A Witch in Time

by Constance Sayers

In 1895, sixteen-year-old Juliet LaCompte has a passionate, doomed romance with the married Parisian painter Auguste Marchant. When her mother — a witch — botches a curse on Marchant, she unwittingly binds Juliet to the artist through time, damning her to re-live her affair and die tragically young lifetime after lifetime as the star-crossed lovers reincarnate through history.

Luke Varner, the worldly demon tasked with maintaining this badly crafted curse, has been helplessly in love with his charge, in all her reincarnations, since 19th century France. He’s in love with Nora, a silver screen starlet in 1930s Hollywood. He’s in love with Sandra, a struggling musician in 1970s Los Angeles. And he’s in love with Helen, a magazine exec in present-day DC who has the power to “suggest” others do her bidding.

In this life, Helen starts to recall the curse and her tragic previous lives. But this time, she might have the power to break the cycle…

A Witch in Time is perfect for fans of A Secret History of Witches, Outlander, and The Time Traveler’s Wife.

Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Romance, Fiction, Witches, Time Travel, Historical

448 pages, Paperback

First published February 11, 2020

About the author

Constance Sayers is the author of the Amazon best-selling novel, A Witch in Time (2020 Redhook/Hachette) as well as The Ladies of the Secret Circus (2021 Redhook/Hachette) that received a starred review from both Publishers Weekly and Library Journal. Her books have been translated into six languages.

A finalist for Alternating Current’s 2016 Luminaire Award for Best Prose, her short stories have appeared in Souvenir and Amazing Graces: Yet Another Collection of Fiction by Washington Area Women as well as The Sky is a Free Country. Her short fiction has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net.

She received her master of arts in English from George Mason University and graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor of arts in writing from the University of Pittsburgh. She attended The Bread Loaf Writers Conference where she studied with Charles Baxter and Lauren Groff. A media executive, she’s twice been named one of the “Top 100 Media People in America” by Folio and included in their list of “Top Women in Media.”

She lives in Washington DC. Like her character in The Ladies of the Secret Circus, she was the host of a radio show from midnight to six.

Reviews

[jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was recommended to me by a friend because ‘the invisible life of addie larue’ is one of my all time favourite books.

and while i did see a few similarities between the two books, addie larue feels more whimsical and emotional to me. had i read this without the comparison, i think this could have been a 5 star read, but it just didnt give me the same reading experience addie larue did.

but this is still a really sweet story about a curse, the people bound by that curse, the things they have to give up because of the curse, and their hope at trying to break the curse. i found juliet to be a very interesting character in all of her different lives. i like that the author kept the basis of who she is as a person constant, yet tweaked her a bit in each life depending on the place and circumstances. i didnt always believe her cursed relationship with auguste (some lives were more convincing than others), but i did always root for her connection to luke.

overall, i found this to be an enjoyable read (just not as amazing as addie larue but, honestly, what book is?).

↠ 4 stars

[Elaine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for A Witch in Time.

They might regret it because I'm gonna rip it a new one.

I was really excited to read A Witch in Time because the premise had all the elements I look for: magic, demons, horror, love, tragic love!

I'm so there!

Then, I started reading.

** Danger Will Robinson! Spoilers ahead **

I disliked Juliet. Intensely. She is a silly little girl with no redeemable qualities.

In fact, the urge to punch her throughout the years only grew with my intense dislike for her.

I don't know what's worse; that she is a nitwit or a nitwit with no magical abilities.

The love affair between her and Auguste is contrived, with neither passion or rapport between them. It just happens.

I also couldn't shake the fact that their relationship is SO wrong; she's underage which makes him a pedophile.

Unfortunately, one thing Juliet has a knack for is falling in love. Falling in love with her patron. Falling in love with the many reincarnations of Auguste throughout the centuries.

She's just falling in love with any old thing that pays attention to her.

My biggest caveat: for a book about BLOOD MAGIC, A FREAKING CURSE, and a DEMON, there is barely any of that.

There is no magic, no wondrous enchantment, no horror, no fear.

Why doesn't the demon make an appearance to ensure his contract is completed?

If you need a lesson in how to write magic well, check out Harry Potter.

Instead, I get a whiny crybaby 'heroine' who needs a man to feel fulfilled and to live her life.

Let's not forget the STOOPID meaningless silly love story between Juliet and the person she's truly meant to be with. Her administrator.

Barf. Did I step into an episode of a show on the CW?

Wait, I almost forgot.

There is a ton of name brand dropping and details on the fancy schmancy clothes Juliet wears.

Do I care that she's wearing an Alexander McQueen gown because she's tight with his crew?

Uh...no. Can we get back to the story? Well, maybe I shouldn't.

Okay, now you're asking, did I like anything about A Witch in Time?

Actually, I did.

I liked the idea of an administrator to oversee the curse, the fact that the curse was botched because Juliet's mother is a nincompoop and the revelation of Juliet's true parentage, but then the author put the kibosh on that by making Juliet totally magic-less.

She has a grimoire, but no magical abilities.

She spends 90% of her life reliving her past lives. Yawn.

This premise had huge potential to be scary, macabre, magical, romantic and out of this world.

But, an extremely weak protagonist and a plot too focused on "romance" and skeezy love couldn't hold it together.

There's nothing wrong with love and romance, but make it sincere and believable.

Also, don't ever make it between an underage girl and her sexual predator.

I couldn't accept Juliet and Auguste were 'in love' and an even more difficult time accepting Juliet's mother would attempt something so dangerous to 'protect' her child but then, I'm not a mother.

Parents do anything for their child, or so I've been told.

I wavered between one or two stars, but I just couldn't give it two because there were more things I disliked than liked in A Witch in Time.

Read at your own risk.

[Maria Clara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Esta vez voy a escribir una reseña convencional...
Léelo.
-------------------
(Parpadeó, confusa)
🌸Y ¿ya está? ¿No vas a añadir nada más? Porque, a ver: "léelo", me dice bien poco.
------------------
Está bien, añadiré algo más:
Léelo, la historia es muy buena.
-------------------
🌸De verdad, tanta expresividad me va a matar... ¡Por Dios! Algo de fuego en esas venas...
-------------------
DE ACUERDO, NI SE TE OCURRA ACERCARTE A ESTE LIBRO SI...:

1. Te gustó "La vida invisible de Addie Laure". Si es tu caso, huye ahora que todavía estás a tiempo.
2. Y ni te acerques a él si te flipan las historias con brujas, maldiciones y demonios. Si es así, hazme caso: grita y sal corriendo de la librería en plan"loco el último". Créeme, es igual que el librero te mire con una mano en el pecho y los ojos saltones como peces, ya se acostumbrará. Te aseguro que no serás la única en salir corriendo.
3. Y, vamos, ni se te ocurra cogerlo si te encanta la fantasía con un toque de romance, porque si lo haces... Bueno, entonces estarás perdida. Y todas sabemos lo que pasa cuando esto ocurre, ¿verdad?: "Una página más y lo dejo", "En serio, solo leo esta página...", "Me queda un párrafo", "Leo esta frase y lo dejo por hoy", "A ver, tampoco es tan tarde, son las 3 de la mañana, puedo leer una página más".

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok WOAH. What did I read!? I went into this book expecting something, and I was taken on a whole different direction, which I loved! So we’ll written, and I loved how, in the beginning we’re given little snippets of past VS present, but then after we know what’s going on we’re given huge blocks of time - it felt like there was 4 books in 1!

The characters are easy to love and root for, despite knowing what’s going to happen. The ending was perfect and not rushed, which is always a good sign!

Not as witchy as you might expect it to be, BUT this is the perfect book to get you in the mood for fall and falling in “love” - over and over again.

[Scarlett Readz and Runz....Through Novel Time & Distance · Rating 4 out of 5]

The muse.

The actress.

The musician.

The witch.

There is only one novel in which you can live your life four times, in different ways, through two centuries, trapped in a deadly curse with a demon at your heels. If you are a fan of time-travel books like me, then the blurb alone at the back of the book should have you hooked in an instant.

Washington, DC, 2012 - After divorcing Roger, an art collector and “wunderkind in the philanthropy world” Helen is on a blind date with Luke Varner, who is terribly out of place with his sense of fashion as if lost in time. Their conversation starts off with labored small talk about her job at the influential magazine “In Fame” and it doesn’t take long for Luke to speak in riddles and drop some strange hints about her family’s life history.

“You haven’t changed. I mean you have changed…the hair mostly. It is more of a copper color now".

“I hate this moment.” He rubbed his legs, looking nervous. “I go about thirty years hating this moment, and then you call me and we do this all over again.”

Challans, France, 1895 - Juliet LaCompte is sixteen years old and promised to marry the Bosson boy, Michael in a year who will inherit the farm of his parents. Her father works on the Busson Farm and her mother runs the house and makes special herb remedies and pastes to sell at the town apothecary. Juliet dreams of a life in Paris despite their current financial status. When a local artist, August Marchante is painting a series on children, he offers much coin to paint Juliet and her little brother. What begins so innocently on that fateful day will have tragic consequences that ripple through time and space, making Helen, in Washingon DC, contemplate murder in 2012.

New York City, 1932 - Nora Wheeler, a 19-year-old dance theater girl, is in an arrangement with Clint who “cleans up problems” at the theater. He promises her a connection to Hollywood and MGM and expects her to be his girl for all his needs. But Clint is a drunk and abusive, and after setting money aside, she leaves him one night in a risky maneuver, by train, heading West. Hollywood isn’t as welcoming until she makes drastic changes in her appearance and works even harder for her dream. Unexpected talents garner her some attention, but her fortunes run out when Clint comes into town to “clean up" a murder. Imbued with the same talent, Helen, in Washington DC, is haunted by Norma’s story and knows her own demise is coming up.

Los Angeles, May 1970 - Sandra Keane, a 22-year-old student at UCLA comes from a middle-class family. Her parent’s wanted her to major in something practical, like nursing. Secretly though, she switched into a music performance major and gigs around with friends. It’s the time of the Vietnam draft and many of her old friends have left but in LA, the hipster bell-bottoms, drugs and rock music are in full bloom. A big wig producer has invited Sandra’s band to his ranch to cut their first album. Her talent is uncanny but it’s an unseen force that makes her even more special when she rescue’s her friend in a tragic accident. There are forces and powers from long ago that seep into her existence, the same ones that begin to haunt Helen, in Washington DC, in 2012.

A curse that was cast in 1895 has haunted three woman through time and landed on Helen’s doorstep. Vivid dreams make her relive the lives of Juliet, Nora and Sandra and turns this riddling curse into a mystery she must solve in order to live beyond her 34th birthday. Entangled in the sticky web of a demon, she has to be clever and battle her ever-growing feelings for a man who has shared the miseries of each woman’s past, watching, helpless and deeply in love as they were followed by the destruction of the deadly curse.

In a culminating arch, one star crossed lover has to die to free the other. In an intimate moment never meant to be, hearts desire tragically ends the overwhelming love that began in 1895 most true and heart-wrenching.

***

Talk about traveling through time! This novel is not a brief affair. Each time period depicted is almost a novel in itself, rich in its historically detailed setting and character development. Though I did not anticipate such depth in the respected time periods, I found myself looking up events, actors, artists, and paintings mentioned. I especially adored the detailed descriptions of the Latin Quarter in Paris, which is where I love to stay on my visits for the myriad of art vendors, markets, restaurants, cobblestone streets and all over flair. This culminated undertaking of the novel is respectively huge in scope and it came together with the underlying bonds of the once cast spell, uniting time and characters most lingering and tragically beautiful.

Through a large portion of the book, the novel stays within the pov of Juliet and the inception of the curse. Unknowing the connection of events, Juliet’s life unfolds without her command in charge as she ends up in Paris, but is bound by constricting circles that have a hold on her most suffocating. The story picks up the pieces of her life and the loss of love and continues blended in succession with the other narratives, while Helen dreams about these events. The ultimate clues will come from Juliet’s life as the tellings are infused throughout the entirety of the novel and Helen’s new friend Luke Varner aids her in the realization of a connected past before her life will run out of time due to the curse.

Many events in time take part in this story, including those of Helen’s present. It took me some time to warm up with Helen as a character and her profession. She seemed more a matter of fact type personality at first but softened later on making her more relatable. I found Nora to be the bravest character with the most perseverance. Reading in her pov and spending time among the 1930’s glamorous movie stars was splendid as well as cutthroat.

The component of the curse with its bindings isn’t one that is understood right away but its meaning spreads like crumbs through the maze of narratives to figure out. Sometimes I could not decide if I was more fascinated by the settings and characters or the mystery of the curse in itself. Though I wasn’t let down by the end of the novel, I was certainly emotionally drained and left all stirred up.

When reading A Witch in Time you will receive more than you may have bargained for by looking at the beautiful cover. Its rewards lay in the strong historical details and engrossing events the characters navigate. With a bit of endurance, this is a uniquely rich novel to appreciate.

HAPPY READING :)

I received a digital copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Quotes are taken from an advanced reader copy and may be subject to change. All opinions are my own.

Thank you!

More of my reviews here:
Through Novel Time & Distance

[Lisa Wolf · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Witch in Time is a haunting story of doomed, enduring love. It’s mesmerizing and otherworldly, yet also very much grounded in the here and now.

As the story opens, we meet Helen Lambert, a successful media professional in her mid-30s, recently divorced from a mover and shaker in the museum world, cautiously stepping back into the dating world. But the man she’s set up with on a blind date is both strange and familiar. There’s something about Luke Varner that resonates with Helen. He implies that they’ve met before — in fact, that they share a history. Strangest of all, he takes her to a gallery in her ex’s museum and shows her a 19th century painting of a young girl who looks startlingly similar to Helen.

Helen begins to have vivid dreams of another life, in which she appears as young Juliet LaCompte, a French farm girl in love with the suave painter who lives next door. For Helen, it’s as if she’s living these moments, not just dreaming them. And when she wakes up, she knows that what she’s experienced is true.

As the days and weeks go by, Helen’s connection to Luke is revealed and her entanglement with Juliet and other women across time slowly comes to light through her vivid dreams. As Helen discovers, she, Luke and the artist Juliet once loved are doomed to repeat their patterns time and time again, for eternity — living out a curse placed in anger by an inexperienced witch, condemning them all to a hopeless cycle.

Oh, this book is captivating! I fell in love with the strange lives revealed to Helen through her dreams — 1890s Paris, 1930s Hollywood, 1970s Taos. In each, Helen (or Juliet) takes on a slightly different life, but there are elements that are consistent from lifetime to lifetime. And through these varied lives, Luke remains a constant, there to protect Helen and her predecessors over and over again… but also to love them.

The mood of the book is lush and dreamy. So much happens, and it takes a leap of faith to just go with the story and allow it to unfold at its own pace. And trust me, it’s worth it! The author gives us historical set-pieces that are atmospheric and convey the feel of the their different periods so well. She also manages to connect the dots between Juliet/Helen’s different personas, so that even though we meet four very different women (and their four very different love obsessions), the common threads are very visible as well.

Despite being over 400 pages in length, A Witch in Time goes by very quickly. I simply couldn’t put it down, and didn’t want to! I was very caught up in the story of recurring love and recurring tragedy, and felt incredibly breathless waiting for each new life’s particular patterns to unfold.

Absolutely a must-read! Don’t miss this one.

[kayla · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book had so much potential, the story premise and concept were a home run from the first time I heard about it. I was not expecting to be met with a book that I disliked so greatly.

Unfortunately, the execution fell extremely flat for me. Writing style is a preference, and I just wasn’t sucked in by Constance’s style. I felt it was too dialogue heavy and the pacing was off — I just wasn’t a fan of the storytelling. There were moments that felt unnecessarily elongated and other times where an entire piece of lore was given a single paragraph.

Another *major* reason that I couldn’t give this book a rating any higher is the handling of pedophilia and trauma in this book. They are issues that are brought up, mentioned, or a continued theme throughout the book but are not discussed with the care and import that I believe they should be. At times, I felt the reader was pushed/being led to root for a romantic pairing that was unhealthy and, in multiple scenarios, a result of an extremely unbalanced power dynamic of an older man taking advantage of a younger woman. Although I wouldn’t go so far as to say this novel romanticizes unhealthy power dynamics in relationships or pedophilia, I was uncomfortable with the portrayal many times.

And, unfortunately, I really didn’t care for the main romantic couple and they felt forced and left unexplained. I was so excited to see an unexpected twist and to be rooting for the star crossed pair of my dreams but the lack of character chemistry and the points I made above left me severely wishing that these tropes had been explored in other ways.

Overall, a book with incredible potential that fell way short of the mark for me.

[yuvi]

tw: SA (on page, descriptive)

dnf @ 33%
okay. i wasn't prepared for this. average writing and inconsistent pacing. idk if it'll get better further ahead.
but no trigger warnings?! i hate it when authors do that :/



preread
I am hopelessly in love with a memory.
An echo from other time, another place.



this has been on my tbr for 5 years.
so, i think, it's safe to say that i have high hopes😭😭

[♥︎ Heather ⚔ (New House-Hiatus) · Rating 1 out of 5]

1 star

A Witch In Time is a story of magically star-crossed lovers, both artists, cursed to be reincarnated and live out their doomed affair again and again throughout history. Based on the description and premise, I thought this book was going to be an atmospheric, poetic, romantic, and maybe slightly sad book with some occult elements. Not only was it not really any of those things, it was also an incredible mess.

I was bored, annoyed, frustrated and had several eye rolling moments and at times I totally zoned out.

This is the second book I've read from Constance Sayers and both dropped the ball. Suffice to say, I won't be reading any more.

[Victor Almeida]

DNF

[Maha · Rating 1 out of 5]

Imagine living four lives and still having no personality or romantic tension whatsoever.
I haven't read a good romance in what feels like an eternity, I just want to feel something :(

[Mogsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum https://bibliosanctum.com/2020/02/13/...

I really enjoyed A Witch in Time, but I’ll say this right off the bat—it’s not going to be for everyone. First of all, if you’re looking for a “witchy” book, with magic and spells and all that jazz, well…this is not going to be it. What we have here is more like a love story, and it’s a strange one at that. Delving into the concept of past lives and predetermined fate, this novel follows three characters and their various incarnations going back for more than a hundred years.

But we first begin the story in the present with Helen, an ambitious journalist working the political circuit in Washington DC. Having recently divorced Roger, a man she’d thought would be her soulmate, Helen is finally feeling up to seeing other people again and is about to sit down to a blind date with Luke Varner. However, she senses a strange familiarity when she really looks at Luke, even though she’s almost certain they’ve never met before. But Luke informs her that, in fact, they are very well acquainted—not in this life, perhaps, but in the past, when she was a different person.

Helen leaves the date convinced that everything Luke told her was nonsense, but that night, she has a series of vivid dreams in which she is Juliet LaCompte, a sixteen-year-old French farm girl in 1895. At the time, Juliet was involved in an affair with Parisian painter Auguste Marchant, with whom she was madly in love. Unfortunately, he did not feel the same way and left her broken-hearted and with child. Juliet’s mother, a hedge witch who dabbled in the dark arts, invoked a curse on Marchant, but inadvertently ended up binding her daughter to the spell as well. A demonic servant, Luke—who was known then as Lucian Varnier—was then roped in as the administrator of the dark pact, and thus the three of them were forever bound. Juliet and Marchant are cursed to reincarnate again and again, and in each life they will fall in love, only to have that love eventually fail spectacularly, with no exception. An immortal, Luke must find each iteration of Juliet to help her remember the events that started it all, and hope that one day they will manage to break this vicious cycle.

As the story progresses, Helen eventually recalls two more past lives, one as Nora Wheeler, a 19-year-old aspiring actress from the 1930s who had moved from New York City to Hollywood in order to become a star. The next is Sandra Keane, a young Los Angeles musician in the 70s who traveled with her band to a remote studio in New Mexico to record their first album. In both lives, the women fell in love with men who were incarnations of Marchant. And both times, Luke was there to see her through the disastrous results. Because Juliet was the daughter of a witch, she had the magic that enabled her to remember the past lives, but the curse also meant that she always died young. Her incarnations never lived past thirty-four, as that was the age Juliet’s mother died when she made her deal with a demon.

So, essentially what we’re getting are four stories in A Witch in Time, each featuring different settings and characters, but they are all trapped in the same pattern cursed to repeat forever. It’s a bizarre structure, but somehow it worked. With each remembered past life, the details are wildly different—and Juliet/Nora/Sandra/Helen all have their own unique personalities, even if they do represent the same person. In fact, this point plays a key role in the novel, as Luke struggles with his feelings for the different versions of Juliet, watching someone he cares for very much die and live again, not knowing what the next cycle will bring. He’s perhaps the most sympathetic character in the book, because he’s the one constant who remembers everything from the past hundred and twenty-five odd years or so. While Helen’s character development feels disjointed because it is punctuated by all her dreams and memories of her past lives, we can track Luke’s motivations through history as he makes mistakes, learns from them, and tries to be a better guardian each time.

There’s also a strong thread of romance here, which I suppose culminates into a love story at the end, but it would still be extremely tough to categorize this book. So often I found myself wanting to immerse myself in its storm of emotions, but at the same time, the novel’s very premise presented a barrier to that. After all, if the characters are always fated to end up in the same position in each life, are the feelings they have truly genuine then?

Yes, it’s a messy situation, which results in a somewhat messy novel. That said, I don’t know if searching for a “point” behind it is the way to go. I personally kicked back and simply allowed the story to take me where it wanted to go, and I enjoyed myself immensely because of it. The stories of Helen’s past lives built upon each other, and with each dream she had, more was revealed. And as I said, each life she lived had its surprising plot twists and interesting developments. As its title suggests, this book was a romp through time, and it was pure delight to visit the different historical eras. What’s more, as we make our way towards the end, the suspense builds as we wonder if Helen will remember everything in time before her predestined death, and whether or not she will have what it takes to break the curse once and for all.

Bottom line, I thought A Witch in Time was refreshingly different—a somewhat unusual but interesting read. I had a good time, which surprised me, since I’m not normally one for stories that are made up of smaller parts stitched together, which pretty much describes this one. I won’t deny there were some missteps, a few details here and there that didn’t hold water, but I suppose that’s typically a consequence when dealing with books like this. It’s not one I would recommend to everyone, but I do urge you to give it a try if the synopsis grabs your attention. At the end of the day, I enjoyed myself, and that’s all that matters.

[Vonda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Intriguing storyline BUT it dragged at points, was confusing at times and sometimes went too fast so you couldn't keep up. It's a meh read. The type book you would find in a dollar store.

[Kirsty Hendry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

In 1895, in France, 16 year old Juliet LaCompte falls hopelessly in love with Auguste Marchant, the painter who lives nearby. Their relationship is doomed from the start. August is already married and Juliet has been promised to another. Juliet's mother is a witch who provides small spells and potions to the local townspeople. When she discovers Juliet and Marchant's relationship she is livid. In a moment of rage and desperation, Juliet's mother casts a curse. Though she intends this only to curse Marchant, Juliet is caught in the crossfire.

Juliet and Marchant are forced to relive their tragic love story over and over again throughout different life times. Though they are not supposed to remember their lives before, each of Juliet's new lives do.

Luke Varner is a demon who has been tasked with protecting Juliet in all of her lives and ensuring the curse plays out as it should. Despite his best efforts he falls completely in love with her soon after they meet and continues to be throughout all of her reincarnations.

Fast forward to the present day, Juliet has been reincarnated as Helen, a magazine exec from Washington DC. As Helen starts to remember her past it becomes clear that there may be a way to break the curse once and for all. Will she be able to stop their suffering or will Luke stand in her way?

What I liked about this book

The concept of this story is appealing, that was what initially drew me to this book.

The different perspectives of each of Juliet's reincarnations. Even though they are all essentially the same woman, they each have attributes that make them different.

Starting in 1895 and ending in the present day, A Witch in Time is set during some very prominent times in history. The author has made a real effort to include some of these historical events and has researched them well.

What I didn't like

As A Witch in Time is predominantly a romance story, I expected the romance to be a bit more than it was.

The magic that the main character holds is completely inconsequential to the story. The story would continue the same way if it wasn't included.

A Witch in Time wasn't what I had expected it to be, but that is not to say that I didn't enjoy it. I ended up being sucked into the story and eager to find out how everything would pan out.

3.5 Stars
✮✮✮✫

Trigger warnings: Suicide, Rape, Violence and Abuse.

Find this review and others on my blog

[Saimi Vasquez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Helen solo ha querido tener una vida normal, a sus 33 anos es duena y directora de una revista de farandula. Aunque su vida personal no ha sido tan prospera, recien divorciada pero todavia "enamorada" de su ex-esposo, siente que a su vida le falta algo. Pero un dia, en una cita (su primera cita despues de su divorcio), conoce a un hombre (Luke) que le cuenta algo fantastico sobre su vida que ella no puede creer, hasta que siente que comienzan a pasar cosas extranas a su alrededor. Ahora debe descubrir realmente que esta pasando y como detenerlo.

Este libro es una historia diferente, tiene intriga, misterio, magia y sobre todo romance. Me gusto bastante la forma como el autor nos llevo de la mano durante toda la historia, como fue descubriendo poco a poco cada pedazo del pasado y como nos guio para descubrir realmente cual era el amor de Helen. Tambien me gusto bastante el personaje de Helen (en todas sus encarnaciones), se mostraba como una mujer fuerte, independiente, con valores, pero capaz de hacer cualquier cosa para lograr sus objetivos. Tambien me gusto el personaje de Luke, un hombre que comienza fuerte, dominante, y poco a poco va sucumbiendo al amor, hasta el punto de dar su vida por el.
Ahora, al ser auto-conclusivo, todo esta bastante bien cerrado, incluso con ese pequeno epilogo nos podemos imaginar que va a pasar despues, es solo que uno queda tan encantado con los personajes que quisieras saber mas, pero lo mejor que pudo haber hecho el autor es dejarlo justo ahi.
En fin, una excelente lectura, entretenida y diferente, seguro voy a buscar otras cosas de este autor para leer mas adelante.

[A N N A · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book had so much promise but I was just let down.

It needed more angst, more romance, just MORE.

I got bored of the changing lifetimes of Helen because they were all too similar - I know that her story had to follow the same plot but by the time we got to Sandra I was just done with it all.

There was no suspense either. By the time Helen had three days to live I just wanted the book to end.

Trigger warnings for rape, gang rape, sexual assault, abortions, domestic violence, physical assault, suicide, sex with a minor and drug use.

[Anny · Rating 3 out of 5]

¿Os gustan las novelas con viajes en el tiempo y reencarnaciones? Pues hoy vengo a hablaros de «Una bruja en el tiempo». Tengo que confesaros que tengo sentimientos encontrados con esta historia. Captó mi atención enseguida solamente por su título «Una bruja en el tiempo» y no necesitaba más para leerla. Los viajes en el tiempo me parecen muy interesantes a explorar. Sin embargo ha sido una montaña rusa. Por una parte, el inicio me pareció prometedor pero a medida que iba desarrollándose la historia no me acababa de convencer el romance, me parecía un tanto precipitado y personalmente me hubiera gustado que fuera más lento, con más evolución y desarrollo. Quizás así hubiera conectado más con la historia que va surgiendo entre los protagonistas.

Aún así, decidí seguir con la novela porque seguía llamándome mucho la atención. A medida que avanzaba y me encontraba con nuevos personajes, estos me gustaban muchísimo, especial mención a Nora, cuyo personaje me ha tocado el corazón. Tengo que reconocer que ha sido mi favorita por su personalidad tan marcada y tan bien desarrollada. Los demás personajes también me gustaban pero no a este nivel, se me han quedado más planos, con los que me costaba más empatizar pero con Nora fue desde el primer momento un flechazo.

Como decía, las primeras más o menos ciento cincuenta páginas aunque me resultaban entretenidas pero esperaba ese algo más, ya que no me convencía el romance pero la novela dio un giro que, por fin fue lo que necesitaba y lo que le hacía falta y damos paso de la parte que me parecía simplemente entretenida, a una parte que me encantaba, en especial, una vez más por Nora. Fue pasar de esa introducción que me parecía más sencilla y amena, a una parte de la historia que tenía mucha más evolución, con bases mucho más asentadas.

En general han habido elementos que me han gustado y otros que no tanto. ¿Aún así recomiendo su lectura? Sí. Si os llama la atención, dadle una oportunidad. Por mi parte, la he disfrutado, con sus más y sus menos. Además, su ambientación a diferentes épocas me pareció muy bien construida, sin duda es uno de los puntos fuertes del libro. Tanto la ambientación del pasado como del presente me encantaron.

★★★☆☆ (3’5/5)

[Alma Katsu · Rating 5 out of 5]

For fans of A Discovery of Witches, Outlander, and (dare I say it?) The Taker, A Witch in Time is a story of star-crossed love across the centuries. Dazzling and romantic.

[Hester Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fans of Deborah Harkness will devour this page-turning tale of love, reincarnation, and dark magic. A highly unique and enjoyable read!

[gabrielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Last two chapters made me cry. It's fine. I'm fine. Everything is fine.

[Marta · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’ll start this by making a comparison that might not be fair, but I really can’t think of any other way to explain this.

This book feels like V. E. Schwab’s The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue but stripped of the beauty. Calling it a copycat is impossible given the publishing dates for both of these works, but it’s easy to see how they play with the same ideas. A young woman in France, a deal that preserves her through time and a demon that oversees it all. But while so many things are the same, or at least reminiscing, this book just doesn't have the heart Addie LaRue has.

I wouldn't necessarily call it a bad book, there’s certainly a demographic for it, which come figure, doesn’t include me. But it is dull, enough to make an interesting premise uninviting. With a main character that might just be the most unintentionally dislikeable I’ve encountered this year.

However, it's biggest offense in my eyes is the lack of trigger warnings that preceded it. There’s a big amount of sexual violence in it that, to add insult to injury, does nothing for either plot nor characters. Plus the unfortunate mishandling of a predatory relationship that should not, under any circumstances have been romanticized.

I really don't know what to tell you, it's been a while since I've encountered a book that disappointed me this much. If you're looking for something with a similar premise, do try Addie LaRue and maybe give this one a pass.

[Cori · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Witch in Time was one of three Halloween reads I checked out from the library... and unfortunately, took me so long to read, I'm cutting into November as I start the next two.

How do I rate this?? I don't even know. This book was like The Time Traveler's Wife meets The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. And if you read my review on the latter, you'll know that I gave the author all the props in the world for good writing, but didn't like the story. At all.

This book was really four stories in one as the main character remembered three past lives, and therein could be a big part of the problem. Time-hop books just don't work for me. My brain loses interest every time the date changes. So that's a big personal issue coloring my opinion. Also, I'm kind of living in chaotic busy-ness right now, so I could not focus. Again, that's on me.

Even so, I just couldn't wait for this book to be over. The premise was interesting, I guess. And the writing was well done. But I never felt incredibly invested in finding out what would happen. I certainly won't be reading this one again, although I wouldn't discourage anyone else from reading it.

Sidenote: if you're looking for a Hocus Pocus-bubbling-brew-black-cats-vroom-vroom-broomstick witchy book for Halloween, this is not that book. It reads largely like an urban fantasy romance.

I'd rate this an R for rape, witchcraft, swearing, a forced abortion, physical assault, and drinking/drug use.

[Littlebookworm · Rating 1 out of 5]

Helen, a magazine editor, is going through a divorce. Set up on a date by her friend, she meets Luke, the evening taking an unexpected turn when he suggests that he has known her in other lives. Naturally, Helen assumes he must be some sort of lunatic, yet before long she finds herself having the oddest dreams. In these dreams she inhabits the body of a young French girl, Juliet, in 1895 France, where she embarks on an affair with Marchant, an older artist. The affair is short-lived when Juliet's mother discovers what is going on, calling in on a demon to exact her revenge on Marchant. Yet the spell goes awry, and both Juliet and Marchant become doomed to relive their tragic affair life after life.

I was intrigued by the concept of this book, particularly the theme of reincarnation, which is one I generally enjoy. The book started off quite well, with the dinner date between Helen and Luke, a mysterious character, who is a third party in the curse that binds Juliet and Marchant. The chapters then begin to alternate from Helen in an almost modern day America, to Juliet in 1895 France, where we see the initial affair with her and Marchant play out, as well the curse her mother attempts. From here, the chapters continue to alternate between Helen as she tries to piece together her past and attempt to break the curse, and chapters that tell the story of Helen's 2 other lives, as Nora an actress in 1920s America and finally as Sandra, a singer in a band in 1970s. In each of these lives, the reincarnation of Juliet always meets the reincarnation of Marchant, which always plays out tragically and with Luke always involved as a third party.

Unfortunately, whilst I liked the overall idea here, as the book went on the execution of it fell more and more apart for me personally, to the point where I did not actually enjoy the book at all and it felt rather a chore to get through to the end. I have lots of quibbles with it.

Firstly, I ended up disliking all the main characters, which is never a good thing. Helen herself doesn't really have much of a personality, but rather just felt like someone who things happened to and so was almost a non-factor of sorts. From her other 3 lives we spend the most time with Juliet in France. To begin with I didn't mind Juliet, she was a young and naive girl who falls in love and has dreams of a bigger life than that which she lives in her small village. I felt sorry for her as the relationship with Marchant played out, as he was much older and clearly just using her, and in the aftermath of it she goes through some bad experiences in her village. She then goes to Paris, where she lives under the protection of Luke, and this is where I started to find her a bit irritating, as first she just continued to pine for Marchant and then rather suddenly she developed feelings for Luke, and ended up just becoming this very self-pitying sort of character, lost in her own tragedy. Nora had a bit more spunk to her than Juliet, and I had hopes of liking her more in this reincarnation, and whilst this version of her may have been my favorite overall, I still couldn't really connect to her. By the time we get to Sandra, I'd more or less given up on the book anyway, and the character of Sandra did nothing to salvage things.

Marchant in all his reincarnations was unlikeable, and the doomed affair that plays out between him and Juliet in all their lives becomes less and less engaging every time. There is nothing to recommend Marchant ever, and as such it feels implausible as to why Juliet falls for him, and there is never any chemistry between them.

Luke, I initially found myself a bit more intrigued by, as his role in the curse is not immediately apparent. It becomes clear that he is in love with Juliet in all her lives and is doomed to watch her tragedy play out each time with Marchant, knowing there is nothing he can do, which again I liked the idea of, particularly as he is a lesser demon, bound into the curse as a sort of 'administrator' and it is a punishment for him. However, again whilst I initially liked his character and the idea of what he represented, as the lives went on, he too became dislikable and again there was hardly any chemistry with Helen, their whole relationship just feeling forced, and so again there was little investment here.

Parts of the book felt a bit too macabre and darkly occult for my personal tastes. There were lots of secondary characters through the different lives, but again they left little impression. The book felt more and more convoluted as it went on, and with less time afforded to the different lives, it felt harder to connect to the characters and the stories being told.

By the end, this really was just a mess for me and a huge disappointment. I don't think I will be checking out this author again, and cannot recommend the book really at all, as interesting though some of the ideas may have been, they were really poorly handled and this was just bad story-telling.

[Tetyana · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5
«У вас є чотири лінії життя, але тільки одна лінія кохання.»

Джульєтта, Нора, Сандра і Гелен. Проста селянка, актриса, музикантка і журналістка. Чотири життя, чотири часових періоди, але одна доля, одне прокляття і одне кохання. А яке саме кохання, дізнаєтеся, якщо прочитаєте, я майже всю книгу ламала над цим голову, хотілося, щоб ним був один чоловік, але аж ніяк не інший.

Тут немає типової головної героїні, яка всіх рятує, дуже сильна, добра і саможертовна. Аж ніяк ні. Головна героїня має дуже сумнівні моральні цінності, іноді здавалося, що взагалі немає, коротше, ще та сучка. Але як же ж цікаво було спостерігати за її життями, до того ж кожна з її іпостасей викликала в мене різні емоції.
Джульєтта, наприклад, настільки дратувала, що хотілося їй врізати, і не раз, щоб мізки на місце стали😂. Хоча вона найбільш юна і недосвідчена, але мабуть, найбільше пережила страждань за усі життя. Її було шкода, але дратувати від цього вона менше не стала.
Нора мені подобалась. Вона найадекватніша і досить благорозумна.
Історію Сандри, спочатку, було трохи нудно читати, можливо через велику кількість музичних термінів, або ж, через те що вона була останньою (не рахуючи теперішньої - Гелен). А потім вона теж почала мене бісити, а її вчинки викликали лише осуд.
Гелен - прикольна, мстива правда, але то таке🤣

Мені сподобалося, що в книзі немає дуже високого, накачаного, неймовірно привабливого і харизматичного головного героя. Є звичайний чоловік (можливо не зовсім звичайний 😅). Він не ідеальний, він також часто помиляється, не всі його вчинки мені подобалися, але майже всю книгу мені було його шкода, мало не до сліз.

Сюжет - дуже насичений і захоплюючий, без відвертих сцен 🔞, можливо трохи не вистачило романтики, опису стосунків, також хотілося більше дізнатися про головного героя, але я закрию на це очі, тому що було дуже цікаво, а кінець я з таким напруженням читала, що треба було бачити😂

Напишу ще список тригерів, про які я не знала і не була готова, через що деякі сцени було гидко читати. Хто вважає це спойлером далі не читайте:

Зґвалтування (без детальних описів), проституція, педофілія, вживання наркотиків, аб'юз (психологічний і фізичний)

P.S кажуть, що книга чимось нагадує "Незриме життя Адді Лярю", схожість дійсно є, але невелика, якщо в Адді мені більше сподобався стиль написання, то тут сюжет.

[Milena · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Witch In Time has all the elements that attract me to a book: witches, demons, past lives, reincarnation, and a cursed/doomed love. This book is about a human, a witch, and a demon stuck in a perpetual looped curse that three of them have to relive in multiple lifetimes. It all starts in 1895, when a Parisian painter, Auguste Marchant, seduces sixteen-years old Juliet. Juliet's mother, a minor witch, curses Auguste to eternal damnation, accidentally tying Juliet to Auguste's fate. Lucas is the demon who is chosen to be the so-called administer of terms of the curse and whose job is also to protect Juliet. Lucas falls in love with Juliet but is forced to witness Auguste and Juliet's doomed love affair time after time.

I loved almost everything about this book, it's like it was tailor-made for me. The only thing that I wished to see more of is Lucas and Juliet's relationship, instead of Auguste and Juliet's doomed affair. A Witch in Time is one of the most unique love stories I've ever read. I definitely would recommend it to anyone who loves to read fantasy romance and books about witches, demons, and curses.

*ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley.

[Jocelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful cover!

I love the ‘love through multiple lifetimes’ troupe, so I absolutely loved this. I was hooked right away.

[Bibliotecario De Arbelon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un viaje de autoconocimiento a través del tiempo qué nos descubrirá la cara más amarga de un amor maldito.

No soy muy asiduo a leer novela romántica de ningún tipo, pero viendo el buen ojo que está teniendo el sello Gamón con sus publicaciones, tenía que darle una oportunidad a esta novela y gracias a su programa de Reseñas Anticipadas he podido disfrutarla casi dos meses antes de su publicación.

La vida de Helen Lambert está a punto de cambiar cuando acude a una cita a ciegas. Luke, su cita de esa noche, le revela que se conocen, pero Helen no está dispuesta a creerle. Sin embargo, todo cambia cuando unos extraños sueños muy vividos de una joven chica francesa empiezan a asaltar su mente.

La historia está narrada a través de dos hilos temporales: uno en 2012 narrado en primera persona con Helen Lambert como protagonista intentando descubrir que es lo que le está sucediendo y la verdad oculta detrás de sus extraños sueños. Y, el otro, narrado en tercera persona nos traslada a esos sueños y vemos las vidas de sus protagonistas (Juliet, Nora y Sandra) y que relación tienen con Helen.

La novela no cuenta con un gran elenco de personajes, pero tampoco lo necesita para funcionar. Sus personajes están bien construidos y es bastante fácil conectar con ellos.
El estilo de la autora es bastante dinámico y no se hace pesado en casi ningún momento (si bien es cierto que con la historia de Sandra se me hizo el libro un poco cuesta arriba, es la parte de la trama que menos me gustó).

A destacar un hecho que he agradecido mucho, es que pese a ser una novela de fantasía romántica el peso de la trama no recae directamente en el romance (aunque sin él no habría trama) y se centra más en el autoconocimiento de la protagonista, en como descubrir la forma de romper la maldición y que ocultan los sueños protagonizados por esas chicas.

Como puntos negativos, la trama, al final, se resuelve demasiado rápido para mi gusto y quizá haya algunos capítulos demasiado largos en los que se podría haber reducido lo que se cuenta, dando información que, para mí, no era importante.

Un libro que está bastante bien (por ahora el que menos me ha gustado del catálogo de la editorial) y que recomendaría a aquellas personas que les haya gustado La Vida Invisible de Addie LaRue de V.E. Schwab o El Encuadernador de Bridget Collins.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

TW: rape, abortion, physical and verbal abuse, suicide, murder, drug addiction and also deals with very dark magic.
I enjoyed this book. I admit it started off a little slow for me but I did love and enjoy this book. I have to say I really enjoyed Nora's story line, she was an actress in the 193os. I like Constance Sayers' storytelling and I'm very excited to read her next book.

[Choco Con Churros · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reto lector 2023 PopSugar Reading Challenge 04- Un libro de un autor/a primerizo.

El caso es que lo he pasado bien leyéndolo y no sé por qué🤷‍♀️ Por una parte son un montón de vidas a medio contar, porque terminan todas demasiado pronto y están todas a medio cocer, por otro sale una bruja cuyos "brujeos" son mínimos (aunque por una brujería empezara todo, en realidad), así que el que te vayan las historias de brujas o no, no te va a afectar para nada, ni a favor ni en contra. Por otro me recordó a La vida invisible de Addie LaRue, sólo que este me gustó mucho más (para que luego digan que el que da primero, da dos veces!)... así que lo disfruté, pero no sé por qué. Reto 2023 y Maratón de brujas (Próximo: La maldición del mar)

[Brittanie Parisien · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5!!! My only 2 critiques:
1. I couldn’t rate it higher because there was a little bit of a questionable relationship connection earlier on.
2. It slumped hard during a brutally long chapter that seemed to continue on quite too long, this chapter could have been broken up, and woven between present and past instead of all at once.

Moving on, I loved this book!! I think it’s quite wild that this book only has about 8.2K ratings. I will admit, I never heard about this book until someone suggested it to me, but I’m so glad they did.

This book offers a narrative full of history, romance, and fantasy. It’s quite interesting how Sayers is able to move the story seamlessly through different times, while also offering a supernatural aspect to it. It brought me plenty of joy, while also breaking my heart.

The different settings bring such richness to the storytelling. As Helen learns about the curse that continues to bring her tragedy after tragedy, we see her historic existence. The description of each setting is so full of detail and colour, that it truly feels as though we are transported to that specific moment, almost like a dream.

As Helen learns that she has lived more than one life, she continues to meet a man who claims to have known her from the beginning, her first life. This man is Luke. In each life Helen is a little bit different than her last, but there’s a certain familiarity, the same goes for Luke.

Luke has endured so much over his lifetimes, this curse that haunts him so deeply is also the only thing that brings him happiness—because it brings him Helen.

Helen and Luke’s story is one of the most heart achingly beautiful love affairs, that continues across lifetimes. This love story is one of the greats.