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Time to Burn
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19 days and 09:19:04
25 copies available
U.S. only
London, the present day: commercial time travel is a reality.
Tempus Tours – owned by controversial tech entrepreneur Inigo Frank – offers the wealthy a chance to witness pivotal moments in history.
To immortalise his achievement, Frank enlists award-winning filmmaker Phoebe Hunt to create a fly-on-the-wall documentary. On her first day shadowing Inigo, she is set to witness the return of a billionaire property developer and his family from their trip to the past. But instead of their awe-filled return, she captures the group arriving bloodied and traumatized, with one of their number missing.
Not only that, but Phoebe recognises the missing woman, and knows not only that she’s not who she claims to be but that she has every reason to harbor a grudge against her. And as events begin to unravel in the present day, it seems increasingly clear that she had sinister motives for returning to the past - and that people close to Phoebe are in danger.
Can Phoebe stop the ripple effect before she loses everything – and everyone – she holds dear?
Tempus Tours – owned by controversial tech entrepreneur Inigo Frank – offers the wealthy a chance to witness pivotal moments in history.
To immortalise his achievement, Frank enlists award-winning filmmaker Phoebe Hunt to create a fly-on-the-wall documentary. On her first day shadowing Inigo, she is set to witness the return of a billionaire property developer and his family from their trip to the past. But instead of their awe-filled return, she captures the group arriving bloodied and traumatized, with one of their number missing.
Not only that, but Phoebe recognises the missing woman, and knows not only that she’s not who she claims to be but that she has every reason to harbor a grudge against her. And as events begin to unravel in the present day, it seems increasingly clear that she had sinister motives for returning to the past - and that people close to Phoebe are in danger.
Can Phoebe stop the ripple effect before she loses everything – and everyone – she holds dear?
320 pages, Kindle Edition
Expected publication August 4, 2026
About the author
Ellery Lloyd
9 books1,297 followersEllery Lloyd is the pseudonym for New York Times Bestselling husband-and-wife writing team Collette Lyons and Paul Vlitos.
Collette is a journalist and editor, the former content director of Elle (UK) and editorial director at Soho House. She has written for The Guardian, The Telegraph, and the Sunday Times.
Paul is the author of two previous novels, Welcome to the Working Week and Every Day is Like Sunday. He is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Greenwich.
Collette is a journalist and editor, the former content director of Elle (UK) and editorial director at Soho House. She has written for The Guardian, The Telegraph, and the Sunday Times.
Paul is the author of two previous novels, Welcome to the Working Week and Every Day is Like Sunday. He is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Greenwich.
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June 11, 2026Last year’s
The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby
was so enjoyable that it immediately put any further Ellery Lloyd books on my radar. And Time to Burn involves time travel! How could I not enjoy it? Well, this is definitely a pageturner but sadly it fell somewhat short of my expectations.
The setup involves Phoebe Hunt, a documentary filmmaker, arriving at the headquarters of commercial time-travel company Tempus to make a documentary about its standard-issue eccentric-yet-brilliant-billionaire founder, Inigo Frank. Phoebe has an interesting past, having grown up in a cult (headed by her father) called the Living Family. When Tempus’ latest trip to the past goes dramatically wrong, she discovers something nobody else knows: one of the time travellers is not who they’re claiming to be, and is also connected to the Living Family.
I thought the scenes set in the past were so atmospheric, a real strength of the book. In particular, an early scene where tour guide Tom escorts a group of the super-rich to a nightclub in Blitz-era London is vivid and exciting, and when I read it, I thought, here we go, this is going to be great. I wanted more of that! But we don’t really get it. There’s so much going on here: Tempus covering stuff up; the cult; extracts from the documentary Phoebe made about it (which frankly did not do enough to convince me that this doc would have won a BAFTA and made her a star); the fact that there are 2 main characters and neither of them is really given enough depth. Some threads either feel unfinished or just too shallow. Of course a certain level of suspension of disbelief is essential with something like this, but I simply couldn’t believe the changes that Phoebe and others made to the past wouldn’t change their lives (and the world) drastically, beyond recognition, rather than just changing things in exactly the way they wanted.
Time to Burn is readable, and at times I was truly gripped, but it doesn’t match up to Juliette Willoughby, and ultimately I just didn’t feel it ever truly came together.
Note 1: that weird mention of Phoebe’s Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses which are ‘a gamechanger’ and ‘allow her to continuously capture video and sound’ was product placement, right? If it wasn’t, that’s actually even weirder.
Note 2: random coincidence that there’s a brief mention of Phoebe having issues with maladaptive daydreaming when I’ve just read a novel all about it (Daydreamers Anonymous), having never (that I can remember) come across it in fiction before!
I received an advance review copy of Time to Burn from the publisher through NetGalley.
The setup involves Phoebe Hunt, a documentary filmmaker, arriving at the headquarters of commercial time-travel company Tempus to make a documentary about its standard-issue eccentric-yet-brilliant-billionaire founder, Inigo Frank. Phoebe has an interesting past, having grown up in a cult (headed by her father) called the Living Family. When Tempus’ latest trip to the past goes dramatically wrong, she discovers something nobody else knows: one of the time travellers is not who they’re claiming to be, and is also connected to the Living Family.
I thought the scenes set in the past were so atmospheric, a real strength of the book. In particular, an early scene where tour guide Tom escorts a group of the super-rich to a nightclub in Blitz-era London is vivid and exciting, and when I read it, I thought, here we go, this is going to be great. I wanted more of that! But we don’t really get it. There’s so much going on here: Tempus covering stuff up; the cult; extracts from the documentary Phoebe made about it (which frankly did not do enough to convince me that this doc would have won a BAFTA and made her a star); the fact that there are 2 main characters and neither of them is really given enough depth. Some threads either feel unfinished or just too shallow. Of course a certain level of suspension of disbelief is essential with something like this, but I simply couldn’t believe the changes that Phoebe and others made to the past wouldn’t change their lives (and the world) drastically, beyond recognition, rather than just changing things in exactly the way they wanted.
Time to Burn is readable, and at times I was truly gripped, but it doesn’t match up to Juliette Willoughby, and ultimately I just didn’t feel it ever truly came together.
Note 1: that weird mention of Phoebe’s Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses which are ‘a gamechanger’ and ‘allow her to continuously capture video and sound’ was product placement, right? If it wasn’t, that’s actually even weirder.
Note 2: random coincidence that there’s a brief mention of Phoebe having issues with maladaptive daydreaming when I’ve just read a novel all about it (Daydreamers Anonymous), having never (that I can remember) come across it in fiction before!
I received an advance review copy of Time to Burn from the publisher through NetGalley.
Read
April 22, 2026A time travel tour with some crime thrown in? I was sold! But this book delivered a different experience from what I expected.
Rich genius Inigo Frank owns Tempus Tours and he facilitates time travel to the past for a sum of money. He is milking his legacy by having the magic of it all filmed by a documentary maker Phoebe. However the tour goes horribly wrong, one person, Sasha, is missing when the party returns, later arriving injured, and Phoebe realizes that it affects her personally too.
What I enjoyed:
- The idea was brilliant. Time travel is a tricky concept to write a book on and the way Ellery Llyod presented it was certainly great.
- The novel isn't just about time travel. There are passages that make you think about history, the butterfly effect, changing history that might affect the present, the idea of how billionaires with unlimited money and eccentric ideas might create tech that might damage our world.
What didn't work for me:
- I was expected a fast-paced binge like People like Her. This book is slower and the pacing varies across the book. Now and then the pacing dipped low that I got distracted.
- The characters! I don't mind a novel with a vast character list or a small one, as long as they are distinguishable from one another and established early on in the book. I occasionally got confused between the characters which was a shame because I quickly wanted to know what happens next and to whom. We are already in a time travel book, so I wished we didn't have to focus on placing the characters.
I loved People like Her/The Club, and if you are picking the new book Time to Burn, please remember to go into it unbiased.
Thank you to the publisher for an ARC. All opinions are my own.
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Rich genius Inigo Frank owns Tempus Tours and he facilitates time travel to the past for a sum of money. He is milking his legacy by having the magic of it all filmed by a documentary maker Phoebe. However the tour goes horribly wrong, one person, Sasha, is missing when the party returns, later arriving injured, and Phoebe realizes that it affects her personally too.
What I enjoyed:
- The idea was brilliant. Time travel is a tricky concept to write a book on and the way Ellery Llyod presented it was certainly great.
- The novel isn't just about time travel. There are passages that make you think about history, the butterfly effect, changing history that might affect the present, the idea of how billionaires with unlimited money and eccentric ideas might create tech that might damage our world.
What didn't work for me:
- I was expected a fast-paced binge like People like Her. This book is slower and the pacing varies across the book. Now and then the pacing dipped low that I got distracted.
- The characters! I don't mind a novel with a vast character list or a small one, as long as they are distinguishable from one another and established early on in the book. I occasionally got confused between the characters which was a shame because I quickly wanted to know what happens next and to whom. We are already in a time travel book, so I wished we didn't have to focus on placing the characters.
I loved People like Her/The Club, and if you are picking the new book Time to Burn, please remember to go into it unbiased.
Thank you to the publisher for an ARC. All opinions are my own.
Blog | Instagram | Threads | X (Twitter) | Newsletter
April 5, 2026
I love books about time travel, and I am impressed when someone can add something new to the canon. This book exceeded my expectations! Entertaining and thought provoking, with some gut punch twists that I didn't see coming, Time to Burn is a fabulous literary thriller. Aficianados of time travel books will not be disappointed.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
One of my favourite tropes of science fiction is the ability to time-travel and the consequences of such activities. I think that it is because it gives us access to that idea of “what-if?” and offers a variety of different possible futures. It may be because I was brought up on Doctor Who and one of the first adult science fiction novels I read was H G Wells’ The Time Machine. It has clearly had a life-long effect on me - I still watch George Pal’s film version (although very different!) every year, over the Christmas season.
The saying goes that you can’t keep a good idea down – and so I have read many versions of that idea over the past 50 years or so. Some are better than others – I still have a great fondness for Connie Willis’ time travel tales from The Doomsday Book to Blackout and All Clear, which I tend to use as my benchmark to compare all modern time travel stories to. (And if you haven’t read any, I thoroughly recommend you do.) But you can add work by Harry Turtledove (Crosstime Traffic series), Stephen King (22/11/63), Audrey Nifenegger (The Time Traveller’s Wife), Brandon Sanderson ( The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England ), even Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander. and many, many more.
Ellery Lloyd’s novel takes those ideas of time travel, that must be pretty well known to even mainstream readers, and combines them with an egocentric inventor/ entrepreneur Inigo Frank, who has invented time travel and turned travel into a pastime for the very, very, VERY rich. (Feel free to add your own egomaniacal entrepreneur here for comparison.) The power needed to make the time travel work is so much that it limits the number of times people can travel, although Frank hopes to make it more commercial in the future with his company Tempus Tours, who offer the wealthy a chance to witness pivotal moments in history.
To immortalise his achievement, Frank enlists award-winning filmmaker Phoebe Hunt to create a fly-on-the-wall documentary. About him and the work the company does. On her first day shadowing Inigo, she is set to witness the return of Harry Allen, a billionaire property developer and his family from their trip to London in 1941. But instead of their awe-filled return, she captures the group arriving bloodied and traumatized, with one of their number missing.
Not only that, but Phoebe recognizes the missing woman. She knows not only that she's not who she claims to be, but that the woman has every reason to harbour a grudge against her. And as events begin to unravel in the present day, it seems increasingly clear that the woman had sinister motives for returning to the past – and that people close to Phoebe are in danger.
So: in essence, this is a murder mystery wrapped around a time travel setting. As you might therefore expect, all is not what it seems. The good news for people who rarely read such stories is that the science element takes pretty much a back seat to the crime element. Time to Burn is not a story of science but of the consequences of people travelling through time. Told from the focus of Phoebe, we read of the consequences of this crime on the characters we meet.
Some of the characters are fairly stereotypical, with not a great deal of depth. Inigo Frank fits the mould of your typical corporate businessperson. Similarly, Harry Allen is a typical blustery self-made millionaire with the grumpy berating attitude to boot; his son Luke is that young adult desperate for his father’s attention, whilst his wife Sasha is an influencer, married perhaps all-too-quickly. Phoebe and her fellow-journalist partner David are as nice as you want them to be.
As the book progresses though much of the book is about the point that not all is entirely what it seems to be. Phoebe, for example, has a secret connection to the Allen family through her past. There’s a degree of setting past grievances to rest here, as we discover through the book.
Of course, one of the key elements of the novel is about how much time travel is a key component of the plot. And there I found the results a little muddled. For much of the book the science fiction element takes a back seat, the plot mainly focussing on the back story and flashbacks of the main characters.
The paradox of knowing about the future and using that knowledge to change things was important, although I did wonder what would happen if hundreds if not thousands of journeys would change things. (See Fritz Leiber’s The Big Time from 1958, for example.) The author here has dealt with this a little by limiting such excursions to the exclusively rich, but even so there were things that I thought could become big issues - much of this story could have been solved by time-travelling and resetting things back to basics, before the life-changing events happened.
On the positive side, many (but not all) of the much-expected plot twists seemed possible and not just there for effect.
Thinking about the book when finished, I must admit that this one didn’t set things alight for me (pun intended.) I get the feeling that this is going to be one of those books that will be popular, but with people who don’t read much science fiction. (I’m imagining all the “I don’t read science fiction/time travel stories, but I liked this one!” comments now….)
For me, Time To Burn was a good, solid, entertaining read, but it wasn’t a book that made me want to think about it too much, nor was it particularly complex. Whilst it was good to see a new(ish) writer tackle some of the science-fictional ideas, I couldn’t help feeling that I’d read better, although not as contemporary.
Having said that, I think that crime readers in particular will appreciate it – the science fiction element is not too intimidating, and as is usual in a crime drama most elements are tied up conveniently and all is resolved at the end. (There is one twist that could be taken further, should the author wish it, I think.)
For me Time to Burn was a story that I enjoyed whilst I read it, but once read I suspect will be fairly quickly forgotten – or is that the effect of time travel, I wonder?
The saying goes that you can’t keep a good idea down – and so I have read many versions of that idea over the past 50 years or so. Some are better than others – I still have a great fondness for Connie Willis’ time travel tales from The Doomsday Book to Blackout and All Clear, which I tend to use as my benchmark to compare all modern time travel stories to. (And if you haven’t read any, I thoroughly recommend you do.) But you can add work by Harry Turtledove (Crosstime Traffic series), Stephen King (22/11/63), Audrey Nifenegger (The Time Traveller’s Wife), Brandon Sanderson ( The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England ), even Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander. and many, many more.
Ellery Lloyd’s novel takes those ideas of time travel, that must be pretty well known to even mainstream readers, and combines them with an egocentric inventor/ entrepreneur Inigo Frank, who has invented time travel and turned travel into a pastime for the very, very, VERY rich. (Feel free to add your own egomaniacal entrepreneur here for comparison.) The power needed to make the time travel work is so much that it limits the number of times people can travel, although Frank hopes to make it more commercial in the future with his company Tempus Tours, who offer the wealthy a chance to witness pivotal moments in history.
To immortalise his achievement, Frank enlists award-winning filmmaker Phoebe Hunt to create a fly-on-the-wall documentary. About him and the work the company does. On her first day shadowing Inigo, she is set to witness the return of Harry Allen, a billionaire property developer and his family from their trip to London in 1941. But instead of their awe-filled return, she captures the group arriving bloodied and traumatized, with one of their number missing.
Not only that, but Phoebe recognizes the missing woman. She knows not only that she's not who she claims to be, but that the woman has every reason to harbour a grudge against her. And as events begin to unravel in the present day, it seems increasingly clear that the woman had sinister motives for returning to the past – and that people close to Phoebe are in danger.
So: in essence, this is a murder mystery wrapped around a time travel setting. As you might therefore expect, all is not what it seems. The good news for people who rarely read such stories is that the science element takes pretty much a back seat to the crime element. Time to Burn is not a story of science but of the consequences of people travelling through time. Told from the focus of Phoebe, we read of the consequences of this crime on the characters we meet.
Some of the characters are fairly stereotypical, with not a great deal of depth. Inigo Frank fits the mould of your typical corporate businessperson. Similarly, Harry Allen is a typical blustery self-made millionaire with the grumpy berating attitude to boot; his son Luke is that young adult desperate for his father’s attention, whilst his wife Sasha is an influencer, married perhaps all-too-quickly. Phoebe and her fellow-journalist partner David are as nice as you want them to be.
As the book progresses though much of the book is about the point that not all is entirely what it seems to be. Phoebe, for example, has a secret connection to the Allen family through her past. There’s a degree of setting past grievances to rest here, as we discover through the book.
Of course, one of the key elements of the novel is about how much time travel is a key component of the plot. And there I found the results a little muddled. For much of the book the science fiction element takes a back seat, the plot mainly focussing on the back story and flashbacks of the main characters.
The paradox of knowing about the future and using that knowledge to change things was important, although I did wonder what would happen if hundreds if not thousands of journeys would change things. (See Fritz Leiber’s The Big Time from 1958, for example.) The author here has dealt with this a little by limiting such excursions to the exclusively rich, but even so there were things that I thought could become big issues - much of this story could have been solved by time-travelling and resetting things back to basics, before the life-changing events happened.
On the positive side, many (but not all) of the much-expected plot twists seemed possible and not just there for effect.
Thinking about the book when finished, I must admit that this one didn’t set things alight for me (pun intended.) I get the feeling that this is going to be one of those books that will be popular, but with people who don’t read much science fiction. (I’m imagining all the “I don’t read science fiction/time travel stories, but I liked this one!” comments now….)
For me, Time To Burn was a good, solid, entertaining read, but it wasn’t a book that made me want to think about it too much, nor was it particularly complex. Whilst it was good to see a new(ish) writer tackle some of the science-fictional ideas, I couldn’t help feeling that I’d read better, although not as contemporary.
Having said that, I think that crime readers in particular will appreciate it – the science fiction element is not too intimidating, and as is usual in a crime drama most elements are tied up conveniently and all is resolved at the end. (There is one twist that could be taken further, should the author wish it, I think.)
For me Time to Burn was a story that I enjoyed whilst I read it, but once read I suspect will be fairly quickly forgotten – or is that the effect of time travel, I wonder?
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I received a free eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I really liked The Club, and once I realized this was about time travel I was of course sold! I made sure I let enough time pass after finishing Retro before I started on this one. And it does share some story DNA, but it reminded me more of Blake Crouch’s Recursion than anything.
Much like How Bad Things Can Get, this is a really interesting story that doesn’t *quite* take off because it’s bogged down by an entire novel’s worth of backstory. And much like How Bad, said backstory is definitely integral to the plot - everything that happens on that island hinged on the cult, and everything that happens here ties back to Phoebe and Sasha’s shared past (and Phoebe’s documentary). But at the same time, when we need to flash back and explain things (here with transcripts from Phoebe’s documentary), it brings the actual plot to a halt. I’m not sure if there’s a better way to work that in? And without giving too much away, in the end it’s all interconnected, so there’s not a way to excise the documentary stuff without losing a good chunk of what makes the ending work. Maybe it’s something that would play better on screen than on page. But either way, there’s too many balls in the air here, and a TON of exposition.
In Retro, time travel worked through actual transport (trains but not trains), and you could go pretty much anywhere in the continental US. Here we’re in London, and time travel happens through portals generated by supercomputers that use more resources than hundreds of data centers. We don’t get a ton of background on the tourism options, but they seem to be confined to a more limited timeline - most of what we see is World War II (far enough back that tourists won’t run into themselves, and enough going on that the timeline can’t get *too* fucked up along the way). Much like in Retro, the timeline is resilient - the big events still happen, and Tempus takes care to ensure that no one messes with anything too important.
Anyway. Our main character is a documentarian named Phoebe Hunt. She’s been called to make a documentary about Inigo Frank, the genius inventor who figured out time travel. She’s following him for a whole week, including preparing a group for a trip to 1941. But the trip goes awry - the group nearly misses the window, one person is gravely injured and one…doesn’t make it back at all. And what’s more, Phoebe is pretty sure she knows this woman, and that she’s not who she’s claiming to be.
So Phoebe has a new angle for her documentary - the (hopefully) triumphant rescue of a traveler stuck in the past. Except as she spends more time at Tempus, she starts to realize that something is off there. And when she meets a stranger who claims that Inigo actually *is* messing with the timeline, she starts to question what that might mean for her own past…and future.
It’s hard to say much more without getting into spoiler territory. I ended up liking this once I stopped trying to make it something it wasn’t. As a couple of other early reviews have pointed out, it’s not so much a “time travel story” as it is a character study that includes time travel. Much like my beloved Magic for Liars is a detective story that happens to include magic, rather than a story about magicians. I maintain that this is still trying to do too much - there’s the time travel intrigue and all of the ripples that creates, there’s Phoebe’s first documentary, there’s whatever’s going on with Sasha (the one who gets left behind in the past). Part of me thinks maybe we leave Sasha out of it? But her getting left behind in 1941 is what propels Phoebe to start looking into all of Inigo’s trips. And she’s not just faffing about in the Blitz, either.
I realize I am apparently impossible to please - in Retro, I was fascinated by the time travel, but bored by the characters. Here, I was invested in the characters, but I wanted more time travel. Again, no spoilers, but there’s some truly mind-melting timeline shenanigans by the end that sort of broke my brain. That whole time travel notion of “I knew you would do it because you’ve already done it” just never fails to break my brain. Going to the past to leave clues behind that you already remember finding in the future? Ouch.
Much like How Bad Things Can Get, this is a really interesting story that doesn’t *quite* take off because it’s bogged down by an entire novel’s worth of backstory. And much like How Bad, said backstory is definitely integral to the plot - everything that happens on that island hinged on the cult, and everything that happens here ties back to Phoebe and Sasha’s shared past (and Phoebe’s documentary). But at the same time, when we need to flash back and explain things (here with transcripts from Phoebe’s documentary), it brings the actual plot to a halt. I’m not sure if there’s a better way to work that in? And without giving too much away, in the end it’s all interconnected, so there’s not a way to excise the documentary stuff without losing a good chunk of what makes the ending work. Maybe it’s something that would play better on screen than on page. But either way, there’s too many balls in the air here, and a TON of exposition.
In Retro, time travel worked through actual transport (trains but not trains), and you could go pretty much anywhere in the continental US. Here we’re in London, and time travel happens through portals generated by supercomputers that use more resources than hundreds of data centers. We don’t get a ton of background on the tourism options, but they seem to be confined to a more limited timeline - most of what we see is World War II (far enough back that tourists won’t run into themselves, and enough going on that the timeline can’t get *too* fucked up along the way). Much like in Retro, the timeline is resilient - the big events still happen, and Tempus takes care to ensure that no one messes with anything too important.
Anyway. Our main character is a documentarian named Phoebe Hunt. She’s been called to make a documentary about Inigo Frank, the genius inventor who figured out time travel. She’s following him for a whole week, including preparing a group for a trip to 1941. But the trip goes awry - the group nearly misses the window, one person is gravely injured and one…doesn’t make it back at all. And what’s more, Phoebe is pretty sure she knows this woman, and that she’s not who she’s claiming to be.
So Phoebe has a new angle for her documentary - the (hopefully) triumphant rescue of a traveler stuck in the past. Except as she spends more time at Tempus, she starts to realize that something is off there. And when she meets a stranger who claims that Inigo actually *is* messing with the timeline, she starts to question what that might mean for her own past…and future.
It’s hard to say much more without getting into spoiler territory. I ended up liking this once I stopped trying to make it something it wasn’t. As a couple of other early reviews have pointed out, it’s not so much a “time travel story” as it is a character study that includes time travel. Much like my beloved Magic for Liars is a detective story that happens to include magic, rather than a story about magicians. I maintain that this is still trying to do too much - there’s the time travel intrigue and all of the ripples that creates, there’s Phoebe’s first documentary, there’s whatever’s going on with Sasha (the one who gets left behind in the past). Part of me thinks maybe we leave Sasha out of it? But her getting left behind in 1941 is what propels Phoebe to start looking into all of Inigo’s trips. And she’s not just faffing about in the Blitz, either.
I realize I am apparently impossible to please - in Retro, I was fascinated by the time travel, but bored by the characters. Here, I was invested in the characters, but I wanted more time travel. Again, no spoilers, but there’s some truly mind-melting timeline shenanigans by the end that sort of broke my brain. That whole time travel notion of “I knew you would do it because you’ve already done it” just never fails to break my brain. Going to the past to leave clues behind that you already remember finding in the future? Ouch.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
3.5 ⭐️ rounded up.
A mystery about travel tourism and the dangerous consequences that ensue when the privileged make the past their playground …
Tech entrepreneur Inigo Frank has perfected commercial time travel, though it is tightly regulated and so expensive that it is only available to the very wealthiest. It is a slick operation that is legal, yet extremely controversial, with meticulously plotted and designed experiences, guides are extensively trained and rules for the time tourists are strictly enforced, in keeping with the Time Travel Act.
To highlight his achievements and life’s work to the world, Inigo enlists award winning documentary filmmaker Phoebe Hunt to create a fly on the wall documentary of Tempus and the world of time travel. Pheobe is not scared of investigating controversial topics - her wildly successful documentary ‘A Complicated Man’ was about a Living Family Cult in London, created by her own dad.
On her first day following Inigo and the company, she is set to witness the return of billionaire property developer Harry Allen and his four family members who had chosen to return to the beginning of the Blitz in 1941. However, as the aperture opens, instead of an awe inspiring returning, she captures the group returning bloody and traumatised. And one of the group is missing …
As this legal, PR and - very briefly mentioned for the benefit of the film - human disaster unfolds, Phoebe realises she recognises the missing guest, and she knows she is not telling the truth about who she is and where she has come from. She also has every reason to harbour a grudge against Phoebe and it has everything to do with the documentary around The Living Family Cult.
As things begin to unravel in the present day, two worlds which should be completely opposite are now colliding as it seems increasingly clear that the guest had sinister intentions for returning to the past, sabotaging events in 1941, leaving Pheobe to race against time to untangle the truth before history is rewritten forever.
What a great character study style book! The lead characters - Sasha and Pheobe - are so well discussed and portrayed throughout this story, with their complex childhoods discovered, how this affects later decision making as adults and the consequences of their actions - Phoebe in relation to creating documentaries about others, Sasha in remaining in 1941 for several days, altering the path of her history, which in turn sabotages elements of many peoples lives.
EL does an incredible job of discussing 1941 and the surroundings of this time period. Clearly lots of research has gone into this and it pays off - I felt like I could see, hear and smell everything. There is also excellent discussion of modern technology such as meta-glasses, screens and futuristic apartments are discussed alongside century’s old mathematical workings around mechanical time travel by some of the world’s greatest minds, which makes this book feel like two worlds are colliding.
Thought provoking, speculative, suspenseful and a controversial topic - this has the hallmarks of a very good read! However for me, it did get confusing around the different processes of mathematics and physics and quite a lot was going on with chopping and changing of location and reasoning for returning to the past, with multiple plots across two different stories - the disastrous 1941 visit and the consequences of the Cult. EL includes interview extracts from Pheobe’s original series which makes the overall story very layered. For me, focusing on one of these would have been amazing! I really wanted to know more about The Living Family!
This book leaves you reflecting on the questions: who decides who can rewrite history and where does the responsibility lie when it goes wrong? I think this is going to be a really popular book for history buffs, sci-fi lovers and futuristic readers!
Thank you to NetGallery, Pan Macmillan and Ellery Lloyd for the ARC of this book.
A mystery about travel tourism and the dangerous consequences that ensue when the privileged make the past their playground …
Tech entrepreneur Inigo Frank has perfected commercial time travel, though it is tightly regulated and so expensive that it is only available to the very wealthiest. It is a slick operation that is legal, yet extremely controversial, with meticulously plotted and designed experiences, guides are extensively trained and rules for the time tourists are strictly enforced, in keeping with the Time Travel Act.
To highlight his achievements and life’s work to the world, Inigo enlists award winning documentary filmmaker Phoebe Hunt to create a fly on the wall documentary of Tempus and the world of time travel. Pheobe is not scared of investigating controversial topics - her wildly successful documentary ‘A Complicated Man’ was about a Living Family Cult in London, created by her own dad.
On her first day following Inigo and the company, she is set to witness the return of billionaire property developer Harry Allen and his four family members who had chosen to return to the beginning of the Blitz in 1941. However, as the aperture opens, instead of an awe inspiring returning, she captures the group returning bloody and traumatised. And one of the group is missing …
As this legal, PR and - very briefly mentioned for the benefit of the film - human disaster unfolds, Phoebe realises she recognises the missing guest, and she knows she is not telling the truth about who she is and where she has come from. She also has every reason to harbour a grudge against Phoebe and it has everything to do with the documentary around The Living Family Cult.
As things begin to unravel in the present day, two worlds which should be completely opposite are now colliding as it seems increasingly clear that the guest had sinister intentions for returning to the past, sabotaging events in 1941, leaving Pheobe to race against time to untangle the truth before history is rewritten forever.
What a great character study style book! The lead characters - Sasha and Pheobe - are so well discussed and portrayed throughout this story, with their complex childhoods discovered, how this affects later decision making as adults and the consequences of their actions - Phoebe in relation to creating documentaries about others, Sasha in remaining in 1941 for several days, altering the path of her history, which in turn sabotages elements of many peoples lives.
EL does an incredible job of discussing 1941 and the surroundings of this time period. Clearly lots of research has gone into this and it pays off - I felt like I could see, hear and smell everything. There is also excellent discussion of modern technology such as meta-glasses, screens and futuristic apartments are discussed alongside century’s old mathematical workings around mechanical time travel by some of the world’s greatest minds, which makes this book feel like two worlds are colliding.
Thought provoking, speculative, suspenseful and a controversial topic - this has the hallmarks of a very good read! However for me, it did get confusing around the different processes of mathematics and physics and quite a lot was going on with chopping and changing of location and reasoning for returning to the past, with multiple plots across two different stories - the disastrous 1941 visit and the consequences of the Cult. EL includes interview extracts from Pheobe’s original series which makes the overall story very layered. For me, focusing on one of these would have been amazing! I really wanted to know more about The Living Family!
This book leaves you reflecting on the questions: who decides who can rewrite history and where does the responsibility lie when it goes wrong? I think this is going to be a really popular book for history buffs, sci-fi lovers and futuristic readers!
Thank you to NetGallery, Pan Macmillan and Ellery Lloyd for the ARC of this book.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
3.5* --> 4*
I have to be honest and say that when I first began this story, I didn’t think it would be for me. Whilst I find the concept of time travel fascinating, it’s just another one of those things that tends to end up in the wrong hands to be used for nefarious situations.
In 'Time to Burn', Inigo Frank has turned time travel into some kind of tourist business. Obviously only available to those who have more money than they know what to do with. I admit I spend quite a few minutes thinking about where I’d go, if the opportunity presented itself. It would most definitely not be to the Blitz in WWII like this party of 4 opts for. Things don’t go as planned at all. One member of the party is badly injured, one is left behind. Although it becomes quite clear early on that that was deliberate, but the question is “why”.
I think I expected the timeline in 1941 to last a lot longer than it did. But most of 'Time to Burn' is actually set in the present. Chapters alternate between Phoebe, a documentary maker, and Sasha who sets in motion a butterfly effect back in 1941. These two have history, which leads back to a commune where they used to live when they were children. The reader learns more about that, and a series of suspicious deaths and circumstances, through another documentary Phoebe worked on by way of transcripts.
Messing around with the past always leads to trouble. As amazing as it would be to make sure certain people are never born, you can never tell if the events that are replaced will end up being any better than what has already been written in the history books. In 'Time to Burn', there are some people known as “glitchers”. Those who somehow realise that the life they’re leading now isn’t the right one, people who have glimpses of memories that don’t seem to fit. Phoebe witnesses a glitch firsthand and it’s equally brilliant and frightening at the same time.
If it sounds complicated, it really kind of is. It took me a while to get to grips with things and some of the back and forth threw me off at the start. It took me a while to figure out why the old documentary transcripts were relevant, finding them a bit of a distraction at first. But I enjoyed this crazy ride, right up until the epilogue which was so complex that it nearly lost me. It also annoyed me that certain characters were so quick to jump back into the past to change things, mostly for themselves.
This would make an excellent discussion topic for a bookclub, I think. If time travel were a thing, what would you do? Where would you go? Would you make changes, even if it's not allowed and you're only supposed to be watching? Do you think the world is ready for time travel? Personally, I think not. Besides, part of me would much rather step through a Stargate and end up on another planet than visit the past 😉.
Thought-provoking, speculative, and complex, 'Time to Burn' delivers an intriguing concept. I feel it could have done with way more time traveling and do think it became a tad confusing near the end, but all in all it was definitely entertaining and I applaud Ellery Lloyd for keeping "the big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff" straight in their heads.
I have to be honest and say that when I first began this story, I didn’t think it would be for me. Whilst I find the concept of time travel fascinating, it’s just another one of those things that tends to end up in the wrong hands to be used for nefarious situations.
In 'Time to Burn', Inigo Frank has turned time travel into some kind of tourist business. Obviously only available to those who have more money than they know what to do with. I admit I spend quite a few minutes thinking about where I’d go, if the opportunity presented itself. It would most definitely not be to the Blitz in WWII like this party of 4 opts for. Things don’t go as planned at all. One member of the party is badly injured, one is left behind. Although it becomes quite clear early on that that was deliberate, but the question is “why”.
I think I expected the timeline in 1941 to last a lot longer than it did. But most of 'Time to Burn' is actually set in the present. Chapters alternate between Phoebe, a documentary maker, and Sasha who sets in motion a butterfly effect back in 1941. These two have history, which leads back to a commune where they used to live when they were children. The reader learns more about that, and a series of suspicious deaths and circumstances, through another documentary Phoebe worked on by way of transcripts.
Messing around with the past always leads to trouble. As amazing as it would be to make sure certain people are never born, you can never tell if the events that are replaced will end up being any better than what has already been written in the history books. In 'Time to Burn', there are some people known as “glitchers”. Those who somehow realise that the life they’re leading now isn’t the right one, people who have glimpses of memories that don’t seem to fit. Phoebe witnesses a glitch firsthand and it’s equally brilliant and frightening at the same time.
If it sounds complicated, it really kind of is. It took me a while to get to grips with things and some of the back and forth threw me off at the start. It took me a while to figure out why the old documentary transcripts were relevant, finding them a bit of a distraction at first. But I enjoyed this crazy ride, right up until the epilogue which was so complex that it nearly lost me. It also annoyed me that certain characters were so quick to jump back into the past to change things, mostly for themselves.
This would make an excellent discussion topic for a bookclub, I think. If time travel were a thing, what would you do? Where would you go? Would you make changes, even if it's not allowed and you're only supposed to be watching? Do you think the world is ready for time travel? Personally, I think not. Besides, part of me would much rather step through a Stargate and end up on another planet than visit the past 😉.
Thought-provoking, speculative, and complex, 'Time to Burn' delivers an intriguing concept. I feel it could have done with way more time traveling and do think it became a tad confusing near the end, but all in all it was definitely entertaining and I applaud Ellery Lloyd for keeping "the big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff" straight in their heads.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
If you’ve invented Time Travel, what’s the first thing you do with it? Sell trips to the rich, of course! And hope nothing can go wrong – if possible. Mathematical genius inventor Inigo Frank did exactly that, and made sure that everything was planned out to ensure that nothing could go wrong. Once it was all up and running successfully, he invited Phoebe Hunt, a famous maker of documentaries, to make an in depth film of his company “Tempus Tours” by following one group through the whole process, the location, the apparatus, the detailed briefing the travellers are given and tested on, their sending off with a trained tour guide and their return. But not, of course, the actual trip, because she can’t actually go with them. The party, the guide, a multimillionaire property developer, his posh wife, his idle son and the latter’s Belarusian wife, are transported back to London in 1941, at the hight of the Blitz, to be wined and dined and entertained at the world famous Café Paris, in the hours immediately preceding, as recorded historically, its being destroyed by a bomb. Unfortunately, only four return, one of whom – the son – is seriously injured. Sasha, the son’s wife, has been left behind, either accidentally or deliberately. Someone will have to go back to rescue her, but how will they know where she will be at the point when a rescuer arrives, assuming she doesn’t change anything in the past, or has changed something already, in which case going missing might be the reason she’s gone missing?
These are the sort of temporal problems that are an inevitable corollary to Time Travel, and which have to be addressed in all such stories. The authors here have done a splendid job of exploiting these anomalies, in fact the plot turns on the use (and to some extent misuse) that can be made of them. And what a plot it is; to call it twisted is to understate the case. The book is mainly a ‘murder’ mystery thriller within a wholly realised Scifi background, or vice versa. That’s the thing with Time Travel, maybe I’ll write this review yesterday and reverse that order. I cannot praise this novel enough. I have sometimes found a story so good that I wish I had 6 stars to give it. Here I’m wondering if 7 would be outrageous.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.
These are the sort of temporal problems that are an inevitable corollary to Time Travel, and which have to be addressed in all such stories. The authors here have done a splendid job of exploiting these anomalies, in fact the plot turns on the use (and to some extent misuse) that can be made of them. And what a plot it is; to call it twisted is to understate the case. The book is mainly a ‘murder’ mystery thriller within a wholly realised Scifi background, or vice versa. That’s the thing with Time Travel, maybe I’ll write this review yesterday and reverse that order. I cannot praise this novel enough. I have sometimes found a story so good that I wish I had 6 stars to give it. Here I’m wondering if 7 would be outrageous.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Time to Burn is a wonderfully gripping blend of speculative suspense and character‑driven tension, the kind of story that takes a big, high‑concept idea — commercial time travel — and grounds it in very human fear, ambition, and consequence. From the moment Phoebe Hunt steps into Tempus Tours with her camera and her cautious curiosity, the book hums with the sense that something isn’t quite right beneath the glossy tech‑entrepreneur sheen.
The setup is irresistible: a billionaire family returning from a curated trip to the past, meant to be a triumphant moment for Inigo Frank’s empire. Instead, Phoebe captures their arrival in a state of shock — bloodied, terrified, and missing one of their own. It’s a brilliant, unsettling opening, and the tension only deepens when Phoebe recognises the missing woman… and realises she’s not who she claimed to be.
What follows is a clever, steadily escalating mystery that plays beautifully with the ripple‑effect dangers of time travel. The author keeps the focus tight on Phoebe, whose filmmaker’s eye becomes a kind of moral compass as she tries to piece together what happened in the past and what it means for the present. Her personal connection to the missing woman adds an emotional charge that makes every discovery feel sharper, more urgent.
The world‑building is handled with a light touch — enough detail to make the technology feel plausible, but never so much that it overshadows the human stakes. And those stakes rise quickly. As events begin to unravel around Phoebe, the sense of danger creeps closer to home, threatening the people she loves and the life she’s built. The tension is quiet but relentless, the kind that keeps you turning pages because you can feel the ground shifting beneath her feet.
What I loved most is how the story balances its thriller elements with a thoughtful exploration of responsibility — who gets to rewrite history, who pays the price when things go wrong, and how far someone will go to protect the future they care about.
Atmospheric, clever, and compulsively readable, Time to Burn is a fresh, emotionally charged time‑travel thriller that keeps its heart firmly in the present, even as its dangers reach back into the past.
with thanks to Ellery Lloyd, the publisher and netgalley for the ARC
The setup is irresistible: a billionaire family returning from a curated trip to the past, meant to be a triumphant moment for Inigo Frank’s empire. Instead, Phoebe captures their arrival in a state of shock — bloodied, terrified, and missing one of their own. It’s a brilliant, unsettling opening, and the tension only deepens when Phoebe recognises the missing woman… and realises she’s not who she claimed to be.
What follows is a clever, steadily escalating mystery that plays beautifully with the ripple‑effect dangers of time travel. The author keeps the focus tight on Phoebe, whose filmmaker’s eye becomes a kind of moral compass as she tries to piece together what happened in the past and what it means for the present. Her personal connection to the missing woman adds an emotional charge that makes every discovery feel sharper, more urgent.
The world‑building is handled with a light touch — enough detail to make the technology feel plausible, but never so much that it overshadows the human stakes. And those stakes rise quickly. As events begin to unravel around Phoebe, the sense of danger creeps closer to home, threatening the people she loves and the life she’s built. The tension is quiet but relentless, the kind that keeps you turning pages because you can feel the ground shifting beneath her feet.
What I loved most is how the story balances its thriller elements with a thoughtful exploration of responsibility — who gets to rewrite history, who pays the price when things go wrong, and how far someone will go to protect the future they care about.
Atmospheric, clever, and compulsively readable, Time to Burn is a fresh, emotionally charged time‑travel thriller that keeps its heart firmly in the present, even as its dangers reach back into the past.
with thanks to Ellery Lloyd, the publisher and netgalley for the ARC
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
‘Time to Burn is the writing duo Ellery Lloyd’s latest novel. Like ‘The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby, the authors use of different eras plays a central part in the plot. Extraordinarily, time travel is for sale here. Genius and multi-millionaire, Inigo Frank, owns Tempus Tours and for a huge sum of money he facilitates travel to the past. When a tour to London 1940 at the height of the Blitz goes horribly wrong, journalist Phoebe Hunt who is making a documentary about Frank sees the fallout and recognises that someone from her own past has not returned through the portal. Surely this will ruin Frank’s business.
In a desperate attempt to recover Sasha, the missing woman, the tour guide is given a brief window to to return to find her in 1940. Amazingly, he brings a very badly wounded Sasha home. But why didn’t she return with the rest of her group and what was she doing during her time in war-torn London?
Ellery Lloyd is very successful at helping us to picture London in the Blitz. The sights, sounds and smells of underground shelters, darkened streets, bombs dropping and general chaos is very well depicted. We read of, ‘A musty secondhand clothes smell, with a top note of something sharp and acrid. Smoke and tobacco and dirty shirts and disinfectant.’ Time spent with the 1990s Living Family community is a little less convincing; the usual tropes are relied on. Characters are thinly sketched in the main; the house is stereotypically grubby, porridge is lumpy and vegetable patches make up much of the garden.
‘Time to Burn’ clearly considers the potential for damage when unscrupulous billionaires are able to influence the development and use of technology. After all, we see it writ large in space travel and social media and time travel is just another, currently less plausible, angle. Many readers will enjoy working out how current times in the novel are influenced by past decisions and how the ‘butterfly effect’ causes huge change in the future.
My thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.
In a desperate attempt to recover Sasha, the missing woman, the tour guide is given a brief window to to return to find her in 1940. Amazingly, he brings a very badly wounded Sasha home. But why didn’t she return with the rest of her group and what was she doing during her time in war-torn London?
Ellery Lloyd is very successful at helping us to picture London in the Blitz. The sights, sounds and smells of underground shelters, darkened streets, bombs dropping and general chaos is very well depicted. We read of, ‘A musty secondhand clothes smell, with a top note of something sharp and acrid. Smoke and tobacco and dirty shirts and disinfectant.’ Time spent with the 1990s Living Family community is a little less convincing; the usual tropes are relied on. Characters are thinly sketched in the main; the house is stereotypically grubby, porridge is lumpy and vegetable patches make up much of the garden.
‘Time to Burn’ clearly considers the potential for damage when unscrupulous billionaires are able to influence the development and use of technology. After all, we see it writ large in space travel and social media and time travel is just another, currently less plausible, angle. Many readers will enjoy working out how current times in the novel are influenced by past decisions and how the ‘butterfly effect’ causes huge change in the future.
My thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Entrepreneur Inigo Frank has finally made time travel possible - and turned it into a commercial venture for the mega-rich to experience the Blitz in central London in 1941.
Now, Inigo has recruited filmmaker Phoebe Hunt to make a documentary about him and Tempus Tours. On her first day, she witnesses billionaire Harry Allen take a birthday trip to the Blitz with his family. But when they step back into the present, one of the party is missing. Phoebe recognises the missing woman from her own past - and she is not who she claims to be.
It becomes clear that the woman has not been left behind by accident, and that there is more going on during some of the visits to the past than is being advertised. Can Phoebe get to the truth behind Tempus Tours before the past and future are rewritten?
This was a really WOW book! I don’t know how to describe the genre because it basically had everything: it’s a thriller, a mystery, historical fiction, sci-fi, romance, a a political commentary on class and the attitudes and selfish behaviour of the super wealthy… it meant I had no idea where the story might take me, and I loved just letting it sweep me along!
The time travel element made it really exciting - it felt like there was a genuinely plausible explanation for everything, which is obviously not an easy feat for a writer (or writing duo in the case of Ellery Lloyd!). By the end I was imagining them having sleepless nights trying to make sure everything lined up properly!
But as far as I could tell, they totally nailed it! It was so clever and awesomely written! I was gripped throughout, and had no clues about what the twists could be. Which made them thoroughly enjoyable and shocking when I got to them!
The characters were wonderful - I was fully invested in Phoebe and Sasha’s stories, willing everything to work out for them. The contrast between their motivations and those of the egomaniacal Inigo and money and power-obsessed Harry Allen made me warm to them even more.
The sub-plot around the Living Family (sort of cultish but not??) community was equally intriguing and mysterious and I loved trying to work out how everything would link together!
Now, Inigo has recruited filmmaker Phoebe Hunt to make a documentary about him and Tempus Tours. On her first day, she witnesses billionaire Harry Allen take a birthday trip to the Blitz with his family. But when they step back into the present, one of the party is missing. Phoebe recognises the missing woman from her own past - and she is not who she claims to be.
It becomes clear that the woman has not been left behind by accident, and that there is more going on during some of the visits to the past than is being advertised. Can Phoebe get to the truth behind Tempus Tours before the past and future are rewritten?
This was a really WOW book! I don’t know how to describe the genre because it basically had everything: it’s a thriller, a mystery, historical fiction, sci-fi, romance, a a political commentary on class and the attitudes and selfish behaviour of the super wealthy… it meant I had no idea where the story might take me, and I loved just letting it sweep me along!
The time travel element made it really exciting - it felt like there was a genuinely plausible explanation for everything, which is obviously not an easy feat for a writer (or writing duo in the case of Ellery Lloyd!). By the end I was imagining them having sleepless nights trying to make sure everything lined up properly!
But as far as I could tell, they totally nailed it! It was so clever and awesomely written! I was gripped throughout, and had no clues about what the twists could be. Which made them thoroughly enjoyable and shocking when I got to them!
The characters were wonderful - I was fully invested in Phoebe and Sasha’s stories, willing everything to work out for them. The contrast between their motivations and those of the egomaniacal Inigo and money and power-obsessed Harry Allen made me warm to them even more.
The sub-plot around the Living Family (sort of cultish but not??) community was equally intriguing and mysterious and I loved trying to work out how everything would link together!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Fancy a trip back in time to the 1940s? Contact Tempus Tours founded by Indigo Frank. Unfortunately on the latest trip five go to London as the blitz rages and burns but only four return. The stranded ‘passenger’ is a Belarusian oligarch’s daughter, Sasha Allen. Oh dear, not just a PR disaster then… Except, it’s even more complicated than that as documentary filmmaker Phoebe Hunt can testify to.
Brilliant. This is an absolutely fascinating cross genre futuristic/sci-fi, murder mystery mixology and mayhem. I think it’s an ingenious, unique, creatively original and gripping read from start to finish. It has me hooked from the start with the fabulous and evocative descriptions of Blitz torn London and then we are whizzed back to the present day for an all action thriller. The pacing is spot on, it’s a tension fuelled, riveting, suspenseful, never a dull moment read. It’s especially clever as it near the conclusion with twist after twist and leading to a very satisfying end. Oh, definitely just desserts there.
This duo are well known for strong characterisation and this one is no exception. They’re all well portrayed with a good array, some to root for, some to despise and some to genuinely like. Sasha, Phoebe and her boyfriend David are the standout characters and I love their strength and ingenuity.
In addition to the many thrills and spills, it explores and asks really good questions, examining the butterfly effect of time travel. Here some of its impact is seen in what happens or changes for certain characters. This is very thought-provoking.
Overall, this is a belter of a read and in my opinion the best Ellery Lloyd has written to date. It’s got best seller vibes for sure
With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Pan Macmillan for the much appreciated early copy in return for an honest review.
Brilliant. This is an absolutely fascinating cross genre futuristic/sci-fi, murder mystery mixology and mayhem. I think it’s an ingenious, unique, creatively original and gripping read from start to finish. It has me hooked from the start with the fabulous and evocative descriptions of Blitz torn London and then we are whizzed back to the present day for an all action thriller. The pacing is spot on, it’s a tension fuelled, riveting, suspenseful, never a dull moment read. It’s especially clever as it near the conclusion with twist after twist and leading to a very satisfying end. Oh, definitely just desserts there.
This duo are well known for strong characterisation and this one is no exception. They’re all well portrayed with a good array, some to root for, some to despise and some to genuinely like. Sasha, Phoebe and her boyfriend David are the standout characters and I love their strength and ingenuity.
In addition to the many thrills and spills, it explores and asks really good questions, examining the butterfly effect of time travel. Here some of its impact is seen in what happens or changes for certain characters. This is very thought-provoking.
Overall, this is a belter of a read and in my opinion the best Ellery Lloyd has written to date. It’s got best seller vibes for sure
With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Pan Macmillan for the much appreciated early copy in return for an honest review.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Initially, when I started this novel, I thought it really wasn’t for me. I don’t usually read science fiction; however, after only a couple of pages, I was completely hooked. Ellery Lloyd’s portrayal of the Blitz and what it was like to experience that period of history is incredibly vivid, creating an atmosphere of abject terror and chaos as the bombs fall and fighter planes fill the skies above London.
The premise of the novel was both unique and exciting. A company run by the elusive and private Inigo Frank offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for wealthy individuals to travel back to a specific period in history. As a way of celebrating his achievement, he enlists the help of young documentary filmmaker Phoebe Hunt to follow his journey, hoping to showcase his genius to the world.
However, on her first day, Phoebe witnesses a time travel experience that goes seriously wrong. As the team from Tempus Tours waits for the return of a billionaire property developer and his family, one person fails to come back, while those who do return are left in a serious condition. When the identity of the missing woman is revealed, Phoebe immediately recognises her and realises that Sasha Allen is not the person she claims to be.
Told from multiple perspectives, the novel explores not only the concept of travelling back in time but also the idea of doing so in order to alter the course of history — and that is where the real excitement begins. If we had the ability to change the past, would we choose to do the same?
This was an absolute gem of a novel, with strong characterisation, an engaging narrative, and a powerful, thought-provoking plot.
Thank you to Edelweiss and the publisher for the ARC, and to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this novel ahead of publication.
The premise of the novel was both unique and exciting. A company run by the elusive and private Inigo Frank offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for wealthy individuals to travel back to a specific period in history. As a way of celebrating his achievement, he enlists the help of young documentary filmmaker Phoebe Hunt to follow his journey, hoping to showcase his genius to the world.
However, on her first day, Phoebe witnesses a time travel experience that goes seriously wrong. As the team from Tempus Tours waits for the return of a billionaire property developer and his family, one person fails to come back, while those who do return are left in a serious condition. When the identity of the missing woman is revealed, Phoebe immediately recognises her and realises that Sasha Allen is not the person she claims to be.
Told from multiple perspectives, the novel explores not only the concept of travelling back in time but also the idea of doing so in order to alter the course of history — and that is where the real excitement begins. If we had the ability to change the past, would we choose to do the same?
This was an absolute gem of a novel, with strong characterisation, an engaging narrative, and a powerful, thought-provoking plot.
Thank you to Edelweiss and the publisher for the ARC, and to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this novel ahead of publication.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Time to Burn by Ellery Lloyd 🔥⏳
Thank you to Pan Macmillan for the complimentary digital ARC.
Time travel isn't usually a genre I gravitate towards, but seeing Ellery Lloyd's name attached to this novel meant I requested it without even reading the blurb. And I'm so glad I did as it did not disappoint.
Time to Burn is speculative fiction at its absolute best. The plot is incredibly clever. Genius, in fact. Despite dealing with time travel, it's never bogged down by heavy sci-fi jargon, making the story feel both accessible and surprisingly believable.
The research behind the novel is exceptional. The vivid depiction of London during the Blitz brings the 1940s setting to life, immersing me in a world that felt both authentic and richly detailed.
What really stayed with me, though, was the novel's exploration of the butterfly effect. The idea that the ultra-wealthy could treat the past as their personal playground is both fascinating and deeply unsettling. Small actions create ripples that lead to devastating, life-altering consequences, and the book constantly left me wondering: what if?
Blending science fiction, mystery and thriller elements seamlessly, this is a story packed with tension, intrigue and thought-provoking questions. The characters are equally memorable, my favourites being Phoebe and David as they gave me someone to root for, while others were impossible not to despise.
Clever, gripping and incredibly original, Time to Burn completely won me over and proved that sometimes stepping outside my usual genres often lead to the best surprises.
So if you enjoy intelligent thrillers with a speculative twist and stories that make you think long after the final page, this one is absolutely worth your time.
Time to Burn by Ellery Lloyd 🔥⏳
Thank you to Pan Macmillan for the complimentary digital ARC.
Time travel isn't usually a genre I gravitate towards, but seeing Ellery Lloyd's name attached to this novel meant I requested it without even reading the blurb. And I'm so glad I did as it did not disappoint.
Time to Burn is speculative fiction at its absolute best. The plot is incredibly clever. Genius, in fact. Despite dealing with time travel, it's never bogged down by heavy sci-fi jargon, making the story feel both accessible and surprisingly believable.
The research behind the novel is exceptional. The vivid depiction of London during the Blitz brings the 1940s setting to life, immersing me in a world that felt both authentic and richly detailed.
What really stayed with me, though, was the novel's exploration of the butterfly effect. The idea that the ultra-wealthy could treat the past as their personal playground is both fascinating and deeply unsettling. Small actions create ripples that lead to devastating, life-altering consequences, and the book constantly left me wondering: what if?
Blending science fiction, mystery and thriller elements seamlessly, this is a story packed with tension, intrigue and thought-provoking questions. The characters are equally memorable, my favourites being Phoebe and David as they gave me someone to root for, while others were impossible not to despise.
Clever, gripping and incredibly original, Time to Burn completely won me over and proved that sometimes stepping outside my usual genres often lead to the best surprises.
So if you enjoy intelligent thrillers with a speculative twist and stories that make you think long after the final page, this one is absolutely worth your time.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Rating: 4.2/5
The work of husband and wife writing team of Collette Lyons and Paul Vlitos has become a must read for me. This is the fourth full length novel they have written together under the handle of Ellery Lloyd and each one has been a standalone with unique characteristics.
This latest offering, "Time to Burn" strays into the realms of science-fiction as the narrative revolves around the commercialisation of time travel. Inigo Frank is the billionaire owner of Tempus Travel. The company has been able to monetise the technology by developing a way of successfully being able to transport wealthy clients back to a specified point in time and, crucially, return them back safely to the present day afterwards. In addition to being incredibly rich, Inigo Frank is also a narcissist and self-publicist. That being the case, he has enlisted award-winning filmmaker, Phoebe Hunt, to make a fly-on-the-wall documentary about his achievements. However, events are about to follow a path that neither Inigo nor Phoebe anticipated.
There is so much to enjoy and admire about this book. Please don't be put off if you think that time-bending science-fiction isn't really your thing, as this story offers significantly more than that. There is intrigue, suspense, a murder mystery and an entertaining sprinkling of satirical social commentary too. Personally, I found it impossible not to envisage one particular billionaire businessman when reading about Inigo Frank - although I am sure that any similarity to persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental!
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for supplying an ARC in return for an honest review.
The work of husband and wife writing team of Collette Lyons and Paul Vlitos has become a must read for me. This is the fourth full length novel they have written together under the handle of Ellery Lloyd and each one has been a standalone with unique characteristics.
This latest offering, "Time to Burn" strays into the realms of science-fiction as the narrative revolves around the commercialisation of time travel. Inigo Frank is the billionaire owner of Tempus Travel. The company has been able to monetise the technology by developing a way of successfully being able to transport wealthy clients back to a specified point in time and, crucially, return them back safely to the present day afterwards. In addition to being incredibly rich, Inigo Frank is also a narcissist and self-publicist. That being the case, he has enlisted award-winning filmmaker, Phoebe Hunt, to make a fly-on-the-wall documentary about his achievements. However, events are about to follow a path that neither Inigo nor Phoebe anticipated.
There is so much to enjoy and admire about this book. Please don't be put off if you think that time-bending science-fiction isn't really your thing, as this story offers significantly more than that. There is intrigue, suspense, a murder mystery and an entertaining sprinkling of satirical social commentary too. Personally, I found it impossible not to envisage one particular billionaire businessman when reading about Inigo Frank - although I am sure that any similarity to persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental!
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for supplying an ARC in return for an honest review.
June 7, 2026
Thank you to the author, publishers Macmillan and NetGalley UK for access to this as an advance reader’s ebook. This is an honest and voluntary review.
When Phoebe Hunt agrees to film a new documentary about the father of time travel she intends to be the same kind of detached observer as her mentor. The man who made a documentary about her own father, the head of an unorthodox London commune who disappeared when she was a teenager - leaving behind a murdered body and a mystery.
A time travel murder mystery that’s less about the murder and more about how people act when they have access to power. Even without the heavy-handed dialogue about the dangers of a powerful technology resting in the hands of one or two billionaires the allegory of how scientific advances can be corrupted by those who control access to them are clear.
But this book isn’t really a lecture (apart from that laboured couple of sentences about billionaires). It is instead a brilliantly written, gripping story, with well developed and believable characters. Exactly what I’ve come to expect from Ellery Lloyd, even if the time travel element was completely unexpected from them.
There’s something about the way the story’s told that puts me in mind of the tone of Jodi Taylor’s Chronicles of St Mary’s. It’s not just the time travel element. It’s not even the humour, there’s not the same sense of comedy in Time to Burn as you find in Taylor’s books. I think it may just be the idea of readability, and a story which happens to have a sci-fi element, but actually doesn’t really feel sci-fi at all.
Whatever it is Time to Burn works. Give it a try.
When Phoebe Hunt agrees to film a new documentary about the father of time travel she intends to be the same kind of detached observer as her mentor. The man who made a documentary about her own father, the head of an unorthodox London commune who disappeared when she was a teenager - leaving behind a murdered body and a mystery.
A time travel murder mystery that’s less about the murder and more about how people act when they have access to power. Even without the heavy-handed dialogue about the dangers of a powerful technology resting in the hands of one or two billionaires the allegory of how scientific advances can be corrupted by those who control access to them are clear.
But this book isn’t really a lecture (apart from that laboured couple of sentences about billionaires). It is instead a brilliantly written, gripping story, with well developed and believable characters. Exactly what I’ve come to expect from Ellery Lloyd, even if the time travel element was completely unexpected from them.
There’s something about the way the story’s told that puts me in mind of the tone of Jodi Taylor’s Chronicles of St Mary’s. It’s not just the time travel element. It’s not even the humour, there’s not the same sense of comedy in Time to Burn as you find in Taylor’s books. I think it may just be the idea of readability, and a story which happens to have a sci-fi element, but actually doesn’t really feel sci-fi at all.
Whatever it is Time to Burn works. Give it a try.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Time to Burn follows filmmaker Phoebe Hunt as she documents Tempus, a time‑travel company owned by Inigo Frank. With strict regulations and a price tag only the wealthy can afford, Phoebe’s access gives her a rare look at how the operation works. She’s already known for her documentary about a London family cult created by her father, so she’s used to complicated stories. When a group returns from 1941 without one of its members, Phoebe witnesses the moment things go wrong. The missing woman, Sasha, is someone Phoebe recognizes, and before she can be rescued from the past, Phoebe starts noticing unsettling changes in the present. It becomes clear Sasha altered history on purpose, and the consequences are spreading fast.
The mystery builds steadily, playing nicely with the ripple‑effect dangers of time travel. Both timelines feel fully developed, and the cult storyline is just as engaging as the time‑travel thread. The focus stays close to Phoebe, whose filmmaker’s eye acts as a kind of lense as she pieces together what happened and what it means for her own life. Her personal connection to Sasha adds drama, and even with flawed characters, I found myself rooting for Phoebe. The mechanics of time travel are explained just enough to feel believable, and the quiet tension running through the book kept me invested as well as the themes of as ambition, greed, love, loss, and regret that come into play. Everything comes together in a satisfying ending that shows how choices can echo far beyond its moment.
Thank you NetGalley and Harper for the advanced reader copy.
The mystery builds steadily, playing nicely with the ripple‑effect dangers of time travel. Both timelines feel fully developed, and the cult storyline is just as engaging as the time‑travel thread. The focus stays close to Phoebe, whose filmmaker’s eye acts as a kind of lense as she pieces together what happened and what it means for her own life. Her personal connection to Sasha adds drama, and even with flawed characters, I found myself rooting for Phoebe. The mechanics of time travel are explained just enough to feel believable, and the quiet tension running through the book kept me invested as well as the themes of as ambition, greed, love, loss, and regret that come into play. Everything comes together in a satisfying ending that shows how choices can echo far beyond its moment.
Thank you NetGalley and Harper for the advanced reader copy.
June 29, 2026
Time to Burn ~ Ellery Lloyd
Wowza, this book was everything I didn't know I needed. Now I'm not generally a sci-fi / time travel kind of reader, but this book did it for me. The idea of going back in time and what could be changed. The details, the intricacies. The duel timelines. This book had me on the edge of my seat. Near the end I kept putting it down because I was afraid of what I might read. It was tense and brilliant.
A tech bro, Inigo Frank, figures out how to time travel and sells it to the wealthy elite. All goes well until someone is left behind.
Phoebe Hunt, filmmaker, is hired to produce a documentary to immortalize Inigo's great achievement. On her first day she is there to witness the chaos of a billionaire's daughter-in-law being left behind in 1941 London, during the Blitz. YIKES
When Phoebe realizes she has a past with the missing women things start to get messy.
Parts of the story are told through the script of a documentary linking the two women.
I loved The Club, I read it 3 times. Whew, this book blew my mind and I will definitely be buying the hardcopy and getting the audiobook.
The writing was top notch, the story was enthralling, and it was very easy to connect with the characters. This book was on fire.
Thank you Netgalley for an early look! I won't stop talking about this book anytime soon.
Wowza, this book was everything I didn't know I needed. Now I'm not generally a sci-fi / time travel kind of reader, but this book did it for me. The idea of going back in time and what could be changed. The details, the intricacies. The duel timelines. This book had me on the edge of my seat. Near the end I kept putting it down because I was afraid of what I might read. It was tense and brilliant.
A tech bro, Inigo Frank, figures out how to time travel and sells it to the wealthy elite. All goes well until someone is left behind.
Phoebe Hunt, filmmaker, is hired to produce a documentary to immortalize Inigo's great achievement. On her first day she is there to witness the chaos of a billionaire's daughter-in-law being left behind in 1941 London, during the Blitz. YIKES
When Phoebe realizes she has a past with the missing women things start to get messy.
Parts of the story are told through the script of a documentary linking the two women.
I loved The Club, I read it 3 times. Whew, this book blew my mind and I will definitely be buying the hardcopy and getting the audiobook.
The writing was top notch, the story was enthralling, and it was very easy to connect with the characters. This book was on fire.
Thank you Netgalley for an early look! I won't stop talking about this book anytime soon.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Time to Burn combined elements of a novel I love - time travel, intriguing characters, and plenty of mystery. You might think, from reading the synopsis, that a lot of this book is set in the ‘past’ that the super wealthy can pay to travel back to, particularly the Blitz timeline where a woman on the ‘trip’ goes missing whilst trying to return - but actually we spend most of it in the present day (or close to) as we follow Phoebe, a documentary maker filming Tempus Tours and their founder, as she unravels what is really going on and how she can try to help.
I loved this book. Many of the characters are flawed in their own ways - including Phoebe herself - but are great to read about and I was really rooting for her. I don’t want to give too much away but the impact of the butterfly effect is always so interesting to read about and I loved the cleverness of what their characters had planned in order to change seemingly small things..
I’m not a huge sci-fi reader, but this book balanced the time travel elements with a lot of mystery. It also focused much more on believable characters than on the mechanics of time travel itself, so if you like your books character-driven, this is a great choice.
I’ve really enjoyed every book I’ve read by Ellery Lloyd so far, but I think this one might be my favorite. I just couldn’t put it down!
I loved this book. Many of the characters are flawed in their own ways - including Phoebe herself - but are great to read about and I was really rooting for her. I don’t want to give too much away but the impact of the butterfly effect is always so interesting to read about and I loved the cleverness of what their characters had planned in order to change seemingly small things..
I’m not a huge sci-fi reader, but this book balanced the time travel elements with a lot of mystery. It also focused much more on believable characters than on the mechanics of time travel itself, so if you like your books character-driven, this is a great choice.
I’ve really enjoyed every book I’ve read by Ellery Lloyd so far, but I think this one might be my favorite. I just couldn’t put it down!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Discover the locations in the novel here
There are some very interesting questions in this book – if we could have a time machine and go back and visit a place and time such as a war, for entertainment, should we?
We’ve seen attempts in the news to visit the scene of the Titanic sinking and billionaires going to the moon but what could unscrupulous billionaires are able to influence the development and use of technology to go back into the past and potentially change things?
I’ve read Ray Bradbury’s ‘ A Clap of Thunder’ and if you haven’t you must – it looks at what would happen if someone went back into the past and did something that affected the future and present day. A man goes back in time to kill Hitler for example. What happens when that man comes back into the present day? It’s the butterfly effect examined under a technological microscope.
The author perhaps does have a time machine as she has recreated all the details of London in the blitz. Or maybe that’s another story….
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Wow, this novel blew me away! It was fully absorbing and intellectually interesting, and I'll be thinking about it for a while. I really enjoyed that there were multiple different timelines and plots all intricately interwoven together to create one cohesive story. The back story was told in a documentary format, which can sometimes feel like an overused plot device, but here it was fresh and interesting because the main character not only made the documentary we were "watching" bits and pieces of but was also in the process of making a documentary about the inventor of time travel tourism, the underlying premise for the book. That in itself was a fascinating concept, and I really liked that the authors touched on the idea of government regulation of time travel. I was also very intrigued by the reason the authors came up with for the Mandela effect, deja vu, and other similar feelings. I'm just really impressed overall and wish I could come up with more good things to say but it's hard to cover the full scope of this one without spoilers! I definitely recommending picking it up when it comes out.
Thank you, NetGalley and Harper, for the ARC!!
Thank you, NetGalley and Harper, for the ARC!!
May 15, 2026
What a pleasure this book was! This is my third novel by Ellery Lloyd and “Time to Burn” didn’t disappoint. It’s a brilliantly imagined blend of time travel and crime fiction, wrapped in a fast-paced, intelligent plot that kept me up until early hours. The story feels carefully constructed, with plenty of twists, suspense and ideas to sink your teeth into. At several points, it genuinely had me on the edge of my seat.
The book manages to be entertaining and clever at the same time - the kind of novel that makes you pause and consider the implications of time travel while still racing ahead with momentum and tension. I honestly wished it had been longer!
The only aspect that slightly pulled me out of the story was the use of invented mathematical theories. Out of curiosity, I looked one up and discovered it didn’t actually exist. For me, incorporating real scientific or mathematical concepts would have made the narrative feel even more grounded and convincing. But this is ultimately a fun thriller rather than hard science fiction, and the fictional theories don’t take away too much from the overall enjoyment.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed it - an exciting, clever, and highly entertaining read that strikes a great balance between speculative fiction and suspense thriller.
Thanks to NetGalley
The book manages to be entertaining and clever at the same time - the kind of novel that makes you pause and consider the implications of time travel while still racing ahead with momentum and tension. I honestly wished it had been longer!
The only aspect that slightly pulled me out of the story was the use of invented mathematical theories. Out of curiosity, I looked one up and discovered it didn’t actually exist. For me, incorporating real scientific or mathematical concepts would have made the narrative feel even more grounded and convincing. But this is ultimately a fun thriller rather than hard science fiction, and the fictional theories don’t take away too much from the overall enjoyment.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed it - an exciting, clever, and highly entertaining read that strikes a great balance between speculative fiction and suspense thriller.
Thanks to NetGalley
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Imagine being the person to invent time travel, the endless possibilities that it would bring, but also the many ways in which it could go terribly wrong, should someone try to alter the course of history!
Inigo Frank IS the person who invented it, and his company, Tempus Tours, gives the very wealthy a chance to go back in time, snoop around in the past.
Frank wants to immortalise his achievement by appearing in a fly on the wall documentary, filmed by award winning filmmaker Phoebe Hunt.
Phoebe is set to witness the return of a billionaire property developer and his family from their trip to the past, back to the year 1941, amidst the madness of the London Blitz!
However, when the aperture reveals the returning group, they are bloodied and traumatised, but worse still, one of the group is missing!
What an entertaining and thought provoking storyline this is. The plot is complex but clever, and ultimately fascinating. Credit to husband-and-wife writing team Collette Lyons and Paul Vlitos for bringing it all together so seamlessly. Recommended.
*Thank you to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for my ARC in exchange for an honest unbiased review *
Inigo Frank IS the person who invented it, and his company, Tempus Tours, gives the very wealthy a chance to go back in time, snoop around in the past.
Frank wants to immortalise his achievement by appearing in a fly on the wall documentary, filmed by award winning filmmaker Phoebe Hunt.
Phoebe is set to witness the return of a billionaire property developer and his family from their trip to the past, back to the year 1941, amidst the madness of the London Blitz!
However, when the aperture reveals the returning group, they are bloodied and traumatised, but worse still, one of the group is missing!
What an entertaining and thought provoking storyline this is. The plot is complex but clever, and ultimately fascinating. Credit to husband-and-wife writing team Collette Lyons and Paul Vlitos for bringing it all together so seamlessly. Recommended.
*Thank you to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for my ARC in exchange for an honest unbiased review *
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
4.5 stars rounded up. A really excellent time travel novel.
When documentarian Phoebe Hunt is asked to make a documentary about Inigo Frank, the man who invented, perfected, and commercialized time travel, she is invited to witness a time travel tour that goes unexpectedly, disastrously wrong, with a tourist being left behind in WWII London. As Inigo and his company race to rescue the missing woman, Phoebe realizes she knows her from their shared past--and she has every reason to wish Phoebe harm.
This was extremely well written and engaging, and I felt that the way the time travel was handled was done really well, accounting for butterfly effects, etc. There were several POVs (and of course different timelines) as well as transcripts of a previous documentary Phoebe had made that added more background/context to her shared past. It was well paced, with perfectly timed reveals and chapter cliffhangers that kept me reading. I felt like the ending was handled well also. All around great book, highly recommended.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
When documentarian Phoebe Hunt is asked to make a documentary about Inigo Frank, the man who invented, perfected, and commercialized time travel, she is invited to witness a time travel tour that goes unexpectedly, disastrously wrong, with a tourist being left behind in WWII London. As Inigo and his company race to rescue the missing woman, Phoebe realizes she knows her from their shared past--and she has every reason to wish Phoebe harm.
This was extremely well written and engaging, and I felt that the way the time travel was handled was done really well, accounting for butterfly effects, etc. There were several POVs (and of course different timelines) as well as transcripts of a previous documentary Phoebe had made that added more background/context to her shared past. It was well paced, with perfectly timed reveals and chapter cliffhangers that kept me reading. I felt like the ending was handled well also. All around great book, highly recommended.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
One word: CLEVER!
Time travel books are not usually my genre. I’ve read a few before and, honestly, they tend to blow my mind a little — and not always in a good way. But Time to Burn by handled its complexity brilliantly. The story walks you through everything in such a clever, carefully structured way that it never becomes overwhelming. At the same time, it never underestimates the reader’s intelligence either, which must have been incredibly difficult to achieve.
I’ll admit, I wasn’t completely sold after the first chapter. I almost worried it wouldn’t be for me, but because I’ve enjoyed several of Lloyd’s previous books, I decided to stick with it — and I’m so glad I did. This completely knocked all the others out of the park for me.
If you enjoy mysteries and thrillers with something unusual woven into the story, I genuinely think you’ll love this. Please go read it!
Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the ARC
Time travel books are not usually my genre. I’ve read a few before and, honestly, they tend to blow my mind a little — and not always in a good way. But Time to Burn by handled its complexity brilliantly. The story walks you through everything in such a clever, carefully structured way that it never becomes overwhelming. At the same time, it never underestimates the reader’s intelligence either, which must have been incredibly difficult to achieve.
I’ll admit, I wasn’t completely sold after the first chapter. I almost worried it wouldn’t be for me, but because I’ve enjoyed several of Lloyd’s previous books, I decided to stick with it — and I’m so glad I did. This completely knocked all the others out of the park for me.
If you enjoy mysteries and thrillers with something unusual woven into the story, I genuinely think you’ll love this. Please go read it!
Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the ARC
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Do you like books about time travel? “Time to burn” is a fun thriller about a controversial company offering time travel experiences for uber rich clients and about its founder, an equally controversial Inigo Frank. Frank is going to be immortalised in a documentary filmed by Phoebe Hunt, the award winning filmmaker who will follow him around for a week. But just that week the trip goes wrong, and someone goes missing. Someone who Phoebe knows is not the person they claim to be. But how is the disappearance of the oligarch's daughter connected with Phoebe's past? And is there anything more sinister at play?
I devoured this book one day! Fast paced and very engaging, it was a perfect summer read - tense enough to get you going and with some thoughtful discussions about wealth ethics and commune living. There was enough credibility to make the story work, mostly because instead of concentrating on how to’s, the book concentrated on people involved, their motivations and flaws.
I devoured this book one day! Fast paced and very engaging, it was a perfect summer read - tense enough to get you going and with some thoughtful discussions about wealth ethics and commune living. There was enough credibility to make the story work, mostly because instead of concentrating on how to’s, the book concentrated on people involved, their motivations and flaws.
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
I stayed up to the wee hours of night to read this story and what a story it is. Time travel, history, and mystery. This story had me in awe.
I know that time travel is not real, but this book made me think of the possibilities. The ultra wealthy are the only ones who can afford to go back in the past. A birthday celebration in the present time turns into a hellish excursion into the past in London, 1941 as the city is being bombed during the war. Knowing the facts is the only way to stay safe. One traveler stays behind to change the course of history. This novel explores the after effects of tiny random acts that alter the future in more ways than imaginable.
Realistic characters and a thought-provoking, suspenseful plot made this intelligent read one I could not put down.
Thanks you to Edelweiss and the publisher for the advance review copy.
I know that time travel is not real, but this book made me think of the possibilities. The ultra wealthy are the only ones who can afford to go back in the past. A birthday celebration in the present time turns into a hellish excursion into the past in London, 1941 as the city is being bombed during the war. Knowing the facts is the only way to stay safe. One traveler stays behind to change the course of history. This novel explores the after effects of tiny random acts that alter the future in more ways than imaginable.
Realistic characters and a thought-provoking, suspenseful plot made this intelligent read one I could not put down.
Thanks you to Edelweiss and the publisher for the advance review copy.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Phoebe is making a documentary about a megalomaniac entrepreneur who has developed a time travel tourism company. As she is filming the return of a group from the London Blitz something goes wrong. The group returns bloodied and in shock minus one. Weirdly enough, Phoebe knows the person who didn't come back and this woman could make trouble for her. Under the guise of finishing the film she must stop Sasha from changing the past and figure out what is really going on behind the scenes at Tempus Tours. Dark noir with time travel twists mix with billionaire underhanded practices and make for an unusual and complicated storyline. This fits the bill for mystery readers who don't mind a bit of futuristic drama like DARK MATTER or BLACKOUT by Connie Willis. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Time to Burn by Ellery Lloyd might just be a 5✨ read 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Ellery Lloyd have managed to create a totally immersive time travel story that has had me hooked all weekend.
The story follows documentarian Phoebe, as she gains exclusive behind the scenes access to tech genius Inigo Frank and his company Tempus Tours - a commercial time travel company for the ultra rich.
We have travelers head back to 1941 London to experience the Blitz first hand, and Phoebe’s own past confronts her head on.
I was reminded of 11.22.63 by Stephen King (one of my all time faves and my top book recommends), but it had historical fiction, mystery, thriller vibes and was just such a fun book. The characters had depth, the story was refreshing, the setting so immersive. Oof just YES.
Ellery Lloyd have managed to create a totally immersive time travel story that has had me hooked all weekend.
The story follows documentarian Phoebe, as she gains exclusive behind the scenes access to tech genius Inigo Frank and his company Tempus Tours - a commercial time travel company for the ultra rich.
We have travelers head back to 1941 London to experience the Blitz first hand, and Phoebe’s own past confronts her head on.
I was reminded of 11.22.63 by Stephen King (one of my all time faves and my top book recommends), but it had historical fiction, mystery, thriller vibes and was just such a fun book. The characters had depth, the story was refreshing, the setting so immersive. Oof just YES.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
𝓡𝓪𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓰 3/5 ⭐️
Time to Burn by Ellery Lloyd
The premise of this was really interesting. Time travel being accessible but really only by the truly wealthy. Throw in a film maker making a documentary and a trip to the past gone horribly wrong and you’ve got a lot going on.
Thank you to NetGalley and Harper publishing for an eARC of this book.
I really enjoyed the glimpse into the past. It seemed very well researched. While I did like many parts to the story it could be sometimes confusing to follow. It took me a little bit to understand really what was going on and why some things were in the book.
Very character driven I’d say more than about the time travel. Definitely an entertaining read once I was able to kind of keep track who, what, and when.
Time to Burn by Ellery Lloyd
The premise of this was really interesting. Time travel being accessible but really only by the truly wealthy. Throw in a film maker making a documentary and a trip to the past gone horribly wrong and you’ve got a lot going on.
Thank you to NetGalley and Harper publishing for an eARC of this book.
I really enjoyed the glimpse into the past. It seemed very well researched. While I did like many parts to the story it could be sometimes confusing to follow. It took me a little bit to understand really what was going on and why some things were in the book.
Very character driven I’d say more than about the time travel. Definitely an entertaining read once I was able to kind of keep track who, what, and when.
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