Thank you to NetGalley for a Kindle ARC of A Witch in Time.

Wow, I was really looking forward to reading A Witch in Time.

The premise sounds fantastic; a young woman named Juliet is doomed to live over and over due to a curse, destined to repeat the same mistakes she made centuries ago when she fell in love with a married man and artist.

After two centuries, something changes. Juliet begins to remember her past and her many reincarnations. Does this mean she can do something about the curse before its too late?

A Witch in Time had everything; magic, a curse, demons! a tragic love affair! More tragedy!

Woo hoo! Count me in!

Then, I started reading.

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

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 against the law; she's underage which makes him a sexual predator.

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.

There is also 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?

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 had no idea what she was doing and the revelation of Juliet's true parentage, but then the author put the kibosh on that by making Juliet totally magic-less.

The writing was good and the premise had huge potential to be dark, scary, macabre but Juliet was hard to root for and the premise the curse was based on, the relationship between her and the artist, was weak.

So, I thoroughly *enjoyed* this book. In the advanced copy there were numerous typographical mistakes, but the story was captivating. I read mostly nonfiction, so I need my fiction to keep moving and usually have a little history-- a touch of magic doesn't hurt. This one ticked all the boxes and I was sad when it was over!

I honestly don’t know what went wrong with this book. I have to admit that I let the cover take me in and in all honesty, the idea of this book sounded amazing and just the kind of thing that I would love. Yet from the first page I was a little unsure. It just wasn’t what I was expecting at all. It was okay, but there were moments as I got further and further into the book where I wasn’t sure if I was just loosing interest with the story or the writing might have changed? I’m still not sure.

I received an ARC by the publisher in exchange for my honest opinion


Initially, the story began strong, good structure and description. I liked how it flowed between the characters and scenarios going on. But when I got to about chapter 6, I felt a shift in the writing; it began to read almost like an outline, and not a polished novel. In one scene where a rather dark ritual takes place, it was all over the place as far as what was happening to who and how they dealt with it. It was jarring and rather distracting. For the first time since picking up the book, I was disappointed. The scene was extremely important to the plot, I mean it was the ritual that binded the curse and I felt emotionally distant during the whole thing. It was the freaking turning point for the main character and I felt nothing. And this feeling of distance remained throughout the rest of the novel. There were some scenes that took you into what the character was feeling and thinking, but most did not. The simplest way to put it is that this novel did not have that balance of summarizing to scene. The whole novel felt like one big summary of what the character experienced. I felt like the author was telling me what happened instead of showing me what happened at that moment. I wasn’t there with Helen or any of her past selves because everything they experienced was told to me, not shown. There was too much emotional distance between me, the reader, and Helen throughout the whole novel. Not only that, but there were scenes that had NOTHING to do with the plot. Whole paragraphs would carry on about something 100% irrelevant to the plot or had no bearing on the events to follow.
There were a few scenes that felt more like actual scenes rather than the usual summarization that the rest of the manuscript carried, but they were minor scenes and really held little to no relevance to the rest of the story. This was the biggest issue I had with the writing, but that’s not to say I didn’t have others. For instance, when there was a scene with two people, the author would switch back and forth between their name and their pronouns. Example: “Juliet's mother, now laying face down on the chalk circle began chanting. The woman reached out and grabbed the girl's ankle.” There are only TWO people in this scene and they are both referenced in two different fashions. I thought maybe it was a typo that got missed but I saw it done several times. The first time I noticed it I was thrown for a loop. I thought maybe there as a third character that had yet to be introduced. It’s a writing style that I can not get over, and every time it came up I just rolled my eyes.

Another issue I had was the lack of character development. There was no drive or desire that fueled each version of the characters. They were only focused on gaining the affections of the other and less on having a dark curse and demon tied to their lives. For a book about witches, there was very little magic and more high school romance. Not what I expected, nor was it what I wanted.

All in all, this novel did not live up to the expectations I had, I really hope this manuscript goes through another round (or two) of edits before it is released next February because it holds A LOT of potential, but it’s a hot mess right now.

This is an enjoyable book about a young girl who is condemned by her mother to die at the age of 34, then to be reborn again. She lives four exciting lives. No spoilers! I liked it very much! Recommend!
I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley. Thank you, Netgalley!
All opinions are my own.

Very interesting story. Very complex with a lot of depth. It got a little slow in places for me and was a bit too long. Overall really enjoyed the characters and how the stories intertwined. It would have been easy for each story to have mirrored the one before it, but each timeline was very distinct. Would read more from Sayers again.

I enjoyed this book so much more than I expected. While the write up made it sound interesting, I’m always leery of a book that incorporates “for fans of...” in the description, particularly when the book(s) being compared are massively popular, such as Outlander.

The detailing and historic research on the earlier lives of the main character are well done. I found myself caring for several characters in the book. The historic settings were easy to visualize. A truly enjoyable read.

I requested this book because it was compared to "A Discovery of Witches" which I loved. However, this book can't compare. It had a lot of promise, but it just fell short for me. I couldn't get into this book. I didn't fall in love with it like I had hoped to. It was okay, but I probably wouldn't read it again.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy free of charge. This is my honest and unbiased opinion of it.

I was pumped for this based on the description. Past lives, romance, general witchiness - sounds like the perfect October read, yeah? I don't know what went wrong here, but I was not feeling it. I finished it but I didn't like it.

I LOVED this book...the plot, the authors style of writing, the historical and magical aspect, and the characters! I can’t say enough about A Witch In Time. It’s one of those books that once I began grabbed me from the first paragraph. I didn’t want to put it down and yet I didn’t want it to end.
Newly divorced Helen meets a blind date who already seems familiar to her, and he tells her they have met before in previous lives. Helen then starts to have vivid dreams with memories of a past life she comes to realize is her own. She began her first life in the late 1800’s in the French countryside as Juliet, a 15 year old girl who becomes the muse and lover of the painter Marchand. When her mother discovers Juliet’s pregnant she performs a powerful witches ritual which then kills her, Juliet loses the baby, and is sent to Paris to live with her administrator Luke, who exposes her to a new world of culture and way of life. But Juliet can only think of her love Marchand, and is devastated when he wants nothing to do with her.
Her next two lives are as Nora and Sandra, set in Hollywood in the 30’s and LA in 1970. With each life Juliet has, Marchand is in every one, as is Luke. The curse cast by her mother was so powerful she is doomed to loop lives that end too early.
The historic background of Paris, Hollywood and the music scene in LA is very meticulously detailed and adds an interesting backstory with each life.
Grab this book and carve time out of your day because you won’t put it down. I’d give it 10 stars if I could.

I simply do not like this, it felt to me like a cobbling of stories that I've read and if I'm going to read stories like that I'd rather read the original books.

I'm a huge fan of books with a supernatural theme and this one was done wonderfully. I really enjoyed the way the author intertwine the use of the various characters going back and forth Through Time with the main character and her various past lives. It worked very well for the plot and the character development was excellent. The main character, is bound to a demon for her entire life by a mother that was trying to save her back in the 19th century. Without going into too much detail we find that this demon comes to have feelings for the main character. I had a difficult time putting this book down and ended up completing it within 24 hours. I've already recommended reading it to four friends. I enjoyed the various locations and time periods of the past lives and just felt that the characters were excellently put together. Kudos to the author.

I would like to thank the author/publisher/Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for fair and honest review.