Love and Other Paradoxes by Catriona Silvey

Love and Other Paradoxes

A Novel

Catriona Silvey, Nicholas Ralph, William Morrow

HarperCollins · Print & ebook · March 11, 2025

One of the greatest love stories in history gets derailed when a struggling poet at Cambridge runs into a time-traveler who agrees to help him find his muse—a thoughtful and uplifting romantic comedy for fans of About Time and The Midnight Library.

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Who it’s for
A playful, time-twisting read with romance, wit, and a little brain-tease.
Genres
Time-Travel Romance, Romantic Comedy, Magical Realism
Published
HarperCollins, March 11, 2025

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For younger readers: I Loved You in Another Life, Where There's Room for US, Eight Days on Planet Earth

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About this book

One of the greatest love stories in history gets derailed when a struggling poet at Cambridge runs into a time-traveler who agrees to help him find his muse—a thoughtful and uplifting romantic comedy for fans of About Time and The Midnight Library. 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.

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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?

Time-Twist Charm

A playful, time-twisting read with romance, wit, and a little brain-tease.

Come here for

  • playful time-bending romance
  • easy glide between heart and idea

Expect

  • light on its feet
  • more charm than strain

Where it sits

Romantic Comedy66%
Time-Travel Romance65%
Magical Realism35%

Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.

Publisher categories

  • Fantasy Romance
  • Literary Fiction
  • Contemporary Romance
  • Time-Travel Romance
Show all 8 publisher categories
  • Romantic Comedy
  • Time Travel Fiction
  • Coming-of-Age
  • Women's Fiction
Authors
Catriona Silvey, Nicholas Ralph, William Morrow
Publisher
HarperCollins
Published
March 11, 2025
Format
Print & ebook
Reading lane
Fantasy Romance