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Time Travel for Beginners
NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF SUMMER BY PEOPLE, GOODREADS, SHEREADS, BUZZFEED, AND SOUTHERN LIVING
In her dazzling new novel, award-winning author Jaclyn Moriarty asks the question, if you could revisit one moment in your life, what would it be?
On a bustling road in Sydney, Australia, lies a nondescript storefront known simply as the Time Travel Agency. Inside, you’ll be welcomed by the smell of fresh-brewed coffee, a selection of baked goods…and the question, Where in time do you wish to go?
The guidelines are you can go whenever you wish into the past, and there’s no fear of altering the present. Have tea with Jane Austen, scream at a Beatles concert, witness the Olympics in ancient Greece. Perhaps a more personal trip? Visit your long-lost grandmother, recapture the heady days of your youth, return to the idyllic time when your teen was a babbling baby—or watch yourself make the one decision that changed everything.
Is it a hoax? And if it’s real, what’s the catch?
When single mother Anna is offered a job at the agency, she glimpses the possibility of happiness. Meanwhile, Teddy’s a customer hoping to untangle his recently imploded marriage. And Jade, who has a deeply buried secret, despises the agency for offering false hope.
In Jaclyn Moriarty’s incandescent novel, Anna, Teddy, and Jade leap headlong into time, hurtling on a crash course toward one another. At turns entertaining and illuminating, Time Travel for Beginners explores the moments, big and small, that shape our destiny.
In her dazzling new novel, award-winning author Jaclyn Moriarty asks the question, if you could revisit one moment in your life, what would it be?
On a bustling road in Sydney, Australia, lies a nondescript storefront known simply as the Time Travel Agency. Inside, you’ll be welcomed by the smell of fresh-brewed coffee, a selection of baked goods…and the question, Where in time do you wish to go?
The guidelines are you can go whenever you wish into the past, and there’s no fear of altering the present. Have tea with Jane Austen, scream at a Beatles concert, witness the Olympics in ancient Greece. Perhaps a more personal trip? Visit your long-lost grandmother, recapture the heady days of your youth, return to the idyllic time when your teen was a babbling baby—or watch yourself make the one decision that changed everything.
Is it a hoax? And if it’s real, what’s the catch?
When single mother Anna is offered a job at the agency, she glimpses the possibility of happiness. Meanwhile, Teddy’s a customer hoping to untangle his recently imploded marriage. And Jade, who has a deeply buried secret, despises the agency for offering false hope.
In Jaclyn Moriarty’s incandescent novel, Anna, Teddy, and Jade leap headlong into time, hurtling on a crash course toward one another. At turns entertaining and illuminating, Time Travel for Beginners explores the moments, big and small, that shape our destiny.
Audible Audio
First published August 4, 2026
About the author
Jaclyn Moriarty
32 books1,691 followersJaclyn Moriarty is an Australian writer of young adult literature.
She studied English at the University of Sydney, and law at Yale University and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where she was awarded a PhD.
She is the younger sister of Liane Moriarty. She was previously married to Canadian writer Colin McAdam, and has a son, Charlie. She currently lives in Sydney.
She studied English at the University of Sydney, and law at Yale University and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where she was awarded a PhD.
She is the younger sister of Liane Moriarty. She was previously married to Canadian writer Colin McAdam, and has a son, Charlie. She currently lives in Sydney.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 825 reviews
August 3, 2026
"If you could revisit one moment in your life, what would it be?"
Time Travel for Beginners is one of those books that’s almost impossible to describe without sounding slightly unhinged… and I mean that as the highest compliment.
If you’re expecting a straightforward time travel story, prepare to have your brain gently folded into an origami swan.
This book is whimsical, clever, heartfelt and delightfully strange. It follows a cast of wonderfully eccentric characters as they stumble through alternate timelines, impossible doors, family mysteries and all the messy, beautiful complications that come with wondering what if? Every chapter seemed to reveal another layer, and while I occasionally had to stop and think, I never felt like I was lost. It felt more like being swept along in someone else’s wonderfully imaginative dream.
What I loved most was the warmth. Despite all the time hopping and reality bending, this is really a story about family, grief, love, friendship and finding your place in the universe. Jaclyn Moriarty has a way of making even the most bizarre situations feel deeply human.
There were moments that made me laugh, moments that tugged at my heart, and plenty that left me smiling at the sheer creativity on display. I genuinely don’t think I’ve read another book quite like it.
I Highly Recommend.
Thank you Ultimo Press and Jaclyn Moriarty for my early readers copy.
Available Now!
Time Travel for Beginners is one of those books that’s almost impossible to describe without sounding slightly unhinged… and I mean that as the highest compliment.
If you’re expecting a straightforward time travel story, prepare to have your brain gently folded into an origami swan.
This book is whimsical, clever, heartfelt and delightfully strange. It follows a cast of wonderfully eccentric characters as they stumble through alternate timelines, impossible doors, family mysteries and all the messy, beautiful complications that come with wondering what if? Every chapter seemed to reveal another layer, and while I occasionally had to stop and think, I never felt like I was lost. It felt more like being swept along in someone else’s wonderfully imaginative dream.
What I loved most was the warmth. Despite all the time hopping and reality bending, this is really a story about family, grief, love, friendship and finding your place in the universe. Jaclyn Moriarty has a way of making even the most bizarre situations feel deeply human.
There were moments that made me laugh, moments that tugged at my heart, and plenty that left me smiling at the sheer creativity on display. I genuinely don’t think I’ve read another book quite like it.
I Highly Recommend.
Thank you Ultimo Press and Jaclyn Moriarty for my early readers copy.
Available Now!
August 9, 2026
ARC received in exchange for an honest review.
Three strangers are drawn to the enigmatic Time Travelling Agency, which claims to have unlocked the secrets of travelling through time. But as the stories begin to intertwine, Anna, Teddy and Jade begin to realise that time has a habit of repeating itself - and consequences have actions that ripple through worlds, changing people forever.
This has definite 'all vibes no plot', as we spend a lot of time with our characters exploring the mundane day to day living interspersed with slivers of time travelling. Think flashes of Jane Austen and Frances Hodgson Burnett mixed with school girl drama. Anna and Jade are single mothers, and I felt that we spend a lot do time seeing their relationship with their daughters - how different they are, and how they act as mothers and how this has shaped the girls behaviours and friends. It wasn't really what I was expecting from a book that is marketed as time travel, and while I didn't hate it, this didn't have a whole lot of action going on to keep me really invested. Jade's chapter in particular I found quite dull at times, as she spends most of it fretting about daughter Holly, or about loosing her creative spark.
There's a lot of retrospection to the story, how life can sometimes hinge on a singular moment that propels the direction of life in a completely new way. The person we are can change into something unrecognisable depending on how we behave and act. It was an interesting concept, and leads to bigger ideas about multi universes but I was just begging for more action. There's one scene, involving Anna and Teddy and an error message that I found so fun, a little bit Dr Who and completely illogical, and I just wish we'd had more of this throughout.
The time travel aspect also wasn't ever really explained, and used more as a device to move the characters forward rather than anything else. People don't believe time travel is real, no matter how hard the employees of the agency try to tell them the truth, which I found funny, but the reader is left in the dark as much as everyone else. And as one customer calls it, it was very anticlimactic.
Some interesting ideas, and glimmers of action, but this read a lot like contemporary fiction rather than a sci-fi to me and that wasn't what I was looking for.
Three strangers are drawn to the enigmatic Time Travelling Agency, which claims to have unlocked the secrets of travelling through time. But as the stories begin to intertwine, Anna, Teddy and Jade begin to realise that time has a habit of repeating itself - and consequences have actions that ripple through worlds, changing people forever.
This has definite 'all vibes no plot', as we spend a lot of time with our characters exploring the mundane day to day living interspersed with slivers of time travelling. Think flashes of Jane Austen and Frances Hodgson Burnett mixed with school girl drama. Anna and Jade are single mothers, and I felt that we spend a lot do time seeing their relationship with their daughters - how different they are, and how they act as mothers and how this has shaped the girls behaviours and friends. It wasn't really what I was expecting from a book that is marketed as time travel, and while I didn't hate it, this didn't have a whole lot of action going on to keep me really invested. Jade's chapter in particular I found quite dull at times, as she spends most of it fretting about daughter Holly, or about loosing her creative spark.
There's a lot of retrospection to the story, how life can sometimes hinge on a singular moment that propels the direction of life in a completely new way. The person we are can change into something unrecognisable depending on how we behave and act. It was an interesting concept, and leads to bigger ideas about multi universes but I was just begging for more action. There's one scene, involving Anna and Teddy and an error message that I found so fun, a little bit Dr Who and completely illogical, and I just wish we'd had more of this throughout.
The time travel aspect also wasn't ever really explained, and used more as a device to move the characters forward rather than anything else. People don't believe time travel is real, no matter how hard the employees of the agency try to tell them the truth, which I found funny, but the reader is left in the dark as much as everyone else. And as one customer calls it, it was very anticlimactic.
Some interesting ideas, and glimmers of action, but this read a lot like contemporary fiction rather than a sci-fi to me and that wasn't what I was looking for.
August 24, 2026
firstly, thank you to the publisher for an arc!
there’s been a lot of magical realism/time travel books published in the past 18 months, and i’m not mad! i’m just really intrigued by the time traveling phenomena, but who isn’t?🙂↕️
jaclyn moriarty's time travel for beginners follows three strangers whose lives are forever changed, as they have all been drawn to a mysterious agency that claims to have unlocked the secret to time travel... this was a nice addition to the magical realism/time travel genre, but probably not my favorite! i'm sure this will find the audience it was meant for, though.
there’s been a lot of magical realism/time travel books published in the past 18 months, and i’m not mad! i’m just really intrigued by the time traveling phenomena, but who isn’t?🙂↕️
jaclyn moriarty's time travel for beginners follows three strangers whose lives are forever changed, as they have all been drawn to a mysterious agency that claims to have unlocked the secret to time travel... this was a nice addition to the magical realism/time travel genre, but probably not my favorite! i'm sure this will find the audience it was meant for, though.
August 1, 2026
Feeling instantly familiar, the Sydney suburbs and pop cultural references took me right there like I was there dumped firmly in my era. Written in a chatty vibe that matched my tone meant it was an easy read. Motherhood, it’s challenges and imperfect parenting were realistic, nothing was pretentious.
I never pick up time travel themed books, so this was the surprise. It was clever, unexpected and layered cleverly, twisty. Smart writing with thoughtful contemplative issues surrounding parenting, relationships and friendship.
I loved the realistic lean of the time travel arc, in the sense of what you can and can’t do. I didn’t have to suspend belief in the way my perceived perception would have been. I’m sure I would have had a quiet bias heading into this, which I only just realised now on putting my thoughts down now.
Fun fact, I’ve been meeting up with Aussie Reader Goodreads friends for almost 15 years. We do a bookswap, I could see as one of my friends was about to choose this book, the lovely sprayed edge edition, signed and all.
Thank you @ultimopress and the author for this beautiful arc. A surprise read as a reader who doesn't reach for time travel books.
I never pick up time travel themed books, so this was the surprise. It was clever, unexpected and layered cleverly, twisty. Smart writing with thoughtful contemplative issues surrounding parenting, relationships and friendship.
I loved the realistic lean of the time travel arc, in the sense of what you can and can’t do. I didn’t have to suspend belief in the way my perceived perception would have been. I’m sure I would have had a quiet bias heading into this, which I only just realised now on putting my thoughts down now.
Fun fact, I’ve been meeting up with Aussie Reader Goodreads friends for almost 15 years. We do a bookswap, I could see as one of my friends was about to choose this book, the lovely sprayed edge edition, signed and all.
Thank you @ultimopress and the author for this beautiful arc. A surprise read as a reader who doesn't reach for time travel books.
March 7, 2026
I just love Jaclyn Moriarty’s writing. Getting approved for the digital ARC was such a treat, and came along right when I was starting to feel like rereading “The Spell Book of Listen Taylor.” This was very twisty, charming, clever, and whimsical. It’s my favorite kind of sci-fi (very light on the sci). I loved the characters and the concept of a lowkey time travel agency staffed by research nerds. I think this book would be perfect for fans of the “Before the Coffee Gets Cold” series by Toshikazu Kawaguchi; “The Seven Year Slip” by Ashley Poston; and “Oona Out of Order” by Margarita Montimore.
August 29, 2026
Not what I imagined this would be at all. I pictured excitement and magic, but this was dull in my opinion. I also didn’t like the writing style in general, so I am not sure I would read this author again.
Not for me.
Not for me.
August 12, 2026
Time Travel for Beginners has such a clever premise: time travel is real, people are doing it, and yet almost no one actually believes they’re traveling through time. Because the experience is expensive and commercialized, customers mostly assume it’s some elaborate VR attraction or high-tech ride without realizing the very real implications of what they’re doing.
And for the first quarter of this book, I was completely hooked.
Anna is a single mom raising her young daughter, Nicola, and working a rather dead-end job at a nut bar when a friend encourages her to make a change and take a job at a time travel agency. There she meets Teddy, a customer with whom she develops an increasingly complicated connection.
Anna was easily my favorite part of the book. She’s quirky, relentlessly optimistic, and genuinely delightful, with an inner monologue that frequently made me laugh. I also really enjoyed her chemistry with Teddy. Their relationship has a bit of a Sliding Doors quality to it that works particularly well with the time-travel premise. Teddy’s two friends—and their ongoing group texts—were also great comedic side characters.
I listened to this on audio and really enjoyed the narration. The Australian narrator has a wonderfully animated delivery that worked especially well for Anna, both in her internal thoughts and her interactions with everyone around her.
Unfortunately, the book eventually became too ambitious for me. There is a lot happening here: the rules and implications of time travel, Anna and Teddy’s relationship, Nicola’s storyline, twists, multiple side plots, and some increasingly complicated maneuvering within the time-travel universe. At a certain point, it felt as though the story kept expanding rather than moving toward a satisfying conclusion.
My biggest issue was simply the length. I was invested enough that I genuinely wanted to know what happened, but I found myself steadily increasing the audiobook speed just to get there. Several storylines seemed to wander or ultimately lead nowhere, and after such a strong setup, I found the final resolution surprisingly odd and unsatisfying.
There’s still quite a bit I liked here. Jaclyn Moriarty’s writing is funny and imaginative, Anna is an immensely likable protagonist, and the central concept is one of the more interesting approaches to time travel I’ve encountered. I just wish the middle had been significantly tightened and the ending had delivered more on the promise of that fantastic opening.
A creative, quirky read with a terrific premise that ultimately tried to do a little too much for me.
⭐️ 3/5 stars
🎧 Read via audiobook
And for the first quarter of this book, I was completely hooked.
Anna is a single mom raising her young daughter, Nicola, and working a rather dead-end job at a nut bar when a friend encourages her to make a change and take a job at a time travel agency. There she meets Teddy, a customer with whom she develops an increasingly complicated connection.
Anna was easily my favorite part of the book. She’s quirky, relentlessly optimistic, and genuinely delightful, with an inner monologue that frequently made me laugh. I also really enjoyed her chemistry with Teddy. Their relationship has a bit of a Sliding Doors quality to it that works particularly well with the time-travel premise. Teddy’s two friends—and their ongoing group texts—were also great comedic side characters.
I listened to this on audio and really enjoyed the narration. The Australian narrator has a wonderfully animated delivery that worked especially well for Anna, both in her internal thoughts and her interactions with everyone around her.
Unfortunately, the book eventually became too ambitious for me. There is a lot happening here: the rules and implications of time travel, Anna and Teddy’s relationship, Nicola’s storyline, twists, multiple side plots, and some increasingly complicated maneuvering within the time-travel universe. At a certain point, it felt as though the story kept expanding rather than moving toward a satisfying conclusion.
My biggest issue was simply the length. I was invested enough that I genuinely wanted to know what happened, but I found myself steadily increasing the audiobook speed just to get there. Several storylines seemed to wander or ultimately lead nowhere, and after such a strong setup, I found the final resolution surprisingly odd and unsatisfying.
There’s still quite a bit I liked here. Jaclyn Moriarty’s writing is funny and imaginative, Anna is an immensely likable protagonist, and the central concept is one of the more interesting approaches to time travel I’ve encountered. I just wish the middle had been significantly tightened and the ending had delivered more on the promise of that fantastic opening.
A creative, quirky read with a terrific premise that ultimately tried to do a little too much for me.
⭐️ 3/5 stars
🎧 Read via audiobook
Currently Reading
November 4, 2026A little travel agency allows its customers to visit the past but under two rules: you can travel to any point in history but you can never change the present. Anna is a single mother to a 13 year old daughter and her life has been hard. Teddy's marriage falls apart: his wife left him for his brother. Jade, is another single mother dealing with a hard family circumstance. The three individuals cross paths when they come to the mysterious travel agency.
I'm just trying to get through some of my untouched ARCs but this book caught my eye with its imaginative premise. It asks a central quest: if you could go back and revise your past, would you do it?
Many thanks to NetGalley, Berkley Publishing Group and the author, Jaclyn Moriarty for the early ARC.
Publication date: August 4, 2026
I'm just trying to get through some of my untouched ARCs but this book caught my eye with its imaginative premise. It asks a central quest: if you could go back and revise your past, would you do it?
Many thanks to NetGalley, Berkley Publishing Group and the author, Jaclyn Moriarty for the early ARC.
Publication date: August 4, 2026
March 1, 2026
Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced reader copy of this incredible book!
Time Travel for Beginners is a warm, surprising and satisfying sci-fi novel that focuses on 3 individuals and their encounters with Sydney's Time Travel Agency. Often considered an augmented reality AI stunt (kindly) or even a joke (usually), the agency is not bustling with customers on a regular basis....until Anna shows up and begins learning the magic and possible science behind this amazing establishment.
The writing is whimsical without being twee. I loved how Jaclyn Moriarty shifts POVs between her characters with ease, but they each had a distinct voice and POV. I could not get enough of this book and read it in one night because it was an absolute page turner. I highly recommend picking it up if you're a fan of time travel novels (a la The Time Traveler's Wife, The Seven Year Slip, The Ministry of Time, etc) and want a novel that feels like the best lingering hug.
5/5 stars no notes!
Time Travel for Beginners is a warm, surprising and satisfying sci-fi novel that focuses on 3 individuals and their encounters with Sydney's Time Travel Agency. Often considered an augmented reality AI stunt (kindly) or even a joke (usually), the agency is not bustling with customers on a regular basis....until Anna shows up and begins learning the magic and possible science behind this amazing establishment.
The writing is whimsical without being twee. I loved how Jaclyn Moriarty shifts POVs between her characters with ease, but they each had a distinct voice and POV. I could not get enough of this book and read it in one night because it was an absolute page turner. I highly recommend picking it up if you're a fan of time travel novels (a la The Time Traveler's Wife, The Seven Year Slip, The Ministry of Time, etc) and want a novel that feels like the best lingering hug.
5/5 stars no notes!
July 3, 2026
What an absolute joy this book is. Perfect antidote to the world.
Anna gets a job in a time travel agency in Neutral Bay, Sydney. No one believes the time travel is real but wonder how do they make it seem so lifelike?
Teddy is a customer of the agency following a devastating split from his wife.
Jade is taking writing classes in a room above the agency.
They are entangled in each other’s lives in ways that slowly unfold.
The 400+ pages flew past.
I am definitely biased towards this book because it’s set in my old Sydney ‘hood. And it’s also is a great story.
Jaclyn - usually a writer for children and young adults - is especially skilled at creating the teen girl characters which add a depth to this story. What even is this genre? Who cares, it’s fun.
Thanks to Ultimo Press for a review copy. This book publishes at the end of July in Oz.
Anna gets a job in a time travel agency in Neutral Bay, Sydney. No one believes the time travel is real but wonder how do they make it seem so lifelike?
Teddy is a customer of the agency following a devastating split from his wife.
Jade is taking writing classes in a room above the agency.
They are entangled in each other’s lives in ways that slowly unfold.
The 400+ pages flew past.
I am definitely biased towards this book because it’s set in my old Sydney ‘hood. And it’s also is a great story.
Jaclyn - usually a writer for children and young adults - is especially skilled at creating the teen girl characters which add a depth to this story. What even is this genre? Who cares, it’s fun.
Thanks to Ultimo Press for a review copy. This book publishes at the end of July in Oz.
August 14, 2026
Heavier on the rom-com and individual storylines than on the time travel. The last third includes an interesting time paradox, but it’s a slog to get there.
August 16, 2026
This is a tough book to review. I came so close to DNFing multiple times but persisted mostly because I didn’t have another audio book cued up. Finally , with about 20% of the book to go, the time travel aspect of the theme ramped up, some clarity about the characters arrived, and I was hooked. But, OMG, it took awhile.
I thought this was going to be a scifi time travel book, but the first 80% is more:
Sibling stories. There are three sets of siblings competing for space. first two brothers fighting, second a woman mourning the loss of her sister, and then the main character with her strong bond to her sister.
Raising daughters/parent child issues. It seemed like every character was wrestling with a parent or child issue. And the teens were full of angst. A huge part of this book was the MCs wrestling with these parenting issues.
The time travel. The MC takes a job at the time travel agency and for most of the book its about that. Working in a time travel agency, the clients and the personnel.
Romances. So many couples, potential couples, new couples, casual couples, flirty couples.
The book was long. On audio I had a hard time following the cast of characters and I honestly did not get Jade’s presence at all. That gets cleared up, but it took a long time.
If you enjoy modern family/dating etc dramas with some lite romance with a touch of time travel this may be your book. This is the rare book where persevering to the end can be rewarding, so wannabe DNFers may want to keep going. If large casts of characters are harder for you to follow with audio, consider print. And if you are just frustrated with the plot, skip to the last 20% and satisfy your curiosity.
I thought this was going to be a scifi time travel book, but the first 80% is more:
Sibling stories. There are three sets of siblings competing for space. first two brothers fighting, second a woman mourning the loss of her sister, and then the main character with her strong bond to her sister.
Raising daughters/parent child issues. It seemed like every character was wrestling with a parent or child issue. And the teens were full of angst. A huge part of this book was the MCs wrestling with these parenting issues.
The time travel. The MC takes a job at the time travel agency and for most of the book its about that. Working in a time travel agency, the clients and the personnel.
Romances. So many couples, potential couples, new couples, casual couples, flirty couples.
The book was long. On audio I had a hard time following the cast of characters and I honestly did not get Jade’s presence at all. That gets cleared up, but it took a long time.
If you enjoy modern family/dating etc dramas with some lite romance with a touch of time travel this may be your book. This is the rare book where persevering to the end can be rewarding, so wannabe DNFers may want to keep going. If large casts of characters are harder for you to follow with audio, consider print. And if you are just frustrated with the plot, skip to the last 20% and satisfy your curiosity.
August 10, 2026
3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.
Sydney, Australia. The Time Travel Agency hung out a shingle on a bustling street, and almost immediately became the town's favorite joke. "Time travel? Yeah, right." Cue the eye rolls, bad reviews, and plenty of people wondering who they were trying to fool. But...what if they weren't?
If you're looking for a hard sci-fi novel that delved into the mechanics and paradoxes of time travel, this is not it. Instead, it's literary fiction/magical realism with a sprinkle of mystery. It’s centered on three people, Anna, Teddy, and Jade, each wrestling their own struggles with loneliness, belonging, grief, and the need to connect. Somehow, the Time Travel Agency becomes a refuge for all of them.
And that's really what makes this story work. The time travel is certainly the hook, but the heart of the story is much more human. Anna, Teddy, and Jade are all looking for something in life that they just can’t grasp, and a way to make peace with the things they can't change.
The one thing I was really not expecting, though? The humor. And that twist! That really got me. The whole story is quirky, a little mysterious, occasionally funny, and surprisingly tender.
It’s a long book, but it doesn’t feel like a long book. The pacing moves along nicely, helped by the text messages and journal entries sprinkled throughout. The shorter sections and extra breathing room on the page make it an easy book to fly through.
If you're looking for a different take on time travel, this is one to try.
Sydney, Australia. The Time Travel Agency hung out a shingle on a bustling street, and almost immediately became the town's favorite joke. "Time travel? Yeah, right." Cue the eye rolls, bad reviews, and plenty of people wondering who they were trying to fool. But...what if they weren't?
If you're looking for a hard sci-fi novel that delved into the mechanics and paradoxes of time travel, this is not it. Instead, it's literary fiction/magical realism with a sprinkle of mystery. It’s centered on three people, Anna, Teddy, and Jade, each wrestling their own struggles with loneliness, belonging, grief, and the need to connect. Somehow, the Time Travel Agency becomes a refuge for all of them.
And that's really what makes this story work. The time travel is certainly the hook, but the heart of the story is much more human. Anna, Teddy, and Jade are all looking for something in life that they just can’t grasp, and a way to make peace with the things they can't change.
The one thing I was really not expecting, though? The humor. And that twist! That really got me. The whole story is quirky, a little mysterious, occasionally funny, and surprisingly tender.
It’s a long book, but it doesn’t feel like a long book. The pacing moves along nicely, helped by the text messages and journal entries sprinkled throughout. The shorter sections and extra breathing room on the page make it an easy book to fly through.
If you're looking for a different take on time travel, this is one to try.
August 28, 2026
Too many similar (quirky) characters. Most of the plot line was mundane, concerned with teen dramas and lukewarm romance.
The middle part really dragged and could easily have been edited down by a couple of hundred pages.
I wasn’t a fan of the text messages sent by the guys to each other.
The notion that a time travel agency would have so little interest to the public was amusing, as were the many bad reviews.
There was a really interesting idea at the end of this novel but I just didn’t care about it as it took way too long to get there and I was over all the characters by then.
The middle part really dragged and could easily have been edited down by a couple of hundred pages.
I wasn’t a fan of the text messages sent by the guys to each other.
The notion that a time travel agency would have so little interest to the public was amusing, as were the many bad reviews.
There was a really interesting idea at the end of this novel but I just didn’t care about it as it took way too long to get there and I was over all the characters by then.
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September 2, 2026
boring ngl. felt like a chore to get through.
and the writing style kept me at arms length...
and the writing style kept me at arms length...
August 15, 2026
Whew! I almost DNF’d this book around 100 pages but I’m glad that I stuck with it. Why? Well, I was a little bored, and too easily distracted, and there were so many characters (some of whom were far too similar) and I felt like I kept getting lost in the plot points. Ugh.
But then something clicked and the storylines started to make sense and I *thought* I had things figured out (newsflash: nope, I absolutely did NOT) and I started to thoroughly enjoy all the twists and turns and wrinkles in the multiverse and the complications of time travel. Total fascination. Kudos to the author for sticking the landing.
So much of time travel theories can mess with your head and the sliding door implications of multiverses can make you spin in endless circles—but there was one particular allusion to that tingly experience you can have (sometimes in dreams, sometimes in real life) when someone you’ve already lost feels like they’re actually there with you—for a brief moment—and it’s so viscerally real that it’s both heartbreaking and joyful simultaneously, and the happiness and sorrow go hand-in-hand, but you wouldn’t trade that second’s worth of time for anything. It’s implied that those are times when the multiverses are so close together that the veil of time is thin, and “crossovers” can happen, albeit just for a single stopped freeze frame of time.
In our family, we call those instances “visits from the other side.” They are rare, welcome, and memorable.
You know I just love all the time dimension stuff!
Four stars.
Big Book Summer Readathon 2026
But then something clicked and the storylines started to make sense and I *thought* I had things figured out (newsflash: nope, I absolutely did NOT) and I started to thoroughly enjoy all the twists and turns and wrinkles in the multiverse and the complications of time travel. Total fascination. Kudos to the author for sticking the landing.
So much of time travel theories can mess with your head and the sliding door implications of multiverses can make you spin in endless circles—but there was one particular allusion to that tingly experience you can have (sometimes in dreams, sometimes in real life) when someone you’ve already lost feels like they’re actually there with you—for a brief moment—and it’s so viscerally real that it’s both heartbreaking and joyful simultaneously, and the happiness and sorrow go hand-in-hand, but you wouldn’t trade that second’s worth of time for anything. It’s implied that those are times when the multiverses are so close together that the veil of time is thin, and “crossovers” can happen, albeit just for a single stopped freeze frame of time.
In our family, we call those instances “visits from the other side.” They are rare, welcome, and memorable.
You know I just love all the time dimension stuff!
Four stars.
Big Book Summer Readathon 2026
August 9, 2026
What a gorgeous book - though I’d expect nothing less from Jaclyn Moriarty. Very emotional, funny and thrilling - I gasped out loud at one of the reveals late in the book! An absolute delight from start to finish
August 16, 2026
I am always intrigued about time travel stories. I love watching Doctor Who and escaping reality for a while in the TARDIS. Time Travel For Beginners was a change up from my usual dark, serial killer reads and it was lovely.
Who hasn’t thought about travelling back in time to see a pivotal moment of history right. Well, the Time Travel Agency in Sydney’s lower north shore can make that happen for you. Anna is a single mother to a 13 year old daughter and finds herself working at the agency. Surely it can’t be real she thinks. Little does she know this place will change her life.
The Time Travel Agency lets people go back in time, never forward as that time hasn’t happened yet. You can go back but you can’t change anything, but you can see your loved ones again, you can see a time period that you have always wanted to see. The possibilities are endless.
We have this wonderful story through three different points of view. As well as Anna we have Teddy who wants to fix his marriage and Jade who is grieving and doesn’t know how to live without their loved one. They all have regrets, they all want to fix something. There is a something connecting them all.
This is a heartfelt story with plenty of twists and turns that I thoroughly enjoyed. The Moriarty sisters sure can write!
Thank you to Ultimo Press for the gorgeous ARC to read.
Who hasn’t thought about travelling back in time to see a pivotal moment of history right. Well, the Time Travel Agency in Sydney’s lower north shore can make that happen for you. Anna is a single mother to a 13 year old daughter and finds herself working at the agency. Surely it can’t be real she thinks. Little does she know this place will change her life.
The Time Travel Agency lets people go back in time, never forward as that time hasn’t happened yet. You can go back but you can’t change anything, but you can see your loved ones again, you can see a time period that you have always wanted to see. The possibilities are endless.
We have this wonderful story through three different points of view. As well as Anna we have Teddy who wants to fix his marriage and Jade who is grieving and doesn’t know how to live without their loved one. They all have regrets, they all want to fix something. There is a something connecting them all.
This is a heartfelt story with plenty of twists and turns that I thoroughly enjoyed. The Moriarty sisters sure can write!
Thank you to Ultimo Press for the gorgeous ARC to read.
September 13, 2026
My God. Imagine inventing a fun quirky premise for a novel and then just wasting it to use it as a vehicle to explore the insecurities of motherhood. Both probably great for current attachment parents but eyerillingly awful for everyone else.
August 21, 2026
50% busybody mothering nonsense, 45% boring retelling of a hundred "She doesn't know she's emailing me" movies, generously 5% actually time travel. She literally could work for any business at all and it would have no effect on the painfully generic plot the author actually wants to tell here.
August 16, 2026
I really enjoyed this. I really liked the storyline and how everything came together at the end. I also really liked reading the customer satisfaction reports—they were such a fun addition to the story. An all around good read.
October 24, 2026
Oh! You know that feeling when a book meets you with exactly what you need in the moment? Yeah. This.
August 28, 2026
Once again, not sure where to start with this. The author (one of the Moriarty sisters) tries to cover a lot of ground, and I never really warmed to it. Set in Australia, it has a lot of literary references, touches on grief, physics and a bit of magical realism, but most mostly revolves around relationships of all types: romantic, sibling, friends, with the focus being on parenting and children.
With so! many! exclamation points! used at the start, I wasn't sure if I could take it it for the whole book but they finally seemed to settle down eventually. Oddly, the second book in a row with a female character named Navi (the other one being an alien in a space opera). Lots of generational slang, and several chapters written in text chat format. The final plot twist was a bit confusing but made sense in the end. Still, this didn't quite click for me.
With so! many! exclamation points! used at the start, I wasn't sure if I could take it it for the whole book but they finally seemed to settle down eventually. Oddly, the second book in a row with a female character named Navi (the other one being an alien in a space opera). Lots of generational slang, and several chapters written in text chat format. The final plot twist was a bit confusing but made sense in the end. Still, this didn't quite click for me.
August 13, 2026
This isn’t what I expected from a time travel book. It’s VERY slow and if I stopped and restarted the book, I forgot character names/roles they played as it felt like there were quite a few players in the game with only three main characters. I DNF on page 94/528. The length of the book was also a con for me seeing as how it just goes over the day to day activities with not much excitement throughout.
October 10, 2026
“Time Travel for Beginners” has an enormous idea sitting in the middle of it. Actual time travel exists in suburban Sydney. You can wander into an agency, book a trip and go and visit the past. Naturally, most people assume it’s some sort of VR experience.
That collision is probably the book at its best. Customers complain that historical civilisations don’t speak English. Someone wants to meet God. One of the greatest scientific discoveries in human history is being administered through office procedures, customer service and cake. Unfortunately, the actual time travel spends quite a lot of the novel sitting quietly in the corner, mainly reading.
Instead, we follow Anna, Teddy and Jade through parenting, sibling rivalry, marriage, grief, dating, work and various other bits of life. The three narrative voices are deliberately different: Anna tells her own story, Teddy appears largely through e-mail and group texts with his mates and Jade writes journal entries.
I found this VERY confusing for much of the book. Eventually we’re given a reason for that. The timelines converge and Moriarty reveals she’s been playing a much bigger structural game all along. It’s clever. There are clues. I can see what she was doing.
My response was less “ah ha!” than “FFS”. A late explanation can make earlier confusion intelligible. It can’t necessarily make the experience of being confused for several hundred pages enjoyable.
Anna’s easily the strongest of the three. She’s optimistic, chaotic and funny without becoming some twee collection of quirks. Her relationship with her teenage daughter is also some of the best material in the book. Moriarty is very good on that moment when parents discover their children have developed private social worlds full of cruelties they can neither see nor fix.
Jade gets similar material around her own daughter, grief and her stalled creative life, but for a long time I couldn’t work out why I was spending so much time with her. The eventual answer makes structural sense. It doesn’t entirely refund the confusion, let alone the boredom.
Then there’s Teddy. Teddy’s hard work. His childhood, sibling rivalry, imploded marriage and the whole business involving his wife and brother give us plenty to chew on. Going backwards doesn’t magically explain his family or fix anything. Fair enough. But there are so many relationships, versions of relationships and people discussing those relationships that the novel starts expanding sideways rather than going anywhere.
The romance more broadly didn’t help. For a book built around infinite possible lives, it has a surprisingly conventional idea of fulfilment. Anna develops work she enjoys, friendship, purpose and a place in the world, yet the novel keeps wandering back towards the idea that something is still missing because she doesn’t have a partner.
Oddly narrow for a book about time travel.
And that’s the frustration. Moriarty has invented this astonishing technology, but huge stretches of the novel could exist almost unchanged without it. Sometimes that’s clearly the point. Time travel makes memory, regret and family mythology literal. People can actually return to the moment they’ve been misremembering for twenty years.
Sometimes, though, I just wondered where the time travel had gone. Like, TIME TRAVEL!
When the speculative side finally cuts loose, the book suddenly has energy. Error messages. Colliding timelines. Connections between the narrators. The cosy little agency turns out to be sitting on something considerably stranger.
I liked that stuff. I just wanted considerably more of it, considerably earlier.
There’s a charming family novel here and an imaginative time-travel novel that only occasionally gets let out. Near the end they finally realise they’re in the same book.
By then I was mostly wondering why nobody had introduced them sooner.
That collision is probably the book at its best. Customers complain that historical civilisations don’t speak English. Someone wants to meet God. One of the greatest scientific discoveries in human history is being administered through office procedures, customer service and cake. Unfortunately, the actual time travel spends quite a lot of the novel sitting quietly in the corner, mainly reading.
Instead, we follow Anna, Teddy and Jade through parenting, sibling rivalry, marriage, grief, dating, work and various other bits of life. The three narrative voices are deliberately different: Anna tells her own story, Teddy appears largely through e-mail and group texts with his mates and Jade writes journal entries.
I found this VERY confusing for much of the book. Eventually we’re given a reason for that. The timelines converge and Moriarty reveals she’s been playing a much bigger structural game all along. It’s clever. There are clues. I can see what she was doing.
My response was less “ah ha!” than “FFS”. A late explanation can make earlier confusion intelligible. It can’t necessarily make the experience of being confused for several hundred pages enjoyable.
Anna’s easily the strongest of the three. She’s optimistic, chaotic and funny without becoming some twee collection of quirks. Her relationship with her teenage daughter is also some of the best material in the book. Moriarty is very good on that moment when parents discover their children have developed private social worlds full of cruelties they can neither see nor fix.
Jade gets similar material around her own daughter, grief and her stalled creative life, but for a long time I couldn’t work out why I was spending so much time with her. The eventual answer makes structural sense. It doesn’t entirely refund the confusion, let alone the boredom.
Then there’s Teddy. Teddy’s hard work. His childhood, sibling rivalry, imploded marriage and the whole business involving his wife and brother give us plenty to chew on. Going backwards doesn’t magically explain his family or fix anything. Fair enough. But there are so many relationships, versions of relationships and people discussing those relationships that the novel starts expanding sideways rather than going anywhere.
The romance more broadly didn’t help. For a book built around infinite possible lives, it has a surprisingly conventional idea of fulfilment. Anna develops work she enjoys, friendship, purpose and a place in the world, yet the novel keeps wandering back towards the idea that something is still missing because she doesn’t have a partner.
Oddly narrow for a book about time travel.
And that’s the frustration. Moriarty has invented this astonishing technology, but huge stretches of the novel could exist almost unchanged without it. Sometimes that’s clearly the point. Time travel makes memory, regret and family mythology literal. People can actually return to the moment they’ve been misremembering for twenty years.
Sometimes, though, I just wondered where the time travel had gone. Like, TIME TRAVEL!
When the speculative side finally cuts loose, the book suddenly has energy. Error messages. Colliding timelines. Connections between the narrators. The cosy little agency turns out to be sitting on something considerably stranger.
I liked that stuff. I just wanted considerably more of it, considerably earlier.
There’s a charming family novel here and an imaginative time-travel novel that only occasionally gets let out. Near the end they finally realise they’re in the same book.
By then I was mostly wondering why nobody had introduced them sooner.
August 25, 2026
Three strangers' lives converge in the waiting room of Sydney's Time Travel Agency - a nondescript shop front that promises impossible things... it offers them chance to revisit the choices that have shaped their lives and those of the ones they love, but how can you move forward if you won't leave behind the past? ⏳️☂️✨️
I was pleasantly surprised by the blend of contemporary fiction / magical realism / light speculative fiction, to explore human emotions rather than 'hard science'. This was a truly healing story about making peace with past regrets as the beauty of life is that we can't go back, only forward - I especially loved how this was conveyed through time travel, the theories of the multiverse and delving into the butterfly effect 🦋
Although at times, these intellectual themes and the human experiences of our characters were quite emotional, I found that this was well balanced with by the witty writing style! The contemporary setting (I LOVED that it was set in Australia!) was deeply relatable and I enjoyed the use of different media forms, including texts, emails reviews & newspaper articles. The humour embedded into the writing was both highly entertaining and a welcome reprieve from the heavier moments ❤️🩹
I really reasonated with our eclectic array of characters (my favourites being Anna, Teddy & Dr Nastevski) and appreciated that they're all deeply messy human beings who despite life's inevitable hardships are just trying to do their best. I admit that I had some issues with the pacing and plot, as they felt a bit off at times, especially in the middle where it started to drag. In saying that, the pacing of the plot twist (& the plot twist itself 🤯) was phenomenal - I couldn't put it down in the last 1/4!
Overall I found this to be a deeply reflective and heart-warming 3.75⭐️ read. Thank you so much Ultimo Press for my stunning ARC 💌
I was pleasantly surprised by the blend of contemporary fiction / magical realism / light speculative fiction, to explore human emotions rather than 'hard science'. This was a truly healing story about making peace with past regrets as the beauty of life is that we can't go back, only forward - I especially loved how this was conveyed through time travel, the theories of the multiverse and delving into the butterfly effect 🦋
Although at times, these intellectual themes and the human experiences of our characters were quite emotional, I found that this was well balanced with by the witty writing style! The contemporary setting (I LOVED that it was set in Australia!) was deeply relatable and I enjoyed the use of different media forms, including texts, emails reviews & newspaper articles. The humour embedded into the writing was both highly entertaining and a welcome reprieve from the heavier moments ❤️🩹
I really reasonated with our eclectic array of characters (my favourites being Anna, Teddy & Dr Nastevski) and appreciated that they're all deeply messy human beings who despite life's inevitable hardships are just trying to do their best. I admit that I had some issues with the pacing and plot, as they felt a bit off at times, especially in the middle where it started to drag. In saying that, the pacing of the plot twist (& the plot twist itself 🤯) was phenomenal - I couldn't put it down in the last 1/4!
Overall I found this to be a deeply reflective and heart-warming 3.75⭐️ read. Thank you so much Ultimo Press for my stunning ARC 💌
September 29, 2026
2.5 stars
Honestly, not what I expected from a book listed under 'sci-fi' and 'time travel'.
Honestly, not what I expected from a book listed under 'sci-fi' and 'time travel'.
October 23, 2026
I enjoyed this read. It’s really chick lit or women’s fiction (relationships, parenting, coping with grief, memory, sibling relationships, bullying etc) but with the time travel angle the book became something more and it was fun with clever plotting bringing a couple of timelines together. A nice change of pace read for me.
August 29, 2026
Apparently, even with access to literal time travel, you still have to deal with your feelings. Extremely inconvenient.
3.75/5 stars
Time Travel for Beginners is dreamy, funny, a little strange, and much more emotional than I expected. Jaclyn Moriarty takes a huge sci-fi concept and makes it surprisingly intimate, focusing less on changing history and more on the tiny moments, old wounds, and questionable decisions that quietly shape who we become.
I really loved the idea that the past isn’t something you can just go back and fix. Teddy, Jade, and Anna are all looking for some version of a second chance, but the book keeps returning to the same uncomfortable truth: sometimes you don’t get to change what happened. You only get to decide what you’re going to do with what you’ve learned.
The characters are messy and specific, the writing is funny and occasionally gut-punchy, and I loved the slightly off-kilter Sydney setting.
I did wish the actual mechanics of the Time Travel Agency were a little more developed. The rules stayed pretty vague, which occasionally made the stakes feel vague too, and the middle dragged as all the emotional realizations piled up.
Still, this worked for me. If you want elaborate paradoxes and high-stakes timeline chaos, look elsewhere. If you like your time travel with regret, family baggage, humor, and emotional damage, welcome aboard.
Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for an advanced reader's copy. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.
3.75/5 stars
Time Travel for Beginners is dreamy, funny, a little strange, and much more emotional than I expected. Jaclyn Moriarty takes a huge sci-fi concept and makes it surprisingly intimate, focusing less on changing history and more on the tiny moments, old wounds, and questionable decisions that quietly shape who we become.
I really loved the idea that the past isn’t something you can just go back and fix. Teddy, Jade, and Anna are all looking for some version of a second chance, but the book keeps returning to the same uncomfortable truth: sometimes you don’t get to change what happened. You only get to decide what you’re going to do with what you’ve learned.
The characters are messy and specific, the writing is funny and occasionally gut-punchy, and I loved the slightly off-kilter Sydney setting.
I did wish the actual mechanics of the Time Travel Agency were a little more developed. The rules stayed pretty vague, which occasionally made the stakes feel vague too, and the middle dragged as all the emotional realizations piled up.
Still, this worked for me. If you want elaborate paradoxes and high-stakes timeline chaos, look elsewhere. If you like your time travel with regret, family baggage, humor, and emotional damage, welcome aboard.
Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for an advanced reader's copy. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.
August 4, 2026
Time Travel For Beginners by Jacqueline Moriarty, this book is mainly about single mothers they’re 13 year-old daughters and navigating motherhood and dating and although Ana does work at the time travel agency there’s only one significant time travel scene and in my opinion it was so disappointing. if Miss Moriarty wouldn’t be such a skilled writer I probably wouldn’t have even finished the book but I found each woman’s POV in different struggles interesting but this is not a time travel book like I know time travel stories to be. There’s no fish out of Water it’s more like a spectator a few time travel scenes there were some of them weren’t even long enough to even be interesting one of them only saw women washing their clothes in a stream I mean she could’ve left the whole time travel thing out and resolved the issues a different way and I think it would’ve been a much better book but because I was going in excited to read something about time travel I was really let down but again the story is really interesting so I would recommend it but not as a sci-fi but more a literary fiction novel. #NetGalley, #TheBlindReviewer, #MyHonestReview,
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