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Time to Burn
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
First published August 4, 2026
About the author
Ellery Lloyd
9 books1,329 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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Displaying 1 - 30 of 198 reviews
August 7, 2026
Last 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.
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.
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
August 4, 2026
Creative, suspenseful, and intense!
𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐁𝐔𝐑𝐍 is an ambitious, high-concept thriller that introduces Phoebe Hunt, an award-winning filmmaker who is hired to document the revolutionary company that has made commercial time travel a reality. But when a luxury excursion to wartime London ends in disaster, with one traveller vanishing and the survivors returning shaken and bloodied, Phoebe quickly realizes that the catastrophe is tied to secrets from her own past, and the consequences may be impossible to contain.
The writing is sharp and immersive. The characters are complex, driven, and flawed. And the plot unfolds into an intricately woven mystery filled with moral dilemmas, buried histories, shifting timelines, deception, obsession, betrayal, revenge, and the unsettling ripple effects of choices that refuse to stay in the past.
Overall, 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐁𝐔𝐑𝐍 is a bold, intelligent, compelling tale by Lloyd that seamlessly blends speculative fiction with relentless suspense that's as thought-provoking as it is entertaining.
𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐁𝐔𝐑𝐍 is an ambitious, high-concept thriller that introduces Phoebe Hunt, an award-winning filmmaker who is hired to document the revolutionary company that has made commercial time travel a reality. But when a luxury excursion to wartime London ends in disaster, with one traveller vanishing and the survivors returning shaken and bloodied, Phoebe quickly realizes that the catastrophe is tied to secrets from her own past, and the consequences may be impossible to contain.
The writing is sharp and immersive. The characters are complex, driven, and flawed. And the plot unfolds into an intricately woven mystery filled with moral dilemmas, buried histories, shifting timelines, deception, obsession, betrayal, revenge, and the unsettling ripple effects of choices that refuse to stay in the past.
Overall, 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐁𝐔𝐑𝐍 is a bold, intelligent, compelling tale by Lloyd that seamlessly blends speculative fiction with relentless suspense that's as thought-provoking as it is entertaining.
July 31, 2026
Rating: 3.75⭐️
This was different, I loved the time travel aspect and the mystery weaved into it. It felt a little bit repetitive but overall I really enjoyed it. One of the twists really took me by surprise!
This was different, I loved the time travel aspect and the mystery weaved into it. It felt a little bit repetitive but overall I really enjoyed it. One of the twists really took me by surprise!
August 11, 2026
I really enjoyed this book. It definitely fits into the micro genre of time travel done right. I would say the ending got a little convoluted for me. Full review to follow.
August 13, 2026
Sorry, but what on earth was that Meta Ray-Ban pervert glasses advert/undisclosed product placement 21 pages in??
August 9, 2026
(4⭐️) It was the premise of Time to Burn that initially caught my eye, offering a fresh, unique take on time travel, which it absolutely delivers on. This is smart, twisty speculative fiction dressed up as a thriller, and for the most part, it really works.
If you could travel back in time, which moment in history would you want to witness? In Time to Burn, commercial time travel is real, tightly regulated and available only to the ultra wealthy through Tempus Tours, founded by tech entrepreneur, Inigo Frank. Documentary filmmaker, Phoebe Hunt, is brought in to capture his crowning achievement on film, but on her very first day shadowing him, she witnesses a tour group return from a trip to 1941 London traumatised and missing one of their members. Worse still, Phoebe recognises the missing woman, and knows exactly why she’d have every reason to want to change the past.
I found the way glitching was woven into the story via the Mandela Effect really interesting, it gave the time travel mechanics a grounded, almost plausible logic that had me questioning what timeline I’m living in! Lloyd clearly put a lot of thought into how these journeys into the past ripple forward and distort the present, with small changes resulting in significant consequences.
This is a book that started off a little slow for me, taking its time to establish the mechanics before the plot properly kicks into gear. But it gradually snowballed, getting bigger and faster with every chapter until it built into this incredible crescendo of shifting timelines, tangled consequences, shared histories and buried secrets. By the final third, I genuinely couldn’t put it down.
The ending was insane and gave me real Inception and Tenet vibes. Everything clicks into place in a way that recontextualises so much of what came before, and I think this is genuinely one of those books that would reward a re-read with the hindsight of knowing exactly how it all plays out and to appreciate just how intricate the setup is.
If I have one criticism, it’s that this would have been a full 5⭐️ for me if we’d had a bit more time to develop emotional bonds with the characters. I felt like character development took a backseat to plot here, which is understandable given how much narrative ground this book covers, particularly with the flashbacks to Phoebe’s prior documentary, and how intricately the timelines are woven together, but it did mean I wasn’t quite as emotionally invested in Phoebe and the rest of the cast as I wanted to be.
Overall, Time to Burn is a clever and genuinely original speculative thriller. If you love time travel stories that make you work a little to keep up and reward that effort with a truly satisfying payoff, this is well worth picking up.
Thank you to Ellery Lloyd, Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for sharing this ARC with me in exchange for my honest review, I am grateful for the opportunity to share my thoughts.
If you could travel back in time, which moment in history would you want to witness? In Time to Burn, commercial time travel is real, tightly regulated and available only to the ultra wealthy through Tempus Tours, founded by tech entrepreneur, Inigo Frank. Documentary filmmaker, Phoebe Hunt, is brought in to capture his crowning achievement on film, but on her very first day shadowing him, she witnesses a tour group return from a trip to 1941 London traumatised and missing one of their members. Worse still, Phoebe recognises the missing woman, and knows exactly why she’d have every reason to want to change the past.
I found the way glitching was woven into the story via the Mandela Effect really interesting, it gave the time travel mechanics a grounded, almost plausible logic that had me questioning what timeline I’m living in! Lloyd clearly put a lot of thought into how these journeys into the past ripple forward and distort the present, with small changes resulting in significant consequences.
This is a book that started off a little slow for me, taking its time to establish the mechanics before the plot properly kicks into gear. But it gradually snowballed, getting bigger and faster with every chapter until it built into this incredible crescendo of shifting timelines, tangled consequences, shared histories and buried secrets. By the final third, I genuinely couldn’t put it down.
The ending was insane and gave me real Inception and Tenet vibes. Everything clicks into place in a way that recontextualises so much of what came before, and I think this is genuinely one of those books that would reward a re-read with the hindsight of knowing exactly how it all plays out and to appreciate just how intricate the setup is.
If I have one criticism, it’s that this would have been a full 5⭐️ for me if we’d had a bit more time to develop emotional bonds with the characters. I felt like character development took a backseat to plot here, which is understandable given how much narrative ground this book covers, particularly with the flashbacks to Phoebe’s prior documentary, and how intricately the timelines are woven together, but it did mean I wasn’t quite as emotionally invested in Phoebe and the rest of the cast as I wanted to be.
Overall, Time to Burn is a clever and genuinely original speculative thriller. If you love time travel stories that make you work a little to keep up and reward that effort with a truly satisfying payoff, this is well worth picking up.
Thank you to Ellery Lloyd, Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for sharing this ARC with me in exchange for my honest review, I am grateful for the opportunity to share my thoughts.
August 24, 2026
I don’t pick up many thrillers anymore. But this one sounded unique! Time travel has become a reality. The catch is, only the exorbitantly wealthy can afford it and the only time that you can go back to is World War II England.
I was sold on that byline alone! I love a genre mashup and this one was a little bit light sci-fi (time travel), thriller and a sprinkle of historical. I will say, I did think it would be a little bit heavier on the historical and that was only a very small part of the story. This is definitely a thriller thriller! No spoilers, but the direction the story went was not what I was expecting from that small pitch!
I so appreciate that this was a unique thriller. A thriller that I felt like I hadn’t read before. But I didn’t find myself super interested in the story itself.
It gave me some vibes of WRONG PLACE, WRONG TIME by Gillian McAllister and I found that one much more propulsive.
I would still encourage anyone to pick this up and hopefully readers who enjoy thrillers more regularly than me will enjoy this one!
Thank you Harper for the gifted book!!
I was sold on that byline alone! I love a genre mashup and this one was a little bit light sci-fi (time travel), thriller and a sprinkle of historical. I will say, I did think it would be a little bit heavier on the historical and that was only a very small part of the story. This is definitely a thriller thriller! No spoilers, but the direction the story went was not what I was expecting from that small pitch!
I so appreciate that this was a unique thriller. A thriller that I felt like I hadn’t read before. But I didn’t find myself super interested in the story itself.
It gave me some vibes of WRONG PLACE, WRONG TIME by Gillian McAllister and I found that one much more propulsive.
I would still encourage anyone to pick this up and hopefully readers who enjoy thrillers more regularly than me will enjoy this one!
Thank you Harper for the gifted book!!
August 25, 2026
3.5 rounding up. I enjoyed this one even with the chaos and confusion of time travel. It’s fast paced but the plotlines are muddy and don’t always make a slot of sense. There are two ongoing stories and the connection between the two felt forced but I loved this approach to time travel
Phoebe Hunt is a documentary film producer and is tasked with capturing Inigo Frank’s newest revelation - Time Travel Tourism. However when she goes to capture the latest retrieval of a tour group it’s clear that something has gone terribly wrong. One member is injured and another is missing. As she starts to follow the investigation she realizes that the ripple effects from changing the past are starting to impact her personally.
I’ve always loved The Butterfly Effect aspect of time travel and this one had plenty of that. Weirdly I didn’t care about the weird cult aspect at all and it felt like it was really forced into the time travel plot line to make it all work. Nevertheless I loved the concept of time travel tourism so this one worked for me
Phoebe Hunt is a documentary film producer and is tasked with capturing Inigo Frank’s newest revelation - Time Travel Tourism. However when she goes to capture the latest retrieval of a tour group it’s clear that something has gone terribly wrong. One member is injured and another is missing. As she starts to follow the investigation she realizes that the ripple effects from changing the past are starting to impact her personally.
I’ve always loved The Butterfly Effect aspect of time travel and this one had plenty of that. Weirdly I didn’t care about the weird cult aspect at all and it felt like it was really forced into the time travel plot line to make it all work. Nevertheless I loved the concept of time travel tourism so this one worked for me
August 15, 2026
I just loved the sound of this blurb and a murder mystery combined with time travel I was so on board with it.
It started off great with Phoebe Hunt coming off her hit of a fantastic documentary is asked to do a documentary of Inigo Frank and his Tempus Time Travel. Under the Time Travel Act the UK Government has given their OK for time travel to happen. However only back to the 1940s around the time of WWII. A group go back and then things seriously go wrong.
The story in the past and the future is intertwined with one another and it makes for great reading. However that one twist dampened it for me. What could have easily been a 5 Star read then dropped to a 3.5 Star. At some point the plot lost its pace. But had to tie up all the loose ends which they did.
I'm trying to think back if there is any other way that the book could be written to avoid that twist but I don't think there is a way. Although with time travel anything is possible.
I shall check out more books by these authors. BTW if you write a book based in England maybe you can use British English to write and not American English. Just saying!
It started off great with Phoebe Hunt coming off her hit of a fantastic documentary is asked to do a documentary of Inigo Frank and his Tempus Time Travel. Under the Time Travel Act the UK Government has given their OK for time travel to happen. However only back to the 1940s around the time of WWII. A group go back and then things seriously go wrong.
The story in the past and the future is intertwined with one another and it makes for great reading. However that one twist dampened it for me. What could have easily been a 5 Star read then dropped to a 3.5 Star. At some point the plot lost its pace. But had to tie up all the loose ends which they did.
I'm trying to think back if there is any other way that the book could be written to avoid that twist but I don't think there is a way. Although with time travel anything is possible.
I shall check out more books by these authors. BTW if you write a book based in England maybe you can use British English to write and not American English. Just saying!
August 23, 2026
3.5 stars - This is more of a crime mystery with time travel elements rather than a hard core sci-fi novel. I was entertained and drawn into the story so I rounded up to 4 stars (I really wish GR would allow half-star ratings!).
August 20, 2026
4.5 stars
Time To Burn is an original, genre bending and gripping read which I thoroughly enjoyed.
This book is set in an alternate version of present day London where commercial time travel is available to those that can afford it, though it has strict restrictions on its use. We follow Phoebe, a young documentary maker, who is given unrestricted access to Indigo Frank the owner and mastermind behind Tempus Tours who run the time travel adventures into the past. While observing a group embarking on a time travel adventure Phoebe realises she recognises one of the women in the group. As things start to change in the present day, Phoebe realises the woman may have a sinister reason for going back in time and that it may be very dangerous for those closest to her.
I loved this book and enjoyed following Phoebe as she tries to solve the secrets behind Tempus Tours as well as a few mysteries from her past. The story is told in the present day and 1945, which is the time the lady travelled back to, as well as extracts from Phoebe's documentary about her childhood in a cult-like family. The different threads of the story slowly pull together to give the reader a bigger picture of what had been going on. I thought it was incredibly fast paced and I soon found the book hard to put down as there was always so much going on. There were lots of incredible twists that kept me guessing and just when I thought I'd figure out what was going on, something happened to take the story in a completely different direction which I always love. I did have to re-read a few bits as it got a bit complicated at times with all the time travel but ultimately I loved the action packed and satisfying way it ended.
Time To Burn is an original, genre bending and gripping read which I thoroughly enjoyed.
This book is set in an alternate version of present day London where commercial time travel is available to those that can afford it, though it has strict restrictions on its use. We follow Phoebe, a young documentary maker, who is given unrestricted access to Indigo Frank the owner and mastermind behind Tempus Tours who run the time travel adventures into the past. While observing a group embarking on a time travel adventure Phoebe realises she recognises one of the women in the group. As things start to change in the present day, Phoebe realises the woman may have a sinister reason for going back in time and that it may be very dangerous for those closest to her.
I loved this book and enjoyed following Phoebe as she tries to solve the secrets behind Tempus Tours as well as a few mysteries from her past. The story is told in the present day and 1945, which is the time the lady travelled back to, as well as extracts from Phoebe's documentary about her childhood in a cult-like family. The different threads of the story slowly pull together to give the reader a bigger picture of what had been going on. I thought it was incredibly fast paced and I soon found the book hard to put down as there was always so much going on. There were lots of incredible twists that kept me guessing and just when I thought I'd figure out what was going on, something happened to take the story in a completely different direction which I always love. I did have to re-read a few bits as it got a bit complicated at times with all the time travel but ultimately I loved the action packed and satisfying way it ended.
Read
August 2, 2026Commercialized time travel is really having a moment!
This was a very me book. (I also love my terrible puns). This was a lot more pacey than Nonesuch earlier this year, and of course both reminded me of Blackout/All Clear, though all I can remember about Blackout/All Clear is the historians didn't seem to know any basic geographic mapping and history. And this book directly addresses that. Which was great. I love a good technothriller and spent much of my teenage years arguing about Lost on web forums, but this did get a bit time wimey at the end, and I am actually not sure that structurally I loved how it played out. It was something that would work probably work better on film. But I did really like the rest of the book.
Also thankfully this did not dwell too much on the organizational chaos of the workplace, because I have read enough of those this year.
Thank you to Netgalley and Harper for the ARC in exchange for my honest!
This was a very me book. (I also love my terrible puns). This was a lot more pacey than Nonesuch earlier this year, and of course both reminded me of Blackout/All Clear, though all I can remember about Blackout/All Clear is the historians didn't seem to know any basic geographic mapping and history. And this book directly addresses that. Which was great. I love a good technothriller and spent much of my teenage years arguing about Lost on web forums, but this did get a bit time wimey at the end, and I am actually not sure that structurally I loved how it played out. It was something that would work probably work better on film. But I did really like the rest of the book.
Also thankfully this did not dwell too much on the organizational chaos of the workplace, because I have read enough of those this year.
Thank you to Netgalley and Harper for the ARC in exchange for my honest!
August 6, 2026
I rate this book 3.5 stars.
Time to Burn was a thrilling ride from start to finish. It's the kind of book you blaze through, which I absolutely accomplished!
The Good:
I loved the duo authors' well-fleshed-out plot. This was my first time-machine novel, and it was easier to follow than I thought it would be. The major twist in the book caught me with a strong right jab (I had no idea it was coming). I really enjoyed the ride!
The Not-So-Good:
I felt this novel was a little repetitive at times. For me, in particular, I didn't really connect with the documentary-style scripts at all. I struggled to care about that side plot while the story went on. I also never felt strong emotions towards the characters. The ending did leave me a little disappointed, but that is just because I like my epilogues not to leave anything up for interpretation. Maybe they plan on making this a series?
I recommend this novel for a quick, fun, rollercoaster ride. It is a GREAT way to get out of a reading slump! I think people are going to LOVE it.
Time to Burn was a thrilling ride from start to finish. It's the kind of book you blaze through, which I absolutely accomplished!
The Good:
I loved the duo authors' well-fleshed-out plot. This was my first time-machine novel, and it was easier to follow than I thought it would be. The major twist in the book caught me with a strong right jab (I had no idea it was coming). I really enjoyed the ride!
The Not-So-Good:
I felt this novel was a little repetitive at times. For me, in particular, I didn't really connect with the documentary-style scripts at all. I struggled to care about that side plot while the story went on. I also never felt strong emotions towards the characters. The ending did leave me a little disappointed, but that is just because I like my epilogues not to leave anything up for interpretation. Maybe they plan on making this a series?
I recommend this novel for a quick, fun, rollercoaster ride. It is a GREAT way to get out of a reading slump! I think people are going to LOVE it.
Did Not Finish
August 19, 2026DNF I thought this was going to be a thriller but it was a book about time travel and it was boring and also didn’t seem to make sense because the people were in a cult and also wanted to travel back to WW2 to experience the bombings in London? I spent about 100 pages waiting for it to become a thriller and then gave up.
TLDR- this isn’t a thriller and it’s also not about a cult it’s just about time traveling
TLDR- this isn’t a thriller and it’s also not about a cult it’s just about time traveling
August 20, 2026
Probably more like 3.5, but I'm rounding up because I was really happy with it until the very end.
Time travel books are fun mental exercises, and this one has a more modern spin on it. Russian oligarchs, and Elon clone, modern finances all worked in well. I enjoyed reading it. What knocked it down were some inconsistencies and a couple lucky breaks at the end, but i still really enjoyed it overall.
Time travel books are fun mental exercises, and this one has a more modern spin on it. Russian oligarchs, and Elon clone, modern finances all worked in well. I enjoyed reading it. What knocked it down were some inconsistencies and a couple lucky breaks at the end, but i still really enjoyed it overall.
August 14, 2026
Ellery Lloyd is the pseudonym for the husband-wife writing team of Collette Lyons and Paul Vlitos , based in London . This is their fourth collaboration and is an interesting peek into the world of time travel and relationships. Sone of the ‘science’ is a little sketchy even if you DO accept the premise of time travel…. and the ending was a little hard to comprehend with all the plot twists, but all in all an interesting read.
Read
August 16, 2026I’m a sucker for time travel and portals. Add a twisty turny mystery, and it’s a winner. The last line of the book leaves things open for a sequel, but the ending was plenty satisfying even without one.
Did Not Finish
August 17, 2026The premise of time travel is often a “no sale” for me as I can’t suspend enough disbelief. (However, I adored “The Frozen People” such a god read!
I thought this premise was exciting with the mystery angle and duel timelines. I was eager to go back to the Blitz, how fascinating to be immersed in that era.
But I just couldn’t get into it. Which was very disappointing. I was very eager to give it a try because I LOVED this author’s previous book. (Very highly recommend: The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby!) That was a powerhouse of a book, this was underwhelming.
I thought this premise was exciting with the mystery angle and duel timelines. I was eager to go back to the Blitz, how fascinating to be immersed in that era.
But I just couldn’t get into it. Which was very disappointing. I was very eager to give it a try because I LOVED this author’s previous book. (Very highly recommend: The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby!) That was a powerhouse of a book, this was underwhelming.
August 23, 2026
3.5 stars, rounded up.
August 23, 2026
3.5 stars rounded up. This book was fast paced and propulsive, but don’t think too hard about what’s actually happening…
August 9, 2026
Perhaps my book club selection, friends!
July 26, 2026
THAT was a good romp.
Murder, intrigue, time travel and a lost romance.
I’m sure it will be a film one day.
Murder, intrigue, time travel and a lost romance.
I’m sure it will be a film one day.
August 14, 2026
An interesting time travel novel that wasn’t quite good enough to merit 4 stars. Primarily because I did some skim reading during the last third.
August 18, 2026
I absolutely loved this book. It’s a speculative fiction mystery/thriller that’s centered around time travel.
Phoebe is a filmmaker working on a documentary about a company called Tempus Tours that hosts time travel trips for the elite and wealthy. When something goes horribly wrong and one of the people gets left behind, Phoebe realizes it may not have been an accident, and it’s more personal than she imagined.
It wasn’t too hard to follow for a time travel book. The glitches that were caused by minor alterations of the past were fascinating to me and made sense.
When you throw in Phoebe’s past and how she was raised in a commune, the story really got interesting.
Overall, I loved it all the way through and was completely hooked.
Phoebe is a filmmaker working on a documentary about a company called Tempus Tours that hosts time travel trips for the elite and wealthy. When something goes horribly wrong and one of the people gets left behind, Phoebe realizes it may not have been an accident, and it’s more personal than she imagined.
It wasn’t too hard to follow for a time travel book. The glitches that were caused by minor alterations of the past were fascinating to me and made sense.
When you throw in Phoebe’s past and how she was raised in a commune, the story really got interesting.
Overall, I loved it all the way through and was completely hooked.
August 13, 2026
A weak story. I was promised a sci fi time travel tourism book but got something else instead. Where is there science fiction? Blech. Do not recommend.
August 9, 2026
A solid novel that somehow never really got me excited. There was a lot going on in this and the kind of stuff I enjoyed most - present day people experiencing the past - wasn't the focus. I never really gelled with the whole commune subplot.
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?
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