Thank you NetGalley & Genevieve Jane for sending me a copy of A Love Across Time. All thoughts & opinions are my own.

Now, let me start by saying as a Torontonian since birth I was so excited for the fact that the main character was from Toronto, so let's break it down all the way from the downtown core to 1800's Germany.

A love across time follows Kathryn, a young women who is sucked into the brother's Grimm storybook kept in her attic to break a curse for true love. The book spans 4 different time periods, one in modern day Toronto and 3 in old Germany. I am all for breaking curses, frolicking through fields and ballgowns but there were some aspects I was... less than thrilled about. I was excited for the concept of the book but in execution the romance plot line felt rushed and not genuine. It was hard for me to empathise with the romance because I really was not the biggest fan of the love interest. At some points I really did just want to slap Kathryn's love interest in the face and scream JUST TELL HER WHAT'S GOING ON!! STOP BEING SO STUPID!! HOW DO U GET SUCH COOL DRESSES I WANT ONE!! (okay maybe that last one was a bit biased... but my point stands!).

 I really feel like there was so much potential but there was just soooo much happening and I feel like the main story really got lost and didn't reach the level I was hoping for and I know a writer as descriptive and conceptual as Jane can fulfill (yes, I'll admit I might have even gotten more invested in one of the side stories then the main one but that was because I really am a sucker for a cool powerful witch). 

I think for a first book and publishing this was a really fascinating concept (definitely not simple or overdone like many authors choose to do for their first piece before branching out). I enjoyed seeing little hints of the author in Kathryn's character (it's no surprise that in the publishing industry, most first author's work are just like their dream lives and heroins and a reflection of themselves). I just really wish we had more of a slowed down and paced out book, a lot of plot points would have had a better time shining if the book was slowed down and branched over several books or the novel had been a bit longer. I really always do love reviewing books from new authors and am interested to see how her work evolves and grows from this point. 

Total Review: 3.8 / 5

I recieved an e-arc of this from netgalley for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

The stories has two different time lines, one set in Germany 1800s and the other set in Toronto 2012. 

We meet Jacob, a young man who wants to write and travel the world, not marry and take over the farm. He's fallen for the one woman he can't have, the girl his parents took in alongside her brother, Giselle. 

We also meet Kathryn, a scholar who has just gotten accepted into a masters programme. 

When Katheryn is going about her day, reading, studying and talking to her cat, she bumps into a mysterious man on the street. " “Not a worry at all,” he smiled. His voice sounded warm and kind. His gaze held hers, “A pleasure bumping into you actually." He tucked a stray hair behind her ear and his hand brushed her cheek." 

I really enjoyed reading the different time lines, reading the past and present was a nice touch that added to the story. The cover is stunning. I found the writing to be on the more descriptive side but this wasn't a good thing. It ended up being a tell story, the writing was chopping and we followed the character through everything from where and why her parents were going on vacation to what book she was reading and why. I found that the descriptions had no real significance to the story for the most part. I could get over the okay writing, I don't mind that if I can enjoy a story, which I sadly didn't. 

I got to chapter 12 before I DNF this book. The writing was too choppy and I found the storyline was just too slow and didn't really see it taking off anytime soon even though are main two characters had met. For me it was just too slow paced and I couldn't get into it.

When I first read the blurb on this book, I was immediately interested. I love fairytale reimaginings/retellings and the nineteenth history - and this book has both. I loved the idea and enjoyed how the author wove in different bits from different fairytales throughout the story. I also enjoyed the chapters that alternated between time periods. Unfortunately, that's about where my enjoyment ended.

This book had a lot of potential, but for me, something felt off in the writing style. It felt like the author was doing a lot of telling instead of showing me what was happening, which stopped me from feeling a strong connection with any of the characters. It also made some parts of the book feel abrupt. For instance, the author talks about one of the characters having some friends, then them growing apart, and then having none. I would have felt this more organically if I was shown it happening instead of telling me in three throwaway lines.  (Not to mention, I didn't really feel for her since I never really 'saw' her having friends anyway.)  There were a couple other minor problems that would benefit from some attention but that weren't horrible. (Ex. Grimm inviting 'the whole country' to a party. And how they reference Germany. Germany wasn't a country when the story begins and was a 'Confederation' for another major part. 'Present-day Germany' or something similar would work better - and create a bit more intrigue.) 

I saw one reviewer liken this to a first or second draft. That notion isn't far from what I felt. All the major parts were there but it just hadn't been cleaned up and tightened.

I had high expectations for this book and feel like it could still be a good book with some editing and rewrites here and there. I found the idea original and interesting. I look forward to new ideas from the author. 

(I received this book for free in exchange for a review from NetGalley. The opinions are my own.)

2.25/5 stars!

When Jacob Grimm ended up being cursed by a witch, he tries to find love to free him from the curse.  It takes modern-time Kathryn, his graduate student, to end his curse.  This New Adult romance was inspired by the Brothers Grimm and the fairy tales readers around the world are familiar with, like Cinderella, Snow White, and more.

This book has an interesting premise that caught my attention.  However, I was not enamored with the hero, who I think the book is mostly focused on. The likable heroine needed more details to make her stand out in the story.  And the ending left me dissatisfied.

It is an okay book overall.  Nice premise, gentle heroine, and a hero who matured during the story.

**Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy.**

Well, I was really excited to recieve an e-arc for this book, the cover was gorgeous and the synopsis grabbed my interest immediately. However, the excited dwindled the more I read. The writing was mediocre, and read more like a rough draft than a final product. Words were missing or often there was a word that didn't make any sense and I had to reread over the line to figure out what was trying to said.

The storyline and plot were there, just rushed and not very well developed. I believe that if the book were split in two, one with the story of Raine and Rosslyn ( the two villains) and then another following Jacob and Katheryn's story then the book would have flowed better and left a lot more space for story development.

One positive note about this book is that there were a lot of easter eggs to well known favorites like Beauty and the Beast and Rumplestilskin. These small little bits kept me interested in the book and wanting to see what else the author mixes into her retelling.

Overall, for a kindle only release this was one of the better ones that I have read.

I wanted to love this book so much. A bookish heroine! Time travel! Fairy tales! Curses! Romance! I was drawn in by the blurb but sadly the content did not captivate. I DNF'd at less than a hundred pages. I was lost and did not understand these characters or their motivations at all.

So - I have to admit, I didn't finish it.  I wanted so much to love this book.  It is 100% right up my alley - fairy tales come to life across time.  I loved it conceptually - but it just didn't work for me.  Particularly when I looked down and was only at the 30% mark - when I felt like we had to be getting close to the end right??? I kept waiting for something to happen and by the 60% mark I still felt like I was getting background information.  Overall - I felt like each chapter gave me just enough to get interested - and then the perspective would change and never come back to where we left off.  I think more editing is needed for this book to really succeed.  

There were moments that I adored it - but then kept wanting to flip ahead to get through things.  I also did not feel any connection whatsoever for Kathryn.  She just felt very wooden - especially in comparison to Jacob.

The plot of  A Love Across Time, is very interesting and the description of the story made me want to read it. I felt really bad for the Jacob having to endure all he had to endure and even for Kathryn and I really wanted them to find their happily every after.  Some of  the alternative time lines/story lines confused me, so I had to re-read it a few times, and there was a lot of details that could be trimmed but overall it wasn’t that bad of a read.

Well the only positive i can give is that this cover is beautiful! Other then that, this was a hot mess! Why do I need to know katelyns every move? Her thoughts about everything including books she is reading or why does she care if her parents are leaving to go on a trip again? She's an adult correct? Smh. Needless to say I dnfed this one!

This book looked so exciting. It has a gorgeous cover and an extremely interesting premise with alternate timelines, fairytales and romance, and I started this book with lots of hope. I was very quickly disappointed. 

For starters, the writing is clunky. It read like a first draft, with spelling errors and all. We were given so much unnecessary information, such as which authors and books Kathryn has been reading, the story behind her parent’s antique clock, that she took the stairs rather than the elevator for cardio purposes. The passage of time was not conveyed very well, such as when one of the characters arrives at his own party and then leaves in the next sentence but it seems like maybe hours have passed. Jumping back and forward between the timelines was also hard to follow, as I would forget the names of characters and who they are as we alternated between timelines. 

The characters were extremely one dimensional. I didn’t understand the motivations behind the things they did or said, and I really struggled to relate to them. For example, Jacob vows that he doesn’t want to marry, and we are not told why. Then all of a sudden his mother presents a young woman to him and he agrees to marry her after a minute of meeting her, but then never replies to any of her letters. Also, Kathryn is an adult who still lives at home with her parents, and who from the first 10% of the book we would say has an excellent relationship with them. But then all of a sudden they die and she is complaining that they weren’t a very close family, and that their professions meant they didn’t have time for her. I am confused to say the least. I’m not sure if this is intentional, as this is often the style in which fairytales are written, but all it resulted in was me not particularly caring about or liking any of the characters. 

I’m also a bit confused about the intended audience. The book is marketed as YA, and it certainly reads like it’s for a younger audience, but our protagonist Kathryn is an adult, whose inner dialogue and thoughts make her seem like a teenager. I’m not really sure who this book will appeal to, as I myself as a 20 year old university student couldn’t relate to Kathryn, and so I’m not sure how a teenager, the supposed intended audience, will be able to. 

All up, this book needs work. I think with a lot of editing, a much clearer and faster moving plot, and more relatable/ understandable characters this could be a really nice book. As I said at the beginning, it’s an incredibly intriguing premise, but the execution of the story needs a lot of work before it becomes a book that I would recommend to others.

i really loved the use of Jacob Grimm as the main characters, I thought the plot worked really well and had a great time reading this book.

DNF. I tried. The story just jumped around too much and didn’t seem connected at all. The writing was too simplistic and didn’t draw me in.

I received this as an eARC in return for a fair review.
DNF @ 49 pages.

First, the positives.  
That's a great cover!  
And the synopsis makes the book so appealing! A retold tale? With a centuries-old curse? Bring it on!

Now to the negatives.
* How is a book about an almost grad student being marketed as YA? Unless she's some great prodigy (which I'm guessing we would hear about ad nauseum if she were), she's got to be about 22. Maybe even a little older. Nope, doesn't work for me as YA.

* The writing is very disjointed and hard to follow. This needs some serious editing. Or just a complete re-write. Something. So much tell and no show. 

* I don't need to know every move the MC (Kathryn) makes. Or the history of every item she touches. Or the synopsis of every book she even thinks about reading. Or how once again her parents are leaving her to go on a long trip (she's an adult, can't she handle it?). How does any of this actually need to be in the storyline?

* I'm not even sure what's happening in the other timeline. Something about the woods, and being lost, and then not, and then a house that disappears? I can't even follow that. I give up.

* Insta-love . . . I think, but I can't force myself to waste time reading any more. There are way to many other things out there that will be more enjoyable.  


Anyway, this is not a great book. It's not even a good book. It needs some serious help before it goes to printing. I can see a lot of potential here, but it's just not working the way it is.

A beautiful romantic book, where Jacob Grimm is cursed by a witch to be immortal, until he finds true love, A pleasant, escapist read. Thank you to  netgalley and the publishers for letting me have an advance reading copy, I enjoyed it.

I decided to give this book a chance and I am so glad I did! I loved the story it really got my heart pumping. The main characters were so interesting and I was so sad when the book was over. Great read.

With "A Love Across Time" I was intrigued by the short summary and was looking forward to a fairy tale re-telling. However, for me it felt all a bit rushed, too much and too little at the same time.

***
In the beginning I really wanted to understand how Jacob came to be, what Kathryn's role is and so on. And you also start with the story waaaaaay back. You get to understand the beginnings of Jacob and his family. And then, chapter by chapter, you time-hop. I personally don't mind, however, for me the past of Jacob was just a bit annoying to read at a certain stage. Yes, he got cursed, however, he was so fixated on one woman after the other, that for me the concept of a fairytale true love was somehow not there.
I did like the idea how Jacob came across all his stories and fairytales, them being influcenced by his past, but for me it was a bit too much.

Then he met Kathryn, it was an insta-attraction, but also, the spark was missing. Although Kathryn was very nice in the beginning, I also could not relate with her development over the book. I would have loved to spend more time on her realtionship with Jacob, but the details were more on her environment. 

For me, I personally just expected something different given the title (as in one love lasting over time). It was a nice read but with skipping quite some pages and not leaving me behind with falling for Jacob and Kathryn.

***
Ich persönlich hab mir unter dem Titel "A Love Across Time" eine andere Geschichte vorgestellt, als ich sie schlussendlich gelesen habe. Es war zwar eine Art Retelling von Märchen, aber insgesamt war es zu viel, aber auch zu wenig.
Anfangs bekommt man einen guten Einblick in die Welt von damals, und etwas Hintergrund zu Jacob und seiner Familie. Aber bereits nach ein paar Seiten kamen da für mich Fragen auf, welche nicht mehr beantwortet wurden. Danach wechselt die Sicht bzw. springt man von Kapitel zu Kapitel auch in der Zeit hin und her. Normalerweise mag ich das ganz gern, aber hier war mir das einfach iwie zu viel. Ab einer gewissen Zeit hat mit Jacob leider genervt mit seinem ständigen Drang nach der wahren Liebe.
Ja, die Idee ist interessant, wie Jacob zu seinen Geschichten kommt, aber mir war das iwie zu viel und auch das Konzept der wahren Liebe im Märchen ging hier unter.

Kathryn mochte ich anfangs, aber mir war es etwas zu wenig. Der Fokus auf Kathryn und Jakob hätte für mich mehr sein dürfen, denn die Beziehung, die Gefühle, das ging mir alles zu schnell.

Es war eine nette Geschichte, wo ich einige Seiten jedoch übersprungen habe, um zum Ende zu kommen.

This sounded great in theory, and while I'm not that big of a fan of the whole fairy tale/sci-fi genre, I thought that the premise sounded interesting enough to check out the ARC. 

Unfortunately, it fell flat for me. It felt slow and I'm hoping there will be another round of editing before the final publication. 

Kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A beautiful romantic book, where Jacob Grimm is cursed by a witch to be immortal, until he finds true love, what happens to him is tied up in the plot, so I will not spoil it. A pleasant, escapist read. Thank you to  netgalley and the publishers for letting me have an advance reading copy, I enjoyed it.

I was so excited to read this book. The cover was stunning and the description had me ready to go, but unfortunately it failed to deliver. I found myself skimming through passages, not able to keep my attention for very long.

I thought that this book would be so promising, after all the description really drew me in. But the alternative time lines and the character dialogue was just lacking. I think with some more work this would have been a solid read