The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

A genre-defying time-travel story , that's perfect for readers who prefer non-marketable books.

I was laughing out loud, biting my nails, holding my breath and moaning softly reading this book. This book is a lot of things, it's a critique of British colonialism, an exploration of identity, it's a time-travel story, it's a slow-burn romance, it's Jason Bourne-level political intrigue and it's a love letter to hope.

The entire book is written as a letter to the reader with our unnamed FMC describing events of the story. Because she is essentially in the future, remembering a past that has already happened, we get hints about how the story will unfold. Within this letter she details becoming the person responsible for Graham Gore, a naval officer brought to the present day from the mid 1800s by a government controlled time-travel device.

This book had me laughing out loud on one page, then pondering expat identity politics in the next. I loved not knowing where the author was going to take us next.

Romance tropes include
⌛Rides a motorcycle and wears leather
⌛Sexy forearms
⌛Witty banter
⌛He learns to cook her favourite cultural meals
⌛Slow-burn, two chillies

Thriller tropes include
💀 Cannibalism
💀 Gun fights and motorcycles
💀 Political spies
💀 Murder

The only thing holding this back from a five star read is the last 20% of the book takes a darker tonal shift, and I wish the author had weaved in a little more of the light-heartedness we started the book with. Even with that said, the last 20% was fast-paced, and heartbreaking in equal measure.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avid Reader Press for the ARC.

This book is best read after becoming a vegetarian, but before researching the lost Franklin Arctic Expedition.