Thank you for my earc of this book! I looooove the premise of this book: trips to the past to see your fav celeb? Yes please.
I really enjoyed my time with the book. The characters were great, the romance really good and I loved the setting. Overall a really enjoyable read!

Student Joe Greene dreams of himself as a future poet but doubts this will happen. Esi arrives from the future to witness Joe first hand, as in the future he is known as a prolific writer. But Esi has a secret, she’s not really there for Joe, but instead is determined to change something that happened that year. When Esi bumps into Joe both their destiny’s are thrown into a tailspin.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author, although I have heard of her previous book which I was interested to read. I really liked the concept of this one and I enjoy books with a unique, quirky storyline. I found the focus of science fiction and time travel intriguing, especially mixed with a romcom.

Although I enjoyed the premise, I found the overall story quite slow paced and I didn’t love the development of the characters. I felt the pacing was off for the majority of the book, however for those who enjoy a slow burn romance with a difference this would be a great novel to pick up. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this copy in return for an honest review.

This book is about so many things. About chasing what we’re supposed to want instead of what’s right in front of us. Living for a future instead of in the moment. The impossible question of predestination. And of course, love. This was an interesting read for me. Not your typical love story and definitely would recommend. It’s like if Back to the Future and the Hallmark channel had a book baby.

ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ ᴡᴀs ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ᴏɴʟʏ ᴏɴᴇ ғᴜᴛᴜʀᴇ, ᴛᴏ ʙʀᴇᴀᴋ ᴏʀ ʙᴇ ʙᴏᴜɴᴅ ʙʏ.
ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ’s ɪɴғɪɴɪᴛᴇ ғᴜᴛᴜʀᴇs. ᴀʟʟ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ʀᴇᴀʟ. ᴀʟʟ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ᴡɪʟʟ ʜᴀᴘᴘᴇɴ. ᴡᴇ ᴊᴜsᴛ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ᴄʜᴏᴏsᴇ ᴡʜɪᴄʜ ᴏɴᴇ ᴡᴇ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ʜᴀᴘᴘᴇɴ ᴛᴏ ᴜs

I would love to meet my fav classic authors and just have a cup of tea and talk with them.
That is pretty much what happens to the main character only thing is that she goes to the past and meet one of her most despite poet she ever had to study in school😂

Since her mum has died Esi has felt like she’s not herself and decides to go to the past and try to change her mum timeline to make sure that the car accident never happened.
But her being in the past and meeting people and getting to know Joe Greene(her most despite poet) might change more than she thinks.
And also is Joe’s future set in stone ? Is his future always going to be the same? Or it might change?

This was such a cute romance and such a fun read. I loved how strong Esi is and how the more she get to know Joe the more she likes him. She has never let people in since her mum but with him is different.
And his poetry because of Esi, and not the girl who he’s supposed to end up with, gets way better than the poetry Esi studied in school. Esi finally understand the entire point of writing poetry.

Joe meets Esi and his world changes.
Would you read a book that tells you already the ending to your story?
He keeps thinking he has no choice in his future but once he actually start to make his own choices he finally achieves his best potential and become the best version of himself.

Thank you to hapervoyage for the arc

3.5 stars rounded up

Cambridge University, 2005: Student Joe Greene scribbles verses in the margins of his notebook, dreaming of a future where his words will echo through the ages, all while doubting it could ever happen. Then, the future quite literally finds him - in the form of Esi. She is part of a time-travelling tour, a trip for people in the future to witness history's greatest moments firsthand. The star of this tour? Joe Greene, in Esi's era. Joe is as renowned as Shakespeare. And he's about to meet Diana, a fellow student and aspiring actress, who will become his muse and subject of his famous love poems.

This is a story about time-travel. Joe has been struggling with writer's block and fears that he won't be able to graduate. He wants to become a successful poet. Joe meets a young girl called Esi, he follows her as he wants to know more about her. Esi is a time-traveller. She has travelled back to 2005 to change the past in order to save her mother's future.

I did like the second part of this book more than I did the first part. The characters are well-rounded, it was entertaining and the pace was steady. I quite liked this book.

Published 25th April 2025

I would like to thank #NetGalley #HarperCollinsUK #HarperFiction and the author #CatrionaSilvey for my ARC of #LoveAndOtherParadoxes in exchange for an honest review.

Absolutely loved this book, even if I didn’t quite understand all the timey wimey stuff. Didn’t take long to get to the crux of the book, which I was pleased about; the discovery about time travellers came early on. Such a fantastic idea for a plot too. Really lovely read.

Read and reviewed in exchange for a free copy from NetGalley. Although I thought the concept of this book was fantastic, unfortunately, its execution fell flat for me. Although I didn't dislike it by any stretch, I found the pace slow and I was unable to really connect with the characters, although I did like Rob.

This was such a fun time. I loved the time travel aspect & the discussions that it led to about fate & deciding your own future. How even if something is destined for you, you still need to put in the work.
The romance was really cute too, the slow burn & them knowing it can’t be but still falling for each other anyways.

This was a fun read. I enjoyed the plot and characters. I found the writing style a little lacking in depth but it was an enjoyable read.

This was a charming blend of time-travel science fiction and romantic comedy, I enjoyed the way philosophical questions were seamlessly integrated into a lighthearted narrative. The characters were likeable, with Rob and Esi standing out as my favourites. While the plot was well-crafted, I wouldn’t call the ending entirely unexpected, it was evident what the outcome would be. However, I did like the way this book was concluded; it leaves you pondering after you’ve finished with the possibilities of the future. This book would be particularly appealing to fans of time-travel romances and stories that delve into the intricacies of fate and choice.

This one took me a little while to get into but once I did, I was hooked. It's emotional and yet light hearted at the same time. It's a time travel novel and I enjoyed the characters. It's well written and I couldn't put it down. It has funny moments, sweet moments, mystery, and everything I love. Definitely one to recommend.

This novel takes the fact that we don’t know how time travel would actually work, and plays with it - even placing the majority of the plot in a place full of knowledge and learning. For me, it started a little slowly, but once the plot got going I really enjoyed the writing, the characters, and the tension between Joe’s newfound belief that his future is predetermined (but he still has to play an active part in the process, which leads to some interesting situations) and Esi’s desperation to change the past in order to fix her present. It’s physics and philosophy interlaced with poetry, romance, and a few sly swipes at technology of the recent past and references to the future which feel entirely natural. The supporting cast is well drawn - Rob steals every scene he’s in and has most of the best lines - and everything builds to a very neat denouement which has been cleverly set up throughout the book.

I do love a time travel book and the premise of this one sounded perfect for me and on the whole, I really enjoyed it.

My main issue with this book though, was that I just didn't really like either of the main characters and the side characters, didn't really have enough time on the page to make any kind of impression, although I do think they had potential.

Told from the male main characters point of view, I did enjoy the unique opportunity that this gave as I don't think I've ever read a book that tells the story entirely from the male POV before.

Joe is a student at Cambridge Uni but is concerned that the poetic promise that he showed when he was younger, was a bit of a flash in the pan. He meets Esi, a time-travelling tourist who has come to 2005 to change something that will affect her life. Before long, Joe and Esi have to work together to save their futures.

Although this was a quick read for me, I certainly found myself tensing up while reading certain chapters.

I was a bit reluctant to read my first Catriona Silvey novel, Meet Me in Another Life, but something kept calling to me, and I fell utterly in love with that book. And I think it’s grossly underrated, and more people should read it. I was also lucky to meet Silvey in Glasgow, where I learned that she had a new book coming out in 2025. So I was keeping an eye open for it and thanks to whoever handles HarperVoyager’s NetGalley account, my wishes came true.

I was supposed to read Love and Other Paradoxes slowly(ish) over a weekend, but instead I ended up reading it in a day, practically in one sitting. Oops. Absolutely no regrets, though. So, Love and Other Paradoxes is a more or less classic rom-com with a time traveling twist. Set in Cambridge in the early 2000s, Joe is facing failure at college, and he is not closer to his dream of becoming a famous poet. When he meets Esi, things get even more complecated. He gets a glimpse into the future he always wanted for himself, and so he is determined to do everything he can to make it happen. Esi only wants to change one thing in her past, to make her future happier, but their meeting – and meddling – sets of a chain of events that they might not be able to control. All the while facing questions they might not have answers for. Is out fate predestined? Or can our acts change the future we might know coming? And what if the future we thought we want is not the one we actually need. Or maybe it is. But do we even know what we want? Really, really want?

Love and Other Paradoxes is super easy to read, but then I expected as much. The characters are well rounded out, they have flaws, they have stupid decisions, and some of them are not so likeable *cough* Diana *cough*. And I’m absolutely delighted to learn about the game played on the campus called Assassins. I really wish it was featured more in the book as it sounds super fun. And made Rob – Joe’s roommate and best friend – the most fun character of the lot. He worked as the comedy relief and actually was entertaining.

The plot was less predictable than your average rom-com, (even if it did work with some tropes – love triangle, chiefly, which is usually not my favorite, but I promise it’s not annoying here. Well, not as much, anyway.), however, it kept me guessing until the end how the different decisions and actions will play out. It could have gone either way, and I appreciated the way Silvey built up the story’s arc. The time-traveling aspect really did add to it. As this is the second novel I read by Silvey, I can’t help but compare the two, maybe unjustly. While I enjoyed reading Love and Other Paradoxes, it didn’t gave me the same emotional impact as Meet Me in Another Life did.

All the same, lovers of the romance genre with a touch of sci-fi would have a good time with Love and Other Paradoxes, and hopefully it will appeal to a wider audience.

Starting to think that time-travel / rom-com is an excellent genre that I never thought would appeal to me… loved this. Silvey writes with charm, bringing a real sense of mid-noughties Cambridge and just how old-fashioned that would appear to someone from forty years later (or indeed someone now - phones with buttons!!). The concept of paradoxes is managed simply but effectively: I really enjoyed the time travel tourists and wondered how we weren’t going to be wildly butterfly-effecting all over the place. A strong core of the four central characters meant I was completely invested in the way the relationships developed and was genuinely pleased with the outcome.

Great read - would also make a great tv series…

This was such a fun and refreshing read!

Set in the real world with a time traveling twist, this had the essence of a romance book with a sprinkling of fantasy! Great twists and intriguing characters.

At times, it felt a little repetitive and kinda like we were going around in circles, but overall I really enjoyed.

I confess to being somewhat confused at the start of this book and a little voice said ‘this might not be for you’. However quite quickly I became immersed in the story and ended up really enjoying the paradoxes. I even had an insightful conversation with my other half about what, if anything, would he change if he could go back in time and also what would I change. It’s not an easy a question to answer because as the book implies, if one small thing changes, then many different outcomes could happen. I really liked the two main characters and I was particularly impressed with the poem Joe wrote to express his feelings. This is a great book club book as it will stimulate quite a lot of diverse discussions.

I really wanted to love this book but unfortunately there was just something missing for me. Time travel is one of my favourite things to read about and I loved the premise of this book so much, so couldn't wait to read it but it just kind of fell flat. I found it so hard to get into, as well as finding it difficult to really connect with the characters at times, and this made it so difficult to become invested in the romance between Joe and Esi as I feel like there just wasn't enough chemistry between them to really make me feel like they belonged together.

It's such a shame as I really enjoyed the writing and I am sure it will be loved by others but it just wasn't the book for me.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review this book before publication, these are my honest thoughts and opinions.

I wasn't as impressed with this book as I hoped to be. Something was missing for me. Not sure what. I almost gave up around the halfway point. Interesting idea but it didn't hold my attention.

Joe aspires to be a poet, but has yet to write a poem he truly likes. When he meets Esi his luck is about to turn. Esi is a time-traveller from the future. She jumped on an opportunity to see the famous poet Joseph Greene during his lifetime to make changes to her own past. But to be able to make those changes to her past, she has to help Joe fall in love with his muse Diana.

I had trouble getting into the story, mainly because the first half of the book had chapter breaks in the middle of dialogues and felt disjointed to me. The second half of the story, when the "changing Esi's past" part gets a bit more traction was more interesting.

This romance is more magical realism than sci-fi. There are a few scientific explanations for the time-travel, but Esi could have easily said she touched a particular spot on a brick wall and now she's in Cambridge in 2004.