the characters in the book. I felt that they came and went so quickly in the book that I didn’t get to know them well enough. Even Hallie as the main character I found I could not connect to her and the way she dealt with learning she could time travel I thought was strange as she took it in her stride as if it wasn’t such a big thing!

I found the story quite political, especially with the state of the world at the moment, the events that play out in the future made me think that this could easily happen in my lifetime. However there were times I found my mind wandering and losing interest.
Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy this book and I am glad I took the time to read it but it just didn’t blow me away.

If time travel is something you enjoy reading about it is a book you should definitely read.

A solid 3 stars from me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Rebellion for providing me with a copy of the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This reads like a novelization of a movie you saw on MST3K (without the wisecracking robots, of course). It's charming at first but didn't sustain the full novel for me. YMMV.

I really enjoyed this book. A very interesting and entertaining plot, well developed character and a very sound plot.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

With the power to travel through time, apparently, comes the responsibility to save the world whenever it looks like it’s about to end. The prologue to E.J. Swift’s Paris Adrift drops us right into one of these crises. Bombs have destroyed Europe and possibly the rest of the world, too. The people of the House of Janus have just one chance to rewrite history. That chance is Hallie, a woman on the run from her artist mother and newly arrived in Paris…and who has no idea that she can travel through time.

The prologue is bewildering. It’s also a titch bit portentous as characters make all kinds of dramatic statements. I was a bit close to ditching the book, but I’m glad I stuck with it. Once Hallie takes over as narrator, I was hooked on Paris Adrift. We meet her in 2017, just as she is about to try and wrangle a job interview at Millie’s, a venerable Paris bar. Someone gave her a tip and a name to drop to speed her way. After one night of very hard work—and a brief glimpse of a girl who looks a bit like Hallie and who is definitely wearing Hallie’s shoes—Hallie scores a position with the close-knit bar crew. Her new life is a dramatic change from serving the needs of her mother (who is determined to be an artist at all costs); she’s finally content with her life. But then, strange things start to happen. A woman in green tells her crazy things about traveling through time. Hallie experiences unsettling moments in the keg room of Millie’s. Then, bam!, Halie finds herself in 1875.

Thus begins Hallie’s sojourning through time, doing small tasks for an entity that appears either as a talking bird (go with it) or as a woman wearing something green. These tasks seem like minor meddling in history, but there are big changes when Hallie returns to her own time. Other people might be turned off the idea of time-traveling for fear of causing a world war or something. Hallie, however, is addicted to the feeling of traveling through the centuries of Parisian history. Even though Paris Adrift begins with the end of the world, much of the novel remains focused on Hallie and her literal and figurative journeys. I didn’t mind this at all. I loved looking at time-travel from the perspective of someone who just got caught up in something much bigger than they are. What would it be like if you, an ordinary person, suddenly learned that you had an amazing ability and duty to save the world? What would that do to you? Those are the questions Paris Adrift tackles.

I had a lot of fun reading Paris Adrift, once I got past a prologue that was a little too cryptic for its own good. I had a blast with the characters and dipping in and out of time with Hallie. I might have liked a bit more of Hallie’s adventures in the past, but I knew that the narrative would eventually have to swing back around to the events from the prologue. By that point, I had the requisite background to understand what the hell was actually going on and I didn’t mind so much that Hallie had to turn her attention from herself to the awesome task of saving history.

There are several types of time-travel plots; in the case of this story, Hallie is able to travel through time at certain moments. She can choose which time period she wishes to go, people can see her once she is there and she can affect the course of history/alternate futures.

What I like about this story is how Hallie grows as a person, changed by her experiences with time and also the people she meets. The book speaks of friendship, love, and family, as well as how things each individual considers important in life are different. Hallie’s friends remind her not to be stuck in the past but move on and live the life she is supposed to live in her own time. The story tugs at the soul and I hope someday, that Hallie gets to meet all the friends she made in Paris again, just like how she manages to see Millie again.

#ParisAdrift #NetGalley
As always, I received a free review copy of this ebook and all opinions are my own.

When a young woman arrives in Paris, she is running away from her life, and her family. What she doesn’t know is that she’s a key player in Parisian history...and the future.

Paris Adrift is a story that will capture the imagination. It’s a story of hope, of love, and of finding one’s self. Oh, and time travel, of course.

The fact this story was being compared to the likes of Midnight in Paris, and The Time Machine was what drew me in. I’m a sucker for a good time travel story, and the backdrop of Paris seemed unique. Paris Adrift did not disappoint. The idea of anomalies being the method of time travel, and that they seem to be semi-sentient is a great addition-as was the idea that each anomaly has an incumbent that it chooses. This felt like a new and exciting concept that I thoroughly enjoyed.

The biggest downside to the story was Part One. I was extremely confused by this introduction. It starts out introducing two of what seemed to be minor characters of the book at that time, before delving into the meat of the story. After finishing the book, I went back and read the beginning again, and it made much more sense. I understand the need for this Part One to exist, but I can see most readers might give up reading because of the confusing transitions and lack of understanding where the plot is heading.

That being said, stick with this book to the end! Paris Adrift was a pleasant surprise for me, and if you’re patient with the story, it will take you on a journey that will exceed your expectations.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read Paris Adrift as an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a dystopian time travel story in a contemporary setting. It's a kind of plot I love to read about. The writing was good, plot development was exciting and the characters were well developed.
Thanks a lot to netgalley and the publisher for this copy.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with this book in exchange for my honest opinion. This will be available on February 4th.

What first interested me in this book was its comparison to Midnight in Paris, a movie that I love. I can’t say I see much of a resemblance, aside from the obvious (they both involve Paris), but I’m grateful for that blurb because otherwise this book might have passed me by.

Hallie is our main character, a woman who feels out of place in her own skin. She’s decided to travel to Paris, more to run away from something than to run toward anything. There, she gets a job at a bar and joins an eclectic group of friends. She finds a sense of family, a boyfriend, and-oh yeah- a time anomaly in a taproom. Soon, Hallie is traveling through both the past and future, making changes. Whether she’s fixing things, or causing irreparable damage remains to be seen.

On the surface, my description probably makes this book sound like a lighthearted romp. It isn’t at all. It explores the idea of small changes having big impacts, discusses problems in our present, and touches on themes of self-acceptance and change. It does all that in a fast-moving, unique way. I loved it.

There were several things that set this book apart from other time-traveling books. There wasn’t nonstop action, the futuristic gadgetry wasn’t everywhere, and a good chunk of time spent was actually traveling to the past as opposed to the future. I tend to shy away from books involving time travel because it’s hard for me to handle the problems that tend to arise when writing about that subject. This book handles those stumbling blocks with aplomb.

I liked the bohemian feel of the group of friends, how they were all dissatisfied with how the world works and desperately wanted to affect change, but were unsure how to start. I think many people can relate to that (and no, I’m not going to start a religious or political argument, I promise). I actually think the conversations Hallie had with her friends were some of the most interesting parts of the book. You know a writer is talented when the musings and dialogue are just as interesting as any action scene, if not more so.

While there was a climax of events, what I most enjoyed was how things got there. The ending, while good, almost didn’t matter because the meat of the story was so well done. I definitely recommend reading this one.

Paris Adrift opens on a wonderfully dystopian future with people desperate to go back in time to fix things. This introduces the chronomoterist – a creepy immortal being who lost themselves after too many time travel journeys.

This leads us to Hallie, the protagonist. A Brit who has run away from an unloving, abusive family to Paris. She finds a minimum wage job in a bar called Millie’s. Hallie’s friends are a diverse bunch and you're just getting to know them when the chronomoterist shows back up, luring Hallie towards a time travel anomaly.

Hallie then uses this to travel to different time periods and she manages to change the future. All solved, you’d think! Except she finds out that a different, also bad future is now on the cards.

I like the time travelling, and the friendship moments, and the thoughtful politics but a real strength for me is this concept of a malevolent, hungry anomaly waiting to draw her back. My one minor complaint is I’d liked to have more about that – perhaps in a sequel (with more chronometrist, too).

With gratitude to the author, publisher and Netgalley for a free ARC of this ebook.
This is one of those books that comes along once in a while that takes you by storm. It is rich in a way that few other books are. It tells the story of Hallie who goes to Paris, and then it breaks loose of the usual romances, Sci Fi and other genres. It's a glorious riot of a read, I absolutely loved it. It definitely won't be to everyone's taste, but for those who like a little scariness with their romance, or horror with their scifi it might be the book for you. It defies usual definitions, it delves into politics, and the myriad ways we are messing up our planet. I highly recommend it, and give it 4.5 stars.

Dystopian timetravel in a contemporary setting.
Although the writing and pace are good, I couldn't connect with any of the characters and gave up halfway.

Thank you Netgalley and Solaris for the ARC.