Reviews - Love and Other Paradoxes

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91 reviews for:

Love and Other Paradoxes

Catriona Silvey

3.63 AVERAGE

thewhisperingpages's review against another edition

4.0

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 received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Cross-posted to thewhisperingofthepages.co.uk

starscattered's review against another edition

3.0

funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

bookcasebee's review against another edition

2.75

I loved the idea of this but I found the ending to fall flat, I kind of lost grasp on what was happening, it’s still not totally clear to me and it just felt like a let down with the whole multiple realities/universes thing. I just didn’t love it but I enjoyed the book up til then.

whats_worth_reading's review against another edition

4.0

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Joe is a Cambridge University student, desperate for success and validation that his poetry is more than just average. A chance encounter with a strange girl at a local coffee shop ends with Joe reading a book of his own poetry, the only issue is that he hasn’t written the poems yet let alone had them published. The love poems are all written for Diana, but Joe doesn’t know anyone called Diana so how is he meant to write about her? Confused he confronts the coffee shop girl, Esi, and she has no choice but to come clean or risk her plans.

Esi is from the future, hiding out in Cambridge after sneaking away from her tour guide, the subject of which is Joe Greene legendary poet and Cambridge graduate. But Esi’s only goal is to track down her mother, also a student, and stop her from accepting an award which has catastrophic consequences in Esi’s future.

Of course, what unfolds is a series of mishaps and miscommunication leading to a whole load of events which deviate from the life Joe believes he is meant to live and Esi believes puts her chances of finding her mum at risk. Esi and Joe decide to work together to find her mum and undo some of the damage they’ve done in their attempts to secure Joe’s future success.

I knew I was going to enjoy this book as soon as I read the email from Rachel and I was write. It was such a lovely book with characters with real problems, like university struggles (both academic and social) as well as feeling like your family are disappointed in your decisions. Esi’s motivations were from a place of love for her family and Joe’s were from the need to not let everyone that supported him down.

The time travel element of the story was an interesting take as Esi is there by choice rather than through an Outlander style accident. The idea that in the future there could be tours back in time made Joe’s part in the plot fun as he’s so normal that it would be the most mundane tour but his visitors are devoted to him.

Despite some of the themes (parental loss) this was an easy romance and I really enjoyed seeing how the two MCs worked together despite their initial conflict and how they change with having the other in their life.

1dogwoof's review against another edition

2.0

This is a book about time travel. Romantic, scientific, although missing a little bit of the magical.

There's Joe, a struggling port at Cambridge, who accidentally bumps into Esi. Through that encounter, he discovers his own future. He and Esi band together - she is here to resolve her own past/present/future issues, while Joe tried to make his potential future a reality.

I found the writing to be quite crisp, sort like stomping through leaves. At times, the short sentences and thoughts make it a bit hard to read.

I usually love time travel stories, but found this one harder to understand and get myself into. Not that it was too scientific, but the paradoxes of it all makes it a more difficult to fall into the moment of things.

I find it to be a mood read. When you're looking for something that requires some puzzling out of paradoxes and butterflies changing the time continuum.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

bookishdesiree's review against another edition

5.0

thank you so much to rachel quin and harper voyager for a proof!

love and other paradoxes is a romance with time travel and the eternal question of whether the future can be truly be change by going back in time or if it's set in stone and no matter what, what is meant to happen, happens.
it follows Joe Greene while he is at Cambridge University in 2005. he is an aspiring poet but doubting he could ever truly make it as one. one day, Esi pops up into his life, who travelled from the future with a time-travelling tour to see none other than the infamous Joe Greene. the tour comes right when Joe is supposed to meet Diana, a fellow student and aspiring actress, who will become his muse and the subject of his famous love.
however, Esi isn't actually here to see Joe, she is here to change the past in order to have a better future. when she bumps into Joe and derails his destiny by accidentally telling him his future, she decides to become his dating coach to help him win over Diana. there is only one problem, Joe starts falling for Esi instead...

this was the CUTEST read ever and i absolutely in love with it. i'm not usually one for time travel because it will make my head spin but i loved how it was approached in this. it had me hooked from the beginning and i couldn't wait to pick it up every time. i just love how much it was debated throughout the book about whether changing one simple thing in the past may actually derail and create chaos in the future. it also highlighted the importance of hard work and emphasised that just because you know you'll succeed doesn't mean you can just sit back and wait for destiny to take its course, you still need to put the effort in.
all the characters were so fun to read about. i absolutely adored Joe and Esi and i couldn't help but root for them. also Rob was the best and i ate up every time he showed up!!