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Review: The Enigmas

The Enigmas The Enigmas by Emilia Hart
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love speculative fiction with philosophical questions at its core. Questions like: If you were given the chance to go back and undo the worst moment of your life, how far would you go before changing the past became more dangerous than living with it?

The plot: The Enigmas follows Beatrice, a woman living in wartime England whose life has been shaped by family expectations, loss, and the sense that her sister Clemmie has always been freer and braver than she. When tragedy changes everything, Beatrice finds herself drawn into the possibility that time may not be as fixed as she once believed. Running alongside her story are sections from her mother Alice’s past, revealing her experiences as a young woman and doctor during the First World War and slowly uncovering how the women in this family are connected across generations. I loved learning about the Endell Street Military Hospital, a pioneering First World War hospital in Covent Garden, London, entirely staffed and run by women.

What I enjoyed most was that the time-travel element never overwhelms the story. The real heart of the book is family, especially the complicated love between sisters (having 3 sisters myself, something I can easily understand), and the very human desire to go back and fix the moments we cannot stop replaying. Beatrice and Clemmie’s relationship felt layered and believable, filled with love, resentment, protectiveness, guilt, and all the messy emotions that can exist between people who know each other better than anyone else.

I also really enjoyed Alice’s storyline. Her perspective added so much depth to the book, particularly through her experiences as a woman trying to make a place for herself in medicine during a time when women were still fighting to be taken seriously. The historical details around wartime England, women’s work, Bletchley Park, and the medical world made the setting feel meaningful rather than decorative.

The magical element adds an interesting question to all of that: if you could change one moment, should you? The book becomes less about the mechanics of time travel and more about consequences. Every attempt to fix something raises another question about sacrifice, grief, and whether saving one person can alter far more than you intended.

I was completely invested in these women and in the way their stories gradually came together. The Enigmas is emotional, immersive historical fiction with just enough magic to make you wonder what you would risk for the chance to change the past. I received this as an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. Thank you #NetGalley and #StMartinsPress for the opportunity to read and review this amazing story. I recommend you pick it up in April of 2027 when it is available. Look for it in the spring!

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