Get Ready To Travel In Time With These 6 Amazing Books

In the 1960s, four women invented a time machine, only for things to go horribly wrong. When one of them, Barbara, suffers a public mental breakdown that costs her career, the others decide to continue working on things without her, and soon, Barbara's name fades into obscurity.

Fast forward to the present, which follows two timelines, one set in 2017 and another in 2018, and time travel is now strictly regulated. Barbara's granddaughter, Ruby, is one of the few people who know about her past. After hearing of a murder from 2018, Ruby sets out to solve the crime, and she must confront the many unanswered questions surrounding her grandmother's past.

The Psychology of Time Travel is not exactly a light and fun read, but it’s definitely a unique story, and it makes you think about time travel, science, and human behavior in ways you probably never have before. I loved how Mascarenhas is able to manage the different timelines and alternating perspectives very cleverly, and how the novel was dominated by female protagonists, which is still somewhat extraordinary for science fiction.

At first glance, 16-year-old Odile lives an ordinary life in an ordinary valley, except that there are actually two other versions of it nearby: one of them 20 years earlier and one of them 20 years later.

The trouble starts when while wearing a disguise, Odile meets her classmate’s parents who arrived from the future to see their son before his death. Odile is, of course, devastated, but she has to keep the secret, even though it may have a serious impact on her own future.

This book definitely has a more serious, literary tone, and generally, it’s a very complex and thought-provoking novel with a surprisingly simple basic concept. With that said, it’s an amazing coming-of-age story, even if it’s not so easily digestible.

In the world of The Memory Collectors, there’s a technology that allows people to go back in time to spend one hour in the past without altering anything in the future. The four characters, which the story centers on, each have their own reason for wanting to travel back in time.

However, when 60 minutes pass and they don’t return to the present, they end up crossing paths in the past, and soon they realise that they might have something in common after all.

I would say this novel is probably closer to an emotional mystery than hardcore science fiction. The four protagonists in this story are very different from one another, but Meserve does a great job at giving each of them a distinct voice and telling their story. If you enjoy character-driven stories about dealing with the past, this might be the book for you.

The Ministry of Time is a time travel romance book, but not necessarily in the way you’d expect. The story is set in 21st-century UK, where time travel is possible through a door. As you might have guessed, there’s also a Ministry that’s in charge of it, and they are bringing back historical figures who would have died otherwise.

Our narrator is a civil servant who’s tasked with teaching these people about the modern world. This is how she meets Graham Gore, a man from Sir John Franklin’s lost expedition.

Beyond the relationship between the main characters in this story, which becomes an essential element in the plot, it’s also a spy story with intrigue, featuring philosophical discussions on topics such as colonialism or religion, and even more philosophical undertones about the society we live in.

This book was a huge success immediately after its release in 2024, but in case you haven’t heard of it, let me tell you, it’s definitely worth your time.

Time Loops & Meet Cutes follows Noelle, who finds herself stuck in a time loop, Groundhog Day-style, reliving the same Friday again and again after eating some magical dumplings. She’s not alone, though, as another woman named Avery is also experiencing the same thing as her... and then there's Cam, who just might be their way out of this nightmare. The two women end up reliving June 20th at least 150 times and then manage to escape, but the story doesn’t end there.

Of course, the romance is definitely a main plot point in this book, but the real strength of the novel is its depiction of relationships as a whole, especially the friendship between Noelle and Avery. While most of the other books tend to have a darker tone, Lau’s book is a charming and enjoyable time travel romance that’s perfect for a beach read.

All Our Yesterdays is about a future where time travel exists, but is misused in a way that only causes war and suffering. The story follows our protagonist, Em, who tries to go back in time in order to kill the man who invented the time machine and who is responsible for all of this. The only problem is that four years ago, they were friends–or even more than that.

This YA sci-fi novel poses the age-old question: Would you kill an innocent person who would otherwise go on to do terrible things in the future? Both romance and time travel are central to the plot in this story, and even though it’s basically a story about teenagers, the stakes are very high, and in certain parts, it can be very intense.

All Our Yesterdays has that distinct early 2010s YA dystopia vibe, so if you enjoyed The Hunger Games or Divergent series, I definitely recommend giving this book a read.