Book Review: Disturbing the Dead (A Rip Through Time, #3) by Kelley Armstrong

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Disturbing the Dead
Series: A Rip Through Time, #3
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Publication date: May 7, 2024
Length: 352 pages
Genre: Historical fiction/mystery
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via Netgalley
Rating:

Disturbing the Dead is the latest in a unique series with one foot in the 1890s and the other in the present day. The A Rip Through Time crime novels are a genre-blending, atmospheric romp from New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong.

Victorian Scotland is becoming less strange to modern-day homicide detective Mallory Atkinson. Though inhabiting someone else’s body will always be unsettling, even if her employers know that she’s not actually housemaid Catriona Mitchell, ever since the night both of them were attacked in the same dark alley 150 years apart. Mallory likes her job as assistant to undertaker/medical examiner Dr. Duncan Gray, and is developing true friends―and feelings―in this century.

So, understanding the Victorian fascination with death, Mallory isn’t that surprised when she and her friends are invited to a mummy unwrapping at the home of Sir Alastair Christie. When their host is missing when it comes time to unwrap the mummy, Gray and Mallory are asked to step in. And upon closer inspection, it’s not a mummy they’ve unwrapped, but a much more modern body.

Kelley Armstrong is rapidly becoming a must-read author for me. Disturbing the Dead is the 3rd book in her excellent A Rip Through Time series… and I’ve also been head-over-heels for the A Stitch in Time series (of which I’ve read half so far). While both series have a timeslip/time travel element, they are completely different in tone and focus… and I’m loving them both.

A Stitch in Time has a romantic focus, with a woman slipping through a “stitch” that allows her to travel back and forth between our world and the Victorian era. Each book in the series has a different woman as the main character, but in all cases, travel back and forth is possible, and the characters must learn to fit in and blend in where they land, while also sorting out the complications of love across time.

In the A Rip Through Time series, a different core concept comes into play. 21st century detective Mallory Atkinson accidentally gets pulled through a rip in time during a visit to Edinburgh. When she is attacked and strangled in a dark alley — and the same thing happens to a young housemaid in the exact same place but in the 19th century — Mallory’s consciousness ends up inhabiting the housemaid’s body.

(There’s a lot more to it, so check out my review of the first book for more details).

Fortunately for Mallory, Catriona is employed as a servant in the home of eccentrics, a brother and sister who are devoted to science and social reform. Dr. Duncan Grey is an undertaker and the unofficial coroner of the Edinburgh police force; his sister Isla is a widow known for her independent thinking and her skills in the chemistry lab. Over the course of the first two books, they come to understand that the person they knew as Catriona isn’t actually Catriona any longer. They befriend Mallory, and her knowledge of 21st century police work and forensics quickly makes her an integral part of the household.

Here in Disturbing the Dead, six months have passed since Mallory’s appearance in their midst. Mallory has been promoted and is now officially Duncan’s assistant. Besides Duncan and Isla, police detective (and close family friend) Hugh McCreadie is also in on Mallory’s secret. Together, this group uses Mallory’s advanced knowledge to carry out investigations and apply a more rigorous scientific approach to Victorian era police work.

The action kicks off with an invitation to a mummy unwrapping. Egyptian artifacts and archaeology are all the rage, and Sir Alistair Christie is hosting a party to share his latest find. When the mummy is unwrapped, however, a very fresh corpse is discovered inside, and Mallory and Duncan find themselves once more in the thick of a complicated murder investigation.

The mystery is the driving force of the novel, and it’s a good one, with plenty of subjects, clues, motives, and red herrings. There’s also a very entertaining side plot about a pulp writer who’s started publishing lurid accounts of Mallory and Duncan’s exploits, much to their embarrassment (and Mallory’s annoyance, as the writer portrays her as an empty-headed girl whose main function is to look impressed — and sexy — while Duncan makes all the discoveries).

One of the many delights of the series is seeing Mallory being herself in the 19th century. Unlike the situation facing the characters in the Stitch in Time series, Mallory doesn’t need to make an effort to conceal herself or blend while amongst her friends. Yes, she must adapt to the time by dressing in corsets and adopting the appropriate social customs, but at home, her speech and knowledge are full of 21st century expressions, swearing, and casual sharing of unknown facts.

“Like people in my world who still think you can catch the common cold — or catarrh — by going out in cold weather, despite the fact we’ve known for generations that it’s caused by a virus.”

“Catarrh is caused by… what?” Gray says.

“Whoops. Sorry. Spoilers. Moving right along…”

She’s just so much fun, and scenes of her with Isla and Duncan are always a delight.

He opens his hand to reveal a derringer pistol. I may let out the kind of noise others make on seeing a puppy.

There a shocking development in the latter half of the book that left me gasping and dismayed. I did not see that coming! The author does a fabulous job of making the situation (no spoilers!) vivid and real, and yet also manages to pull off a great resolution to this particular twist.

Overall, Disturbing the Dead is a fantastic addition to a great series, and I can’t wait for more! Highly recommended — but definitely start at the beginning of the series.

20Apr2024

Book Review: A Twist of Fate (A Stitch in Time, #2) by Kelley Armstrong

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: A Twist of Fate
Series: A Stitch in Time, #2
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Publication date: October 5, 2021
Length: 288 pages
Genre: Time slip/ghost story
Source: Purchased
Rating:

Four years ago, Rosalind Courtenay stumbled from the nineteenth century to the twenty-first, where she has been trapped ever since, leaving her husband and infant son behind. Now she’s found her way back.

The problem, of course, is how to explain her absence to her husband. Does he think she abandoned him? Has he remarried? Is he happy in a new life? Rosalind decides to don a disguise in hopes of answering her questions before showing up on his doorstep. Instead, a twist of fate has her mistaken for her young son’s new governess.

Rosalind has every intention of revealing herself as soon as August returns home from business. Until then, she’ll get to know her son, a quiet child who has inexplicably been abandoned by an endless stream of governesses. That’s when the hauntings begin. Rosalind has finally come home and something—or someone—doesn’t just want her gone. They want her dead.

I adored A Stitch in Time, the story of a 21st century woman who passes through a time stitch and lands two centuries in the past, where she reunites with the man who was once her secret childhood companion. In A Stitch in Time, we learn that William’s best friend’s wife is believed dead, after she set out riding one night and never returned. Her horse was found dead in the sea below a cliff — clearly, Rosalind had a tragic accident and fell to her death. But August has never accepted this as fact; despite the years that have passed, he’s convinced that she left him and their infant son.

In A Twist of Fate, we get Rosalind’s story, and it’s immediately captivating. Yes, Rosalind went out riding in the middle of the night, to retrieve the wedding ring she’d accidentally left behind in the kitchen of Thorne Manor. But hearing a strange noise from an upstairs room, in what was supposedly an unoccupied house, Rosalind ventures up to investigate, and falls through the time slip. Shocked and scared once she figures out what’s happened, she tries desperately to get back, but the portal seems to have closed. Alone in a strange world, Rosalind has no choice but to figure out how to get by, but she returns month after month to Thorne Manor to see if the way back has finally opened for her.

After four years and a chance encounter with William and Bronwyn in the 21st century, Rosalind realizes that her opportunity may finally have come — and it has. She manages the time passage, and is determined to get to her husband and son as quickly as possible.

On reaching August’s family’s country home, Rosalind is mistaken for the expected new governess. Learning that her husband is away on business, she takes this opportunity to spend time with her son and discover what she can about their lives, intending to tell August the truth as soon as he arrives. But complications arise, and Rosalind’s opportunity to reveal herself is delayed over and over again. Meanwhile, she spends time with her beloved boy Edmund, treasuring every precious moment, but fearing that she may be sent away (or sent to an asylum) if she can’t convince people of her true identity.

At the same time, Courtenay House appears to be haunted, and although Rosalind believes there is a ghost present, she doesn’t believe that the malicious tricks and nighttime scares she experiences are supernatural in origin. There’s a dangerous presence in the house, and it’s very much human in nature.

A Twist of Fate is an utterly engaging and absorbing story. Rosalind’s experiences are quite different that Bronwyn’s — she’s trapped in a strange world, separated from her husband and child, and although she manages to create a sort-of life for herself in the 21st century, she never stops aching for home. A true Victorian woman, Rosalind is also an independent individual, and so it’s quite fun to see her return back to her own time with some new-fangled ideas about motherhood, marriage, raising children, and women’s roles.

She and August truly love one another, but theirs was a marriage plagued by his irrational jealousy before her disappearance. I love that the author doesn’t reunite the two and magically erase all the prior troubles. Yes, they ultimately get a wonderfully romantic second chance at love, but they also have some hard conversations about their shared past, what went wrong, and what needs to change.

The mystery at the heart of the story — who is the ghost? who is the real threat? — is very well done, and had me guessing throughout. The unraveling of secrets and the revelations related to the mystery plotline are surprising and twisty, but fit together perfectly.

I loved seeing Rosalind’s time with Edmund, finding a way to care for and love her son even before he knows who she really is. They have a beautiful relationship, and it was also heartwarming to see what a loving father August became in Rosalind’s absence, definitely breaking with the time period’s societal norms regarding a father’s involvement in his child’s life.

I thoroughly enjoyed A Twist of Fate, and strongly recommend the series as a whole! There are two more novels (which I will absolutely read as soon as I can), and some Christmas-themed novellas that fit in between the main novels.

In fact, immediately upon finishing A Twist of Fate, I started the August and Rosalind novella, Snowstorms and Sleighbells, and will look forward to carrying on with the series. If you enjoy timeslip stories, lovely love stories, and a good mystery, then you must check out the Stitch in Time books.

Next in the series:

9Apr2024

Top Ten Tuesday: Backlist Books to Read

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s is a freebie — we each pick whatever topic we feel like. One topic on my mind is Backlist Books — thinking about authors whose recent books I’ve loved, and whether they have older books I should go back and read.

Here are the authors whose backlist books I think I’d like to explore:

1. Kristin Hannah – There are just so many! I’ve read her most recent books, but have several more of her earlier books on my to-read shelf, including:

2. TJ Klune (of course!) — I love everything I’ve read so far! Here’s one I’d like to get to:

3. William Kent Krueger: I loved his stand-alones, and keep hearing that his Cork O’Connor series is a must-read.

4. Dana Stabenow: I love her Kate Shugak series, and I’m so happy to have discovered her Eye of Isis books too! Here’s a series that I haven’t read yet:

5. Abby Jimenez: Can’t wait to start this trilogy!

6. Rachel Harrison: I have one more backlist book to read, and it looks great:

7. Kelley Armstrong: I’ve loved everything of hers I’ve read so far, so I’m eager to try one (or both) of these earlier series starters (Omens is book #1 in the Cainsville series; City of the Lost is #1 in the Rockton series):

8. Jenny Colgan: Always a favorite! I’ve read almost all of her books from the last 10 years or so, but there are still a bunch of her earlier books I’ve yet to read:

9. Eva Ibbotson: I feel in love with The Secret Countess, and now I need to read ALL of these:

10. Katherine Center: Ever since How To Walk Away, I’ve read each new book by Katherine Center as soon as I could, and now I’ve started digging into her backlist books as well. As far as I know, I just have these two yet to read:

Have you read any of my backlist picks? Where should I start?

If you wrote a freebie post this week, what topic did you choose? Please share your link!

18May2023

Book Review: The Poisoner’s Ring (A Rip Through Time, #2) by Kelley Armstrong

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Poisoner’s Ring
Series: A Rip Through Time
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Publication date: May 23, 2022
Length: 352 pages
Genre: Historical fiction/mystery
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via Netgalley
Rating:

Edinburgh, 1869: Modern-day homicide detective Mallory Atkinson is adjusting to her new life in Victorian Scotland. Her employers know she’s not housemaid Catriona Mitchell―even though Mallory is in Catriona’s body―and Mallory is now officially an undertaker’s assistant. Dr. Duncan Gray moonlights as a medical examiner, and their latest case hits close to home. Men are dropping dead from a powerful poison, and all signs point to the grieving widows… the latest of which is Gray’s oldest sister.

Poison is said to be a woman’s weapon, though Mallory has to wonder if it’s as simple as that. But she must tread carefully. Every move the household makes is being watched, and who knows where the investigation will lead.

The Poisoner’s Ring is the 2nd book in Kelley Armstrong’s A Rip Through Time series, and while there’s a murder-mystery plot that’s complicated and compelling, I think a reader would be completely lost if they try to start here without reading the first book.

But the first book was great, so why not start at the beginning???

To recap as simply as possible, the plotof A Rip Through Time has to do with a modern-day detective who gets pulled through a rip in time while visiting Edinburgh and ends up in the 19th century. Mallory’s inner self now inhabits the 19-year-old body of housemaid Catriona… and she presumes that Catriona must be stuck inside Mallory’s body in the 21st century. (There’s a lot more to it, so check out my review for more details).

Here in book #2, The Poisoner’s Ring, about a month has passed since the events of the last book. Mallory hasn’t figured out how to get back to her own time, so she’s still stuck in a strange time and a strange body. Fortunately, Catriona’s employer, Dr. Duncan Gray and his widowed sister Isla know the truth about Mallory, and accept her. Even better, they’re both scientists, and they’re fascinated by what Mallory can teach them about advances in forensics and chemistry.

It’s an odd and consistently entertaining juxtaposition. Mallory finds herself about 10 years younger than her true age, in a much more delicate body, stuck wearing petticoats and corsets, yet in full possession of her true skills and knowledge. She has to learn to defend herself in this weaker, daintier body, and must learn to curb her natural instincts in order to fit in, at least on a surface level, in this Victorian setting. Chasing a perp down the streets just isn’t ladylike and is sure to attract unwanted attention… not to mention just how challenging she finds running and fighting in a corset.

The plot of The Poisoner’s Ring centers around a series of deaths that appear to be murder by poison. There are rumors of a poisoner’s ring — basically, an urban myth about unhappy wives referring one another to a source for illegal poison which they then use to kill their husbands. Since none of the victims appear to be connected, it’s a clever scheme… but Mallory isn’t buying it. As she, Duncan, and Isla dig deeper, they discover all sorts of secrets and misdeeds, but unfortunately, Duncan and Isla’s oldest sister ends up implicated as well. As the saying goes… now it’s personal.

This book is a delight, as is the first in the series. There’s something so completely delicious about having this 21st century detective mouthing off to her confidantes, with all of her modern-day attitude and know-how coming out of the mouth of a delicate young (and formerly illiterate and untrustworthy) housemaid.

The murder plot itself is complicated, maybe more so than really suits my reading tastes, but that’s more a matter of my preferred types of fiction than a knock against this book. After a certain point, I stopped trying very hard to keep all the various suspects and conspirators straight, and just enjoyed it for the sake of seeing Mallory in action, as well as the other main characters, who are also quite interesting and fun to spend time with.

I love Mallory’s dialogue and her inner thoughts — so amazingly out of place for where she finds herself. Her wry observations never fail to amuse:

The public house is, like most things in Victorian Edinburgh, both what I expect and not what I expect. My visual renderings of scenes like this all come from Hollywood, where’ I’m going to guess that — unless it’s a mega-budget movie — there’s a standard-issue “Victorian pub” on a soundstage somewhere.

… [T]here’s the boy just ahead of us, who has coming running from a shop a few blocks over, where he is employed to read the paper to the workers. They chip in to buy a newspaper and pay him a small wage to sit at a table and read aloud while they work. The Victorian version of a radio newscast… complete with child labor.

(I won’t give the context for this one, since it’s a bit of a plot spoiler, but I love the idea:)

It’s the Victorian equivalent of a deepfake.

The Poisoner’s Ring is a terrific 2nd book that builds on the promise of the 1st. Our main character continues to be a fish-out-of-water, surviving and thriving on her wits and 21st century know-how, stuck where she doesn’t want to be — but while stuck, making a life for herself. Because Mallory’s circumstances remain unresolved as of the end of this book, I can only assume that there will be more to come in this series, and I am here for it!

Highly recommended, and as I keep saying — starting with book #1 is a must!

31May2022

Book Review: A Rip Through Time by Kelley Armstrong

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: A Rip Through Time
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Publication date: May 31, 2022
Length: 352 pages
Genre: Historical fiction/mystery
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via Netgalley
Rating:

In this series debut from New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong, a modern-day homicide detective finds herself in Victorian Scotland—in an unfamiliar body—with a killer on the loose.
May 20, 2019: Homicide detective Mallory is in Edinburgh to be with her dying grandmother. While out on a jog one evening, Mallory hears a woman in distress. She’s drawn to an alley, where she is attacked and loses consciousness.
May 20, 1869: Housemaid Catriona Mitchell had been enjoying a half-day off, only to be discovered that night in a lane, where she’d been strangled and left for dead . . . exactly one-hundred-and-fifty years before Mallory was strangled in the same spot.
When Mallory wakes up in Catriona’s body in 1869, she must put aside her shock and adjust quickly to the reality: life as a housemaid to an undertaker in Victorian Scotland. She soon discovers that her boss, Dr. Gray, also moonlights as a medical examiner and has just taken on an intriguing case, the strangulation of a young man, similar to the attack on herself. Her only hope is that catching the murderer can lead her back to her modern life . . . before it’s too late.
Outlander meets The Alienist in Kelley Armstrong’s A Rip Through Time, the first book in this utterly compelling series, mixing romance, mystery, and fantasy with thrilling results.

In this engrossing start to a new series, Canadian detective Mallory is visiting her dying grandmother in Edinburgh when she stops to investigate a woman’s cries down a dark alley. As Mallory is attacked, she sees a strange optical illusion, but quickly passes out as the unknown assailant strangles her.

When she wakes up, she’s in a strange house, in strange clothing, including — of all things — a corset. Weirdly true despite being hard to believe, it would appear that Mallory has been transported into the body of a housemaid named Catriona, who was attacked and strangled in the same alley as Mallory — but 150 years earlier.

Quick-thinking Mallory figures out the truth of her situation fairly quickly, and uses her head injury as an explanation for her severe memory loss and marked change in personality. The housemaid who’d claimed illiteracy previously can suddenly read and write, and what’s more, takes an interest in her master’s forensic work that’s decidedly new and different.

As Mallory spends more time as Catriona, she realizes that while she doesn’t have an obvious way back to her own life, she can make a contribution where she is by applying her knowledge of 21st century police procedures to help solve the case of a potential serial killer haunting Edinburgh. Unfortunately for Mallory, she also discovers that Catriona was not a sweet, innocent 19-year-old, but a young woman with a gift for thievery, deceit, and no moral compass. As Mallory struggles to make sense of her new life, she also is confronted by the mistrust and dislike earned by the person who’s body she inhabits.

Can’t say I’ve ever read a plot like this one before!

A Rip Through Time is fascinating and utterly immersive, exploring a fish-out-of-water situation through the eyes of a strong, accomplished woman forced into a life where she has none of the “womanly” qualities deemed necessary to fit in. Mallory is a terrific character, confronting her bizarre circumstances with intelligence and determination, applying her years of experience as a detective to both help her employer solve the mysteries he sees in his line of work as well as to solve the huge unknowns about her own case.

Not only is Mallory in the wrong century in the wrong body, but she’s been targeted at least once by a killer, and as her time in Edinburgh of the 1860s continues, she learns that she/Catriona is still in danger. There’s a mystery to solve and a killer to catch, and the action is fast-paced and totally fun to unpack and follow along.

This may all sound like an unbelievable set-up for a story, and I suppose in a less-skilled writer’s hands, that might make it unreadable — but here, Kelley Armstrong confidently weaves a story about crime, women’s roles, time travel, connections, independence, and family, and makes it all work.

It’s really fun to see Mallory’s takes on her life in this new time and place:

If I had to cast him in a period drama, it’d be somewhere between “mad scientist” and “brooding lord with his wife locked in the attic”.

I love how she compares everything she encounters to the way the era is portrayed in film and fiction:

I’m trying to pass back through time by returning to the place where I crossed over. My brain says that makes logical sense, but I am well aware that it only makes sense because I’ve seen it in movies and read it in books. […] I am basing my entire theory on the imagination of fiction writers. Not scientists, because there is no science. People can’t travel through time. Therefore, writers don’t need to worry about “getting it right.” They make up whatever they want.
{…]
If so many writers used that particular trope, maybe there was a kernel of truth to it. It’s like meeting a vampire while holding a vial of holy water and not throwing it at him.”

The writing throughout is fresh and fun, and while there is plenty of danger and some more serious moments, Mallory’s 21st-century voice keeps the story from feeling like a stodgy historical piece.

I was a little bit hesitant at first when I learned that A Rip Through Time is the first in a series, rather than a stand-alone. However, now that I’ve finished, I’m delighted that there will be more! I can’t say much about the ending or what I might expect from book #2 without entering spoiler territory… but let’s just say that I found the ending of this book very satisfying, and yet with plenty more to explore in future books. I can’t wait to see what’s next!

26Oct2020

Book Review: A Stitch in Time by Kelley Armstrong

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: A Stitch in Time
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Publication date: October 31, 2020
Length: 336 pages
Genre: Time slip/ghost story
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

Thorne Manor has always been haunted…and it has always haunted Bronwyn Dale. As a young girl, Bronwyn could pass through a time slip in her great-aunt’s house, where she visited William Thorne, a boy her own age, born two centuries earlier. After a family tragedy, the house was shuttered and Bronwyn was convinced that William existed only in her imagination.
Now, twenty years later Bronwyn inherits Thorne Manor. And when she returns, William is waiting.
William Thorne is no longer the boy she remembers. He’s a difficult and tempestuous man, his own life marred by tragedy and a scandal that had him retreating to self-imposed exile in his beloved moors. He’s also none too pleased with Bronwyn for abandoning him all those years ago.
As their friendship rekindles and sparks into something more, Bronwyn must also deal with ghosts in the present version of the house. Soon she realizes they are linked to William and the secret scandal that drove him back to Thorne Manor. To build a future, Bronwyn must confront the past.

Who doesn’t love a good time-slip/haunted house/ghost story romance? I was ready to love this book from page 1.

At age 38, Bronwyn is an established history professor, a widow of eight years, and the new owner of Thorne Manor, the Yorkshire estate she’s just inherited from her great-aunt. Some of her happiest memories are from her summers at Thorne Manor, but also, some of her worst.

As a small child, Bronwyn finds a time slip, allowing her to travel back in time 200 years to play with William, a boy her age who lives in the house. At age five, her family chalks up her William experiences to having an imaginary friend. After an absence of ten years due to her parents’ divorce, Bronwyn returns at age 15, and once again slips back and forth in time. This time around, William is also 15, and their friendship begins to blossom into love. But a family tragedy occurs in Bronwyn’s time, and she leaves Thorne Manor, seemingly for good.

As the story opens, adult Bronwyn arrives back at the manor once more. She’s convinced herself that her time with William wasn’t real, so she’s startled by a vivid dream where she wakes up in his bed. Soon, she realizes that the time slips are real after all, and she is able to reconnect with William, who is now an adult as well.

William at first is angry and tries to send her away, believing she abandoned him all those years ago. As they spend time together, he’s able to understand why she disappeared from his life, and their reunion quickly becomes passionate as they fall back into the love that started so many years earlier.

There are complications. Bronwyn, in her own time, sees ghosts. She encounters three very distinct ghosts, and all seem to have messages for her. Are they trying to warn her or scare her away?

In William’s time, she learns that he’s retreated to his country home in part because of scandal and rumors. His younger sister has disappeared, his best friend’s wife has disappeared and is presumed dead, and his former fiancée is missing as well. Gossip depicts William as a murderous mad lord, luring victims to their death on the moors. Can any of this be true? Bronwyn doesn’t believe William is capable of murder, but clearly, someone killed the people who haunt her own time, and she’s determined to learn the truth and free the spirits of the dead.

Ah, what a fun, captivating read! Yes, a big suspension of disbelief is required, but that’s to be expected in a novel where the main plot hinges on slipping through time.

I loved that Bronwyn is a mature, professional woman with a clear head on her shoulders. She’s smart and reasonable, and has also suffered in her life. She understands love and loss, and while William was her first love, he wasn’t her only love. It’s also pretty cool to see her enjoy her time in William’s world not just as a romantic interlude, but as an amazing experience as an historian, learning all she can about daily life in that era from first-hand experience.

The mystery is really well constructed and kept me guessing. The author does such a skillful job of sprinkling clues and red herrings that my suspicions really were all over the place, and I definitely went down the wrong path in my mind. I was pleased with the resolution and how well the answers fit together with what we’d learned about the various characters.

William and Bronwyn have great chemistry and mutual respect. I love that even when they’re trying to figure out what a future together might look like, Bronwyn never considers giving up her own world to live in his. She values her career, her independence, and her friends and family — she’ll spend as much time with William as she can, but she won’t make him her entire world. And to his credit, he doesn’t ask that of her.

I did find the time-slipping a little too easy. Bronwyn can basically slip back and forth at will, so that it starts to feel practically ordinary. If William has a busy day ahead, she’ll plan to pop back home to take care of her kitten and return for dinner. It starts to sound as if she’s just going down the road, rather than jumping back and forth across centuries.

Also, I had to laugh that Bronwyn has her smartphone with her when she time-slips, and that William just accepts that she can take photos and play music with her bizarre little device. And, the fact that William has apparently added to his fortune by investing based on what he learned about the future from 15-year-old Bronwyn… ummm, okay.

Still, I will freely admit that my secretly-a-sucker-for-a-good-romance heart really enjoyed the love story, and I got very caught up in the ghosts and murder mystery too.

A Stitch in Time is, plain and simple, a sweep-you-up kind of romantic tale, with great gothic elements to make it so much more.

I’ve never read any books by this author before now, but I understand that she’s a prolific urban fantasy writer and that A Stitch in Time was a big departure for her. Well done! Goodreads lists this book as the first of two, which confuses me a little because the story has a very satisfactory ending.

Still, if the story of Thorne Manor, William and Bronwyn, and time slips continues? I’ll be there for it.