Hello everyone!
Then again, when there's SO MANY fantastic choices on BookSirens, you really don't need to worry about anything but having enough time in the day to read them all.
The chance of getting free ARCs is that much more appreciated nowadays with the entire world so topsy-turvy, and I can definitely see the appeal and the wonder of it all as I go along. Tonight's choice was actually one I thought would be fairly light-hearted and maybe full of romance, but in the end it turned out not to be and became even better than that!
When someone says time travel, you usually think Outlander, for obvious reasons, but this one has something else up its sleeve.
Because we're in the future, fifty or so years in the future, actually, and the world isn't remotely what we remember and know.
A Paradox of Fates is the first in a trilogy, and boy oh boy is it an explosive start!
Once I get through the other two books, you'll be able to see links to all of them down at the bottom of this post, I promise!
Until then, this is where our story begins: DR. Elaine Randolph is desperately trying to solve the enigma of time travel somewhere in 2075, after her grandfather, POTUS Randolph, detonated nukes back in 2035 and basically erased most of the world from existence. Seas rose and mountainous ranges became island hubs for the remaining humans who gathered there and fell back into the Dark Ages where survival was the only necessity.
With no electricity and no technology, the New Establishment that rose from the ashes rules with an iron fist, but Lainey is determined to escape their clutches, go back into the past, and prevent her grandfather from ever touching that big DO NOT PRESS button.
The first half of the book or so is dedicated to the trials and tribulations of trying to figure out time travel, eventually ending up sending an apple and then a cat through, and that successfully, which means their next test subject is a human before they can all go.
But there's a few twists and turns before that can happen.
Mid-way through trying to get this all done, a captain with a group of soldiers shows up out of the blue to offer Lainey his protection; Hunter reveals that he struck a deal with her father in exchange for being able to save his wife from dying in the past.
More than this though, what rankles is that Lainey's dad never told her this, and considering she thought they had no secrets from one another it shakes her entire world to its foundations, right after realizing she's attracted to Hunter and he to her. Lainey is a scientist, believing she was basically born and bred for one single purpose: to save the world, so she has no time for romance, and she believes she'd incapable of love anyway after a disastrous try at a relationship in her twenties.
Hunter is a little bit more skeptical and he gently chips away at her defenses, helping her with her migraines, protecting the hub, and generally making himself indispensable.
And then comes the day when Eli Hernandez walks up to the scientific hub to take control of it.
Lainey's little haven is the only independent land left as all the other hubs have fallen, and she's devastated to learn Hunter is working with Eli, too.
Until, surprise! Joke's on her.
Because things are about to get even more complicated.
Inside the hub, Eli explains that his entire existence is a mask and a ruse to bring the New Regime down from the inside - and Lainey was the one who told him to do it, back in 2029. This in turn tells Lainey that they're all in a continuous time loop, where something had gone terribly wrong in the past, and the New Establishment is racing against time itself, just like Lainey, to beat them.
This is confirmed later when they send Luke through the wormhole and receive a letter which tells them he was taken captive and executed back in 2025, as the New Establishment anticipated their every move.
I swear they sound just like the Templars from Assassin's Creed!
Ahem.
Determined to kick Hunter's ass if he ever lies to her again - because he and Eli had been brought together by Lewis and Eli also knows a little tidbit, that Hunter and Lainey are married after they travel to the past - and to save the world no matter the cost, Lainey and Hunter travel through the wormhole first.
But no one else follows.
They intercept Luke before he can get himself caught, though they all go to watch when their cat will arrive from the past, and thus run into Victor Hernandez, Eli's father, who explains that they've been dancing in a circle for a while now, and the New Establishment only has to figure out Lainey's fate paradox now to erase her completely and control the timeline, ALL timelines.
What is a fate paradox, you ask?
It's a pre-destined point in time when a person is supposed to die, and no matter what they do to change it, they can't escape their fate. Even if they prevent a shooting to happen on one day, for example, the person destined to die in that shooting will STILL die, just not from a gunshot wound.
But Lainey isn't about to give up without a fight, especially not knowing that the New Establishment is hot on their heels, apparently steps ahead of her, some of her team is caught even further back in the past, and some never made it through at all.
She and Hunter also finally resolve their differences after she initially rebuffed him, saying she wasn't made to love anyone, but eventually she admits to him that she doesn't know if she's capable and that terrifies her - and he tells her not to listen to Victor who's trying to break them apart. Instead, they decide to consciously take a step forward together, and four years later seek out Eli, Victor's son, who's still a child at that time, so that Elaine will eventually be able to tell him everything and prepare him for the most important role of his life: that of an evil dictator secretly trying to save the world right alongside them.
And with THAT cliffhanger, the first book ends!
Since I was warned there would be a cliffhanger it didn't feel like I wanted to chuck the book right across the entire room, but I will say that I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing how this is all resolved. Book two will follow the two team members who end up further in the past - Claire and Cyrus - and explain how Cyrus ended up visiting Lainey in 2025 as an old man later, and in the last one, we'll finally learn more about Eli, his journey, and the woman destined to be his salvation, Alora.
And of course we'll hopefully also prevent the apocalypse, save the world, and make sure the dystopian timeline never comes into existence and the New Establishment never needs to find the Old Rebellion or the Insurgence.
All in all, we have a huge task ahead of us!
As I've said, I've dabbled in the whole 'have to travel into the past to change the future' genre before, but never to any great success (also I've read Outlander, too, so there's that). And then Rebecca Hefner came along and now I'm sold.
I would note for future readers that nothing actually HAPPENS in the book until about halfway through it, when the experiments succeed. Before that, we meet all the characters and the world, but there's a bit of a build up and I can see how someone might think this isn't worth their time, when in fact, once it all actually gets going, and Eli Hernandez enters the picture, OH MAN IS IT WORTH IT ALL.
And at the heart there's Lainey and Hunter, the woman convinced she was put on this world with the single purpose: to save it, not to be distracted by love and happiness, and then the man who convinces her otherwise.
The cover of the book might fool you - this is NOT one of those summer romance reads. This story fully features a nerdy scientist who's full of doubts and with an enormous burden on her shoulders, but it also focuses on her personal growth and how she comes to accept what she can or can't do. All while working on equations and trying to save the world.
The timeline is now fractured, loopy, and people from 2075 are scattered throughout. I'm eager to see just how this all continues, and how it ends in the last book of the trilogy.
So if you want a smart heroine who stays true to her beliefs and actually responds realistically to sci-fi situations, don't hesitate. This is the book for you.
I would note for future readers that nothing actually HAPPENS in the book until about halfway through it, when the experiments succeed. Before that, we meet all the characters and the world, but there's a bit of a build up and I can see how someone might think this isn't worth their time, when in fact, once it all actually gets going, and Eli Hernandez enters the picture, OH MAN IS IT WORTH IT ALL.
And at the heart there's Lainey and Hunter, the woman convinced she was put on this world with the single purpose: to save it, not to be distracted by love and happiness, and then the man who convinces her otherwise.
The cover of the book might fool you - this is NOT one of those summer romance reads. This story fully features a nerdy scientist who's full of doubts and with an enormous burden on her shoulders, but it also focuses on her personal growth and how she comes to accept what she can or can't do. All while working on equations and trying to save the world.
The timeline is now fractured, loopy, and people from 2075 are scattered throughout. I'm eager to see just how this all continues, and how it ends in the last book of the trilogy.
So if you want a smart heroine who stays true to her beliefs and actually responds realistically to sci-fi situations, don't hesitate. This is the book for you.
xx
*image not mine
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