Features:
- Themes of found family and finding your direction in life
- Time traveling as both a heroic effort to save the world and a personal, destructive addiction
- Set in past, present, and future Paris
The fate of future Earth rests in Hallie’s hands, but can she be more than just a tool of time? Paris Adrift is a time-bending tale takes you to past, present, and future Paris as Hallie tries to rearrange history to save a future she has never seen. Despite this setup, I found that the real focus of the story was the people working with Hallie at Millie’s bar Hallie’s journey of self-discovery. The time travel was interesting and The Choronometrist was a fascinating character, but they felt very separate from the actual story I had become wrapped up in. Overall, if you like a found family story with a little bit of time travel thrown in, you will likely enjoy this book.
Lost, Not Broken
Millie’s is a notorious bar near the Moulin Rouge that serves as a ‘home base’ for Hallie and most of the other main characters in this story. Though a few scenes capture working at Millie’s, most of the story that does not take place in another time period happens directly before or after Hallie’s shifts. Through interactions with her co-workers, it becomes clear that Millie’s is a ‘rest stop’ for a wide variety of people on their own personal journeys. Far from being a dead end, each character is trying to figure out their next step and interacting with them is one of the main ways that we see Hallie grow. Even with the complicated element of time travel thrown in, this book never strays from the idea that being lost does not necessarily mean being broken.
Identity Crisis
I really enjoyed where this journey took me and there were a lot of clever elements that tied the story together. However, like Hallie, the story overall seemed to lack clear distraction despite these shimmers of brilliance. On the one hand, it is about Hallie’s personal journey to find direction and love in her life alongside others who are in the same place. On the other hand, it is a time-bending adventure to save a far flung future before…it’s too late? It handles both of these elements fairly well, but it doesn’t really excel at either and it does not really make these two elements feel meaningfully connected.
The story kicks off by introducing us to the Order of Janus and showing the world at its imminent collapse. Though a couple of members play a key role in Hallie’s journey, the Order itself is rarely mentioned after this introduction. Though Hallie’s journey through time is interesting, she herself is not aware of the purpose and eventually, the reader kind of forgets as well. As a result, the time travel lacks urgency and is not really used to develop the story in a unique way. The Chronometrist and anomaly that causes the time travel are both really interesting and I would have liked them to be used a little more effectively to really make this story shine.
Special thanks to NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Rowan Hill 