Miss Bristol Rents a Room is an epic historical time travel fantasy that combines fascinating archaeological history, memory loss, self-discovery, and star-crossed love. The story is very fresh and immersive, and once you begin reading it’s almost impossible to put down!

The story begins in 2025 Brooklyn, where Miss Bristol, a young woman, appears out of nowhere dressed in early 20th-century clothing and has no memory of her past. She’s completely disoriented by the world around her—the cars, the phones, the noise, the pace of everything. With the help of a friendly old man, Ben, she rents a small room from a kind landlady, Mrs. Wiggins. As fragments of her memory surface, she recalls her life in 1910 as a scholar working on an archaeological dig in Teotihuacan, Mexico. There she was connected to a lost love and mysterious artifacts with hidden powers!

Miss Bristol and her fascinating journey of self-discovery are the true heart of the story. She’s a curious, highly intelligent, and extremely resilient protagonist that readers will easily become emotionally invested in. Her desperate need to make sense of her memory loss and the foreign, modern world gives her a depth that feels authentic and compelling. All of the relationships she builds in the modern world begin as fated connections and slowly lead her to a journey of rediscovering her true identity. It almost feels as though she’s being divinely guided, and anyone who’s had similar circumstances in their own lives will find her story relatable and heartwarming. Ben quickly becomes a steady and compassionate presence in her life and helps to ground her in the modern world. Miss Bristol’s relationship with her landlady, Mrs. Wiggins, and her son Silas is one of the emotionally resonant parts of the story. Mrs. Wiggins offers her a small upstairs room in her home despite her suspicions about Miss Bristol’s old-fashioned demeanor and odd vocabulary, and their relationship quickly evolves from landlady and tenant to something like family—the found family trope is strongly pronounced here and will pull at readers’ heartstrings! With Mrs. Wiggins and her son’s help, Miss Bristol learns how to use appliances, a smartphone, and navigate the city’s subway network, which is a lot of fun to read!

The story is told through multiple POVs, but mostly from Miss Bristol’s perspective in present-day and in 1910. Miss Bristol’s past and present POVs give readers a lot of insight into her true identity and the mysterious artifacts—and readers often know more than the characters about how everything is interconnected! The story spans three major timelines: 2025, where Miss Bristol first appears and begins her journey of self-discovery; 1910 Brooklyn, NY, and Teotihuacan, Mexico, where Miss Bristol is a young anthropologist on an archaeological dig; and 1968, where a man suddenly appears in New York City with amnesia, very similar to Miss Bristol in 2025! The three timelines gradually become connected, making for a very multilayered story that gets more intricate and interesting as it goes along!

The book also explores Miss Bristol’s relationships with two professors and others in 1910, revealing the friendships and betrayals that shaped her. Hoffman does an excellent job depicting how Miss Bristol evolves, and it’s both heartwarming and thought-provoking!

The author also does a wonderful job blending historical facts with fiction, making the story feel immersive and believable—particularly regarding the archaeological dig in Mexico. Firstly, Miss Bristol’s and the professors’s journey from New York City to the Teotihuacan archaeological site in 1910 is depicted with a lot of historical authenticity—they travel via steamship across the Atlantic, they take trains (of that era) to Mexico City, and then they travel by horse-drawn carriages and mules to reach the Teotihuacan site. It’s a fascinating, immersive journey that will vividly transport readers back to the era. Their dig site at Teotihuacan is a real pre-Columbian Mesoamerican city—and actual archeological sites like the Temple of the Feathered Serpent and the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon are not only referenced but described in great detail, which shows the level of research that was done in writing this book! Hoffman also incorporates early 20th-century excavation methods, including actual tools and recording practices used in that era, and the academic mindset of professors/anthropologists comes across as very authentic and intriguing!

Hoffman’s writing is both fresh and whimsical, and it perfectly matches the historical and contemporary timelines of the book—and will appeal to a wider range of readers than the typical historical fiction. The story has great pacing from start to finish—the early chapters hook readers with the mystery of Miss Bristol’s arrival and her getting settled in 2025. The midsection only slows pacing when exploring her past (in detail), the archaeological expedition, her relationships, and the stakes surrounding the mysterious artifacts. The ending ties all the threads and timelines of the story together in an unpredictable and immensely satisfying way! It’s the kind of ending that will leave readers reflecting on the story long after the final page!

Overall, Miss Bristol Rents a Room is an incredibly original, intricate, magical read that beautifully depicts the resilience of the human spirit. Miss Bristol is a charming heroine that readers will root for and won’t soon forget. This book is perfect for readers who enjoy historical fiction with magical realism, time-travel mysteries, love stories about self-discovery, and rich character development. If all of this sounds intriguing, don’t hesitate to read this book ASAP!