ARC review: Love and Other Paradoxes by Catriona Silvey
Love and Other Paradoxes by Catriona Silvey Published by HarperCollins UK on 24th April 2025
Genres: Fiction / Fantasy / Contemporary, Fiction / Literary, Fiction / Romance / Contemporary, Fiction / Romance / Fantasy, Fiction / Romance / General, Fiction / Romance / Romantic Comedy, Fiction / Science Fiction / General, Fiction / Science Fiction / Time Travel
Pages: 320
Format: eARC
Source: Netgalley
Buy on Amazon US, Buy on Amazon UK, Buy on Audible
A TRULY TIMELESS LOVE STORY...
Cambridge University student Joe Greene dreams of a future where his words will echo through the ages.
Esi already knows his future. She’s on a time-traveling tour to witness history’s greatest moments. In Esi’s era, Joe is as renowned as Shakespeare, and he’s about to meet Diana, the subject of his famous love poems.
But Esi is harbouring a secret. This year, something will happen at Cambridge that will wreck her life, and she’s hellbent on changing it. When she bumps into Joe, she sends his destiny into a tailspin. To save both their futures, Esi becomes Joe’s dating coach, helping him win over Diana. But when Joe starts falling for Esi instead – they both face a crucial question:
Is the future set in stone, or can we rewrite our fates?
I was super excited to read this. I mean time travel, falling in love with the wrong person and not the person you’re meant to fall in love with. It had so much potential! Especially that blurb. Unfortunately this did not live up to my expectations.
I also really struggled with the Joe Greene’s (MMC) POV because the blurb had promised he was a great poet and I was expecting at least a hint of that but this was not case. His first impression did not endear him to me and the more ‘time’ went on, I ended disliking him which made it difficult to care for him and Esi.
Esi on the other hand drew me right in, however this didn’t last long either. I don’t know, she had these really big goals of trying to save her family and the whole reason why she traveled to the past and which was what was so fascinating about her, her choices like what she could and couldn’t do in the past.
I think I perhaps had a lot of expectations, the potential and possible build up that was evident in the earlier chapters just didn’t end up working for me in the latter half of the book.
Overall not a bad read, it had some good moments unfortunately they didn’t stick and left me feeling like all of it could have used a little more development.
Many thanks William Morrow for the eARC.