I am all the way invested in the timey wimey. And Love and Other Paradoxes was high on my list. I love the comp to “About Time” and this idea of choices impacting the past. Keep reading this book review of Love and Other Paradoxes for my full thoughts.
Summary
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’s part of a time-traveling 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 the subject of his famous love poems.
But Esi is harboring a secret. She’s not here because she idolizes Joe—actually, she thinks his poetry is overrated. Something will happen at Cambridge this year that will wreck Esi’s life, and she’s hell-bent on changing it. When Esi goes rogue from her tour, she bumps into Joe and 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’s romantic endeavors go off-script—and worse, he starts falling for Esi instead—they both face a crucial question: Is the future set in stone, or can we pen our own fates?
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
I love a good messing around with a timeline meets “I need to give you dating tips” to fix it. It’s like a timey wimey Cyrano de Begerac with the fate of one of the Greats lying in the balance. Love and Other Paradoxes asks us not only about love and fate, but also if we can change the past and if we should. Is everything meant to be? If we have made it to the future, or if someone has, does the past just unfold how it’s supposed to be? These sort of time existential questions are played out on the pages of Love and Other Paradoxes.
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It’s hilarious while also balancing this wisdom and theme exploration on the other hand. There’s comedic errors and dating disasters all tempered with the question of if we have to be someone else to make someone fall in love with us, was it ever love? If you want to read a fun romance with time travel and complications Love and Other Paradoxes is for you. There are these moments where the characters resonate. Where we realize our life is spiraling out of control, out of what we thought, in an unlikely turn of events. We get so entrenched in our idea of the future, what if we changed our past?
Love and Other Paradoxes is a great summer read! Find Love and Other Paradoxes on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop. org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.