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The Book of Lost Hours
Hayley Gelfuso
Publication Date: August 26th, 2025
Simon & Schuster Canada | Simon & Schuster
336 Pages
Amazon | Goodreads | Bookshop.org
Genre: General Fiction | Romance | Sci Fi & Fantasy
I can’t believe this beautiful book is a debut. In this story, eleven-year-old Lisavet is taken away by her watchmaker father into the “time space.” It is a huge, hidden library where every memory is in a book. Unfortunately, there are spies who try to change history by destroying what they deem inconvenient. When a timekeeper from the good old USA arrives, Lisavet forms a bond with him, which starts the rebellion. Many years later, in 1965 Boston, teenager Amelia is asked by a creepy CIA agent to find a lost book of memories in the “time space.” That’s when she realizes the truth about family, memory, and the past.
All I can say is this was beautiful and very imaginative. I found the idea of “time space” haunting and a very unique concept. The worldbuilding was magnificent and vivid. I love books with dual timelines, and I usually enjoy the older timeline more, but in this instance, I enjoyed both equally. They complemented each other and had both emotional depth and interest.
What’s really at the heart of this story is the power of memory and the ways our stories and histories relate to us and all of the world as a whole. You can’t just remember the good things; you have to learn from the hard things in the past so as not to repeat them in the future. This story was so thought-provoking without shoving it down your throat. It was deeply moving without being saccharine. It is a stunning debut that I will be thinking about for a long time. This is the perfect book for those of us who love books about books that are as thought-provoking as they are enchanting. All. The. Stars.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
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