Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction for the ARC!

Love and Other Paradoxes is a fascinating and sweet romcom with a time traveling element. I quite enjoyed the unique take on time travel in this book. The writing was sharp and a delight to read. The characters were charming and the romance sweet. All in all a great book!

This was such a fun and clever read. I love stories with time travel, but combining them with romance can often turn either dark or silly. Love and Other Paradoxes balanced it well - not taking itself too seriously or leaning too far into angst, but weaving through a relatable and heartfelt storyline of identity, loss, and family ties.

Joe and Esi’s journeys were interwoven neatly, and I enjoyed watching them grapple with concepts like predetermination. It had a fresh feel. While I knew it was a rom-com, the relationships, just like time itself, didn’t feel set in stone.

The story was well paced, with an easy and engaging writing style, and a sense of intrigue and mystery that made it hard to put down. Whilst different to both, I’d recommend it to fans of The Time Traveler’s Wife, Palm Springs, or anyone looking for a fresh and witty rom-com.

Thank you to the publishers for this advance reader copy. Opinions expressed are my own.

💖 Love and Other Paradoxes by Catriona Silvey is a charming and thoughtful read, full of witty moments and heartfelt emotion. A delightful story that kept me hooked, a well-deserved 4⭐️!

#BookReview #LoveAndOtherParadoxes #CatrionaSilvey #FourStarRead #RomanticReads #BookstagramUK

Firstly, a disclaimer. My brain really struggles with abstract concepts and whilst time travel has always been something I am intrigued by, I find it so hard to comprehend that I've given up on other books that centre around time travel for this reason.

And whilst there were times I felt my mind working overtime to grasp the concepts in this book, I am so glad I didn't give up.

This book gave me a lot of hope and food for thought. We may sometimes feel we have no control over our destiny, that we are simply passengers. Love and Other Paradoxes shifted that mindset and made me feel that actually there are infinite possibilities.

The main characters Esi and Joseph have an unconventional love story, but this made it all the more enjoyable to read. Joseph struggled with his own ambition and tried to deny his growing feelings for Esi.

Esi had gone back in time for a mission to save her Mum and doesn't want anything to stop her achieving that goal.

But as their friendship and feelings develop, neither can deny their connection and neither want to sever it. This leaves them with decisions that may alter the future for everyone. Or maybe not. There's only one way to find out. Take the leap of faith.

Heartfelt, interesting, challenging, Love and Other Paradoxes was a fantastic story that I fell in love with.

This is sci fi romance.

Our male main character is a student who has noticed people acting very oddly around him and following him around. But he doesn't know what's going on until he meets a woman who seems to hate him despite the fact they've never met before.

Apparently he's an extremely famous poet in the future, and these other people have all travelled back to just observe his early life. But she's used the opportunity to come back to try and save her mother.

She desperately wants to change her past, he does not want to change his future, so how is this going to play out.

This was fine, the MMC is our only POV character and he's not the most likeable which does make things a little more difficult. But I liked the way it played with time travel and are things predestined,are there multiple universes, and how can a romance work between two people who are from literally different times.

3.75 stars rounded up

sadly this book was not for me I found it hard to connect with and I gave up at 10% so will not review publicly

While this book was tonaly quite different from the author's debut, I loved it just as much. It has just the right amount of sci-fi, timey-whimey elements without making the readers feel bogged down in the technical aspects. Instead, it focuses on the characters, their relationships, and their sense of identity. An absolutely fantastic read, and one I'd recommend to anyone who loves time travel romcoms!

Love and Other Paradoxes follows Cambridge student Joe and time-traveller Esi, whose paths cross unexpectedly when Esi travels back in time in an attempt to change the past. Having studied Joe in school, praised as a modern-day-Shakespeare, Esi has no interest at all in meeting the poet; but when they bump into each other and Joe discovers where Esi is from, he forces her to use her knowledge of the future to help him land his dream girl. But the more time they spend together, the more they start falling for each other, and they find themselves wondering 1) if it’s possible to change the past and 2) if you should…

I really enjoyed this book! It did take me a little while to get into it as Joe’s stubborn (and frequently entitled) personality was initially a little annoying, but he progressed so much as the story went on and as he spent more time with Esi, who I loved. I found the romance elements to be really strong, and his interactions with both Diana and Esi felt incredibly natural and realistic, despite often being manufactured. There were a lot of sweet moments that had me smiling at the pages, and the sub-plot about Esi’s real reason for travelling back in time was very moving as well.

The premise of this story is so unique and well-done, and I loved the charming Cambridge setting. This is the second book I’ve read by Catriona Silvey, and she’s definitely becoming an auto-buy author for me. Her contemporary style of sci-fi feels so fun and unique, and I can’t wait to read whatever she writes next.

This was absolutely my sort of book. It was sweet, it was funny, and it had a philosophical look at time travel, and whether the future is set in stone, or whether our actions cause what happens.

I loved how pretentious Joe was and I loved seeing him change over the course of the novel as Esi and Diana had an effect over him. I loved how the two romances in the book were so different from each other and how it was easy to infer which was the right one for him.

I am a big fan of time travel in fiction and I really enjoyed how it was used in this book. I liked the idea of the tourist groups heading back in time to see their favourite poet as a student and giving him gifts.

Overall this was fun, relaxing and easy to read.

I loved it! It’s hard to talk about too much without spoiling the plot, but this book is a brilliant twist on time travel, making what can occasionally be a complex plot point into a fun, romantic romp in a vivid university setting. I read Catriona’s debut - also brilliant by the way - and I’m so pleased that book two was as, if not more, enjoyable.

I enjoyed this - it was an easy breezy romantic comedy. I liked the character development of Joseph Greene much more than Esi - she seemed quite selfish apart from that she chose to stay at the end. I enjoyed the concept, but at times I felt a bit detached from the dialogue/characters as it wasn’t fully immersive and after setting up a big third act conflict the ending just seemed a bit easy to resolve for me. I would have preferred more character development but it was still a good, quick read. I’d probably try this author again to see her grow because I enjoyed this, I just didn’t adore it.

This was a fun read! Joe, a student at Cambridge, starts to notice weird groups of people staring at him in an intensely odd manner. It is only when he bumps into Esi, a time traveller from the future, and he reads about his future success as a poet that everything starts to make sense.

However, knowing the future is not a good thing for Joe as he starts to mess with fate and change the timeline. Suddenly, he meets his future wife too soon, and their happy marriage looks destined to never happen. Esi, has a mission of her own, but finds herself coaching Joe in techniques to woo Diana, and ensure his timeline is not distorted. Of course, the path of true love nevers runs smoothly, and Joe finds himself falling for Esi - a girl from the future who must return to it…

The quantum physics of the time travel hurt my head when reading this, but I loved their adventures, coincidences and incidents. The setting of Cambridge felt compelling and beutiful - that’s now a city I need to visit and explore! Don’t dismiss anyone or anything in this book at it has an unexpected ending, which really caught me unawares.

Love this mix of romance, sci-fi, time travel and reflection on if we can change the future acting on the past.
Good world building, intriguing plot, likable characters
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Whimsical, fun, imaginative. This delightful story sees us travelling in time, and all for the love of one very ordinary, as yet undiscovered poet. Their arrival in turn causes the poet to unexpectedly fall in love and from this point, his life spirals into comical chaos.
He seems to have lost sight of who he is and who or what he wants in life.
It’s funny, sometimes sad and in its way, thought provoking. Why shouldn’t there be parallel universes, all with the same characters, just slightly different futures.
If you enjoy something a bit less complicated and a bit more fun, then this is a definite for you.

I loved the concept of this story, anything with a time travel element appeals to me. Whilst I did enjoy this story and found it to be a quick listen I did struggle to like the MC. I loved Esi and her backstory and probably would have preferred her POV.

4.5 stars to be exact!

Love and Other Paradoxes is not your typical rom-com - it features a time travel element which makes it a more complex read than other romances.

There's also a very interesting conclusion to the story too! Everything ties together neatly as well with unexpected links between characters.

This was such an interesting concept. I enjoy all things time travel as I am always fascinated by how they deal with the lore and I thought Silvey had a really fun take on it. I enjoyed the slow burn and how Esi and Joe’s relationship progressed. The twists and turns kept the story flowing and I found the ending very sweet and satisfying. Overall, a great read

Reader, I was bored. And this book started so well until I realised that we were not going to be jumping around lots of different time periods and then...then I got bored. If you liked the movie 'About Time' and want a lot more of that vibe than 'let's travel through time and see different versions of ourselves' then you'll love this book, in fact I insist you pick it up right now. It just was not for me. I felt completely disconnected from the characters (John, mate, no one's going to fix your life or do things for you, you need to get your head out of your arse) and there were moments where it felt like the author was correcting herself? On certain topics? There's an exchange in a pub that felt really odd and didn't add much to the book overall. I think this book had a lot of potential that it never quite rose to, but for those looking for something light and fun, you'll probably enjoy this.

A rather unique love story featuring time travel with some fun characters.
I really liked Esi -the challenge she’d set herself seemed an impossible one but she tackled every hurdle with grace and humility. Her one liners were witty and sharp and delivered brilliantly.
I didn’t warm to Joseph till the end but really liked their building friendship and how this helped him develop as a more rounded character.

Thank you, Netgalley and HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction | HarperVoyager , for providing an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Catriona Silvey is a new author for me. Therefore, I did not have any particular expectations when it came to this book. The premises looked intrueging and I was in the mood for a little romance. This was a good story, not to difficult to follow, right amount of feelings, and very enjoyable.

This story takes place at Cambridge University in 2005/2006. Joe Greene dreams of being a poet, a future where his words will echo through the ages. Esi already knows his future. She is a time-traveller on tour to witness Joe Greene in his student time. In Esi's era, Joe is as renowned as Shakespeare, writing famous love poems about Diana. However, Esi has a different, secret reason for being here. This year, something will happen at Cambridge that will wreck her life and she intends to change it. When she bumps into Joe, she sends his destiny into a tailspin. They both face a crucial question:
Is the future set in stone, or can we rewrite our fates?

The time travel element added a clever twist without overwhelming the story, grounding the sci-fi in real emotional stakes. The chemistry between the characters felt authentic and earned, and while some plot points required a bit more attention, it was still very good. Additionally, the mix of romance was super fun without being too heavy or confusing. Some parts stretched believability a bit, but honestly, I didn’t mind—it was just such a good ride.