This was a so-so book, not the best, but not the worst. From the blurb, I got a Beauty and the Beast vibe, with true love breaking a curse. However, I felt like this book was a bit ambitious in trying to fit in different fairy tales, including Rumpelstiltskin showing up and some aspects of his tale involving straw to gold.
Additionally, I felt like this was a draft that needed a bit more polish, another set of eyes to really make it shine. Some of the "telling not showing" was off putting and I found it difficult to connect with Kathryn and Jacob, especially Jacob in the early chapters.

A story that started well, but as it turned the pages, it began to lose its way.

With an end completely removed from what was raised at the beginning, there was an attempt with the return of some characters in the last pages but in any case a very different plot was felt.

Just couldn’t get into this book. As mentioned by others, writing was off, and I found it very difficult to follow.  Great premise but overall execution wasn’t good.

This book was received as an ARC from GenZ Publishing - Zenith Publishing in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

Such an enticing book with a very attractive plot. I loved how Genevieve Jane introduced each character and intertwined it with a popular fairy tale to describe the love and conflict between Kathryn and Jacob and how they need each other more than ever to survive this journey and break this curse and fix the mess Jacob has got himself into. This book reminded me a lot of The Book Jumper and Jumanji all in one. I was glued to each page from beginning to end and could not take my eyes off of it. It was like looking at an attractive man from a distance without him seeing you and when the book was finished, he disappeared.

We will consider adding this title to our YA collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

Like everyone else who read this book, I DNF'd it pretty quickly. The pacing was off, the writing felt so childish, and there were too many side stories and characters (especially the mini one in the beginning) that seemed like it was going nowhere, or had nothing to do with the rest of the story. I love everything fairytale and Grimm's Brothers, but this was seriously disappointing.

“This was not the forever I was looking for.”
•
I have received an advanced reader copy thanks to netgalley. Let me start this saying that this story had so much potential but it definitely needed more editing. I found most things very confusing, time passes and we don’t actually know what happens in between.. things are quite rushed and feelings are not developed in a good way. Nonetheless I have been able to feel a connection with Jacob and Kathryn, especially because Kathryn reminds me of myself; indeed she loves studying and reading as much as I do. When she meets Jacob she immediately feels there’s something between them but he is her teacher and she doesn’t want to screw up her carrier for a love that could go wrong. On his end Jacob is disillusioned, he thinks he’ll never find love because it has been stripped from him too many times. The only love he knows is the one for his stories because he is the great Jacob Grimm and his tales are known by everyone on earth. When he meets Kathryn he really thinks he has found the one that could break his curse, but he is afraid. During his life he has tried many times to find his happy ending, the problem is that he infiltrated in stories that were not his own. He actually lives his fairytales like Cinderella and Snow White and every time he thinks:”she is the one”, the girl in question falls for another one. Maybe the moral is that you cannot force love, you cannot live a fairytale that is not your story, you must find your happy ending by your own. The witch that cursed him is a very interesting character, she grieves deeply for the loss of her daughter and she grieves so bad that she cannot see it’s not actually Jake’s fault and that nonetheless he is not the same man anymore.. because even if he has been damned, thanks to his curse he has learned a lot of things and he is finally ready for true love.

A Love Across Time by Genevieve Jane sounded so intriguing with a gorgeous cover, but once I started reading, I struggled to finish it. The story seemed lacking, and the plot did not pull me in.

DNF, and I'm so sad about it. The cover and the blurb really sucked me in, but the story itself is... not it. There are two timelines, one dimensional characters, confusing storylines, and the 20% or so that I read needed a heavy edit. The premise is there, but unfortunately, this one didn't deliver.

✨A Love Across Time✨

Thank you to netgalley, the publisher and the author for sending me an e-arc. 

To me, DNF-ing a book is a cardinal sin. I hate it and I try to push through but sadly after a few weeks I have to concede. I dnf at 23% 😔

I want to start by saying, the premise of the book is what drew me to it and I was so excited to read it. Not to mention that cover is absolutely stunning😍

For me, it was a bit all over the place. I’m not one to shy away from multiple povs/timelines but there was far too much going on for me to be able to make much sense of it, add in that there were multiple fairy tales seemingly at play it was just too much and I couldn’t keep up with the story. I may try and go back to it at a later date but for now I have to move on. I really hope other people will enjoy this more than i did.

*SPOILER*
I found the suicide that triggers a series of events within the book to be quite distasteful and honestly it put me off.

This book is one of those books that you read the synopsis of and you know you have to check it out. I absolutely loved the concept of this book and the storyline. I enjoyed how the author messed with the timelines without confusing the reader.
In these aspects, I really did like the book however, the writing falls short. It was very mechanically written and not consistent. For example, many characters would say one thing and then in the next paragraph do the exact opposite. While this is completely valid with an inner monologue provided, there was none in this case. This made it a bit hard to keep up with what's happening. 

I feel that the book would have been so much more enjoyable if it had more descriptive writing with greater insight into the characters. That being said, I really admire the originality of the concept of the book and would like to see more.

Completely different!

A Love Across Time is an absolutely different book. The characters and storyline are completely unique to it. For example the witch and all actions are almost unexpected. One would like to make her the ultimate evil but she turns out to be a character that is just affected by the evil as much as are others.

The unpredictability of the novel at the end is commendable. Just when you think you know how it ends, Genevieve Jane hits you with another twist. 

However, the narrating could be a little more fluid as it appears to be disjointed and the story telling. As a result, it really detracts from the story and spoils all the beauty of the book.

Usually, I love stories inspired by fairy tales, but this one was not one of them. The writing was put as if telling a story when we speak to children and that was okay. One of the aspects that made me DNF the story was the back and forth with several timelines from different characters. It was difficult to remember each character, especially when the character's name wasn't mentioned in the chapter, also making it difficult to connect with the story. So, I DNF at 20%. It didn't work for me.

<b>Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced reader copy of this book. All views and opinions in this review are my own </b>

The premise of this book is so good. Its the premise every fairy tale lover has been lookin for alas it was realy roughly executed. Following different timelines, fairytales and romanece <i> A Love 
Across Time </i> follows Kathryn, a young women/ girl who is thrown into the Grimm storybook  to break a curse for true love. 

Jacob, our other main character, was interesting but his motives and drivers where shifting at times. The intention behind this character is so interesting still he did not convinve me, he felt one dimensional and he, in my opinion, was just throwing excuses at the air. 
Kathryn was weird? we are told she's 2oish however she felt completly 16ish like she was one of those early 2000's YA characters, not that this is bad she just felt too inmature for the age and intentions... also their whole relationship felt like insta love. 
While there were parts I enjoyed and have great potential some parts didnt made sense and just left me a little bit confused. I believe this could be and AMAZING story with a little bit more character development and editing. 

I wanted to love it, I really really did and even though I finished it it was a little bit dull and long. 
The author has an incredible idea. She just didn't execute it in a way that worked for me.

This book is quite the mystery to me because I have no idea who's supposed to be the intended audience. 
The book claims Katelyn to be in her twenties but she behaves like a high school student. Other than that, she is probably the flatest character I've ever read about. She's so boring and annoying and at some point, I did not give a single thought to her anymore. Which is a bit problematic since she is the main character.
Jacob wasn't much better - self-centred and with no noteable character traits whatsoever.
Not to mention the worst thrope in a book, at least in my opinion: Instalove. Though this book requires a new word because this was even worse than Instalove. 
The writing was... Childish and boring. The author took "show, don't tell" too literally and told absolutly nothing. It was constant showing and I grew annoyed of it incredibly fast.
This book has a nice cover and a great, great blurb, but the execution is not meeting the expectations.
I received a free copy by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you netgalley for giving me an earc of this book!!
So I abslutley loved the idea of the book I was intrigued since I read the description of it. I've loved fairy tales since I was a child so this book was a very good read for me. It felt like a retelling of all my favourite tales and it was so enjoyable. I may have had a problem with the main character Jacob I found him a little foolish to be honest and I hate foolish characters but still I adored his relationship with Kathryn I loved her so much. The writing style was a bit I don't know how to say it more simple than needed I had a little problem with that too but overall I could say that I enjoyed this and I hope to see more of jacob and Kathryn

Did not finish at 20%

The premise sounded so appealing! Romance and fairy tales, gorgeous cover… The first chapter reminded me of Rapunzel and Cinderella at the same time, it was so promising!

But the plot does not drag me in at all. I still can’t figure out exactly how the past and present timeline will be connected. I admit that I do not usually really enjoy books with two timelines, and this one is not an exception so it may be a better book for someone who usually enjoys this style. Also, the characters were just bland. Not bad, but I did not like them or cared about what would happen to them.

There are some parts with lots of useless details and some parts when a few hours seem to pass between one sentence and the other, it was confusing at times. The writing felt choppy and sadly I couldn’t make it past chapter 12. 

I feel bad about not finishing a book, but I tried to read this one for two weeks and I only managed to read the first 60 pages or so.

This book was a DNF and the first one I’ve had in a long time. The writing was very choppy and all over the place. There were spelling errors throughout. The cover and description really drew me in but the writing did not do it for me. It was very hard to get into and the characters seem one dimensional with no growth through what I’ve read. This book needs some work and revising, it’s a good idea for a story just not written well at this time.

I really wanted to like this book. It has all the makings of a very interesting story, fairytales, time travel some romance. But it fell short. I got over the hopping from timeline to timeline, but there was so much of it that it was hard to connect with any one character. There comes  a point in the story where Kathryn meets up with Grimm and he uses some hudoo to mess around with her memory. Then it's all insta love on her part and it felt rushed and not genuine. It bothered me that she basically got memory ruffied. At that point I skipped to the last chapter to see how it played out. The ending was ok, but again, it left me flat.

DNF at 18%

I try and avoid dnf’ing books as much as I can, but i had no motivation to continue reading this. The plot didn’t drag me in at all, and I was super confused as to how the two different timelines would connect. I’m normally not a fan of past/present timelines, and this book wasn’t an exception. I also didn’t really like or understand the characters, so this book was just a miss for me.

A Love Across Time lured me in with a book description of what seemed to be a perfect fairy tale romance. I found Jacob's character to be intriguing. At times I disliked him, and there were other times I cheered him on. He could seem callous one moment, and almost sweet the next. I didn't connect as well with Kathryn. Her character came across a little flat for me. It felt like she was dropped into the middle unexpectedly, and the author didn't dig deep enough for her character. It was like getting a quick glimpse of someone and being expected to fall in love at first sight. 

While there were parts of the book I enjoyed - such as the imagery - I did find the constant jumps from past to present, to even further in the past, with a focus on multiple couples left me a bit dizzy.  I applaud the author's attempt at not subjecting me to a large info dump when a new character came into play, but leaving a chapter about Rose only to jump into her mother's past, then leap forward again and focus on yet another character, made the story feel less cohesive. Even once the book moved on to other characters, it continued to hop all over the place. Other aspects were glossed over a little too much. We're told" about the curse on Jacob, but it felt like the author failed to show us how it affected him. I think the concept would have worked better if each part had been lengthened and the story broken up into two or three books. 

I wanted to love it, but every new chapter seemed to pull me further from the story. The author has an incredible idea. She just didn't execute it in a way that would pull me in and make me wish the story never ended. Perhaps it's merely a case of a new-ish author who hasn't quite found her groove yet. 

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read A Love Across Time. The review above is my honest opinion.