A Witch in Time was a unique love story involving a lot of things that I love in a story: witches, reincarnation, and cursed love. Helen has lived multiple lives as the result of a curse she is trapped in. It's four different lives with the same characters in different scenarios/eras, and I loved watching Helen learn about her past lives. This story captivated me with the relationships, characters, and wonderful world-building around the places and eras. The characters are dynamic and realistic, and I loved Helen and her backstories.

Overall, I highly recommend this story. The way the author weaves all of the timelines flawlessly into a story about love and loss, is perfect.

Thank you Redhook, Hachette Book Group and Netgalley for providing me with a free digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

A young girl falls into forbidden love, and is cursed for it, cursed by her own mother to repeat a doomed life over and over again, only to die when she turns 34. Only the curse was an accident, a mistake. The curse was meant for him, the artist who she fell in love with. Now, haunted by a demon, Helen, formerly Sandra and Nora and Juliet, must unravel the meaning and mystery of her fate before it swallows her up again and spits her back out as somebody new, unable to break free from this cyclical doom.

A Witch In Time weaves fact and fiction together to tell us the story of the same woman, and also different women, spanning three different centuries and many distinct eras and places. The concept of reincarnation as a curse is fascinating and used to great effect as each woman discovers something new about her past self as the original Juliet, a young girl who just happened to be the daughter of a vengeful small town witch. I enjoyed this unique approach to both magic and existence in time, as neither aspect was over-utilized, and these women were allowed to be who they uniquely were in their own time, and also recognizably the same as they marched toward their inevitable demise. With any luck, or maybe some magic, Helen can escape this unforgiving curse and, perhaps, find the love she always longed for. To find out for yourself, you'll have to follow (and read!) A Witch In Time, but be warned that the demon this curse unleashed won't be banished lightly.

I stumbled across this book as I was looking for something different to read and this book delivered that in spades. The plot is intriguing and the flow of the story is seamless. Well told and egaging it's worth picking up. Happy reading!

A Witch In Time" was a fascinating read. Reminds me of the "Time Travelers Wife." I couldn't put this one down until the last page. I could not believe this was Constant Sayers debut novel! Loved it! ❤️
Helen is on a blind date with Luke Varner after her divorce from Roger, an art collector. Luke is an odd character, but Helen feels he's somewhat familiar and doesn't know why. He claims they have met before. In fact, since the 1800's, he's been her guardian. Helen thinks he's crazy and leaves.

"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."

Helen starts having dreams. And these dreams are of her as different women.
Juliet, Nora, Sandra- But through all her lives, the only constant is Luke. He's always been there to rescue her. It's a curse and she has to break the curse before her 34th birthday coming in a month.
Will she have the power to break the curse?

Thank you to Publisher and NetGalley for the eARC

This was a good book, the first 3rd was really slow and I had a hard time getting into the story, but then it really began to pick up and sprinted to the finish. I really liked all the characters, and the premise. There were some hard scenes especially in Nora’s early life. But overall it was a solid read.

A Witch in Time earns 5/5 Mysterious Lifetimes...Entertaining Epic!

Helen Lambert is the reincarnation of Juliet, Nora, and Sandra; each lifetime set in a different city, a different time, a different lifestyle with different trials and tragedies. The drama begins in Washington, D.C., 2012. Helen Lambert, through vivid dreams, begins to unravel the mystery of her past, her distant past, her connection to three women, and the tragic end her own life is destined to repeat. She learns of young Juliet LaCompte in 1895, Paris, whose mother used drastic measures to protect and free her young daughter from a tragic affair. It backfires. The curse she cast to rid Juliet of the older Marchant instead fuses her daughter to the artist and to the demon she inadvertently summoned. The trio are destined to relive their tragic connection in the subsequent incarnations ending, unfortunately, in the young woman’s death at her thirty-fourth birthday. Memories disappear each time leaving each woman at the mercy of fate. For Helen, she learns of Juliet, then Nora Wheeler of 1932, and Sandra Keane of 1970, all lives ending tragically. However, Helen is determined to uncover the mystery, as she is also coming into her powers, and hopefully making it past her birthday.

Constance Sayers has penned an engaging epic that crosses space and time, but the idea of magic or witches, even demons, was not a driving force. Descriptive language and dialogue set an intriguing premise using a first-person narrative with present-day Helen as the main character, then the perspective switches to a third-person for the stories involving the incarnations. It is easy to follow like flashbacks. Sayers’s writing style is engaging with tone changing for each era filled with google-worthy historical references and cultural issues. Beware...there are some very adult situations I felt were a bit more gratuitous than necessary to drive the drama or for character development. The journey is compelling and characters well-developed with different personalities from naive to introspective. The final resolution to Helen’s predicament was not a complete surprise, but seemed the only way to conclude...sacrifice always seems to be key to breaking any conflict or curse. But, it does end with a smile.

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.

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 ever read. I definitely would recommend it to anyone who loves to read fantasy romance and books about witches, demons, and curses.

I really, really liked this book! Meyers does a fantastic job with describing each time period and the culture of each location. I’m starting to read a lot more time travel books and this one was done beautifully, there was no confusion and it flowed seamlessly.
I was not the biggest fan of Juliet’s character, I had to keep reminding myself that maybe she acted this way because it was such a different time period than the one we live in now. Also, don’t go into this book expecting a bunch of witchcraft and spells. It’s more historical fiction with a tragic love story that has been bound into a curse by a witch and is forced to be on repeat.

Helen Lambert meets a strange man who claims that he has been her guardian since the late 1800's. Helen immediately assumes he is crazy, but he begins to convince her that he is telling the truth. Then she begins having vivid dreams. Dreams in which she was Juliet in 1890 living in Paris. Then she was Nora, a 1930's Hollywood actress. Then Sandra who plays with a rock band in the 70's in L.A. According to Luke, she is trapped in a binding curse that her mother performed. Unless she can find a way to break the curse, she only has a couple of weeks left to live before she is killed and the cycle begins all over again.
I enjoyed this book for the most part. It was a bit of a mind-bender trying to keep all of the different versions of Helen, Luke, and the man that Helen was bound to straight. I thought it would be more supernatural, but it was a little darker...more demons and contracts with the devil kind of thing instead. Overall, I thought it was a really good story.

This book grabbed my interest right away. I was looking forward to the magic, witches and romance. But as I kept reading I kept waiting for those elements to appear. I was expecting one thing and got something else. I liked the book but would have preferred more supernatural elements.
I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I received a copy of A Witch in Time by Constance Sayers from Redhook Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

I give this book 1 star. In theory, the premise of this book is great, but I wasn't a fan. It felt bland from the characters, to the long drawn out "scenes" (space fillers) and the lack of magic (magic is what grabbed my attention in the description of the book in the first place.) For me, it fell short in so many ways, plain and simple.

I really liked the plot of this book and found the characters interesting though it did have a few slow spots.

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 :)

This was an interesting book. I like Timeslip and Supernatural books so was excited after reading the synopsis of this book. While the past lives were interesting. I had a hard time connecting with Helen. The curse was a nice twist and I enjoyed the past lives more than the present one. I think that the premise is good and maybe if Helen was a bit more likeable it would have been more enjoyable. I will look for more from Constance Sayers as the writing was good, and she has a wonderful imagination,

Thanks to Redhook Books, Netgalley and the author for the chance to read this book for an honest review.

To be honest l chose this book because I thought it would be more like outlander. The only reason why I can’t give it more stars or a better review is that it just my kind of read.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an advanced copy of “A Witch in Time” by Constance Sayers. Thoughts and opinions are my own.

The premise for this book sounded really interesting, but I don’t feel like I got to read that book? Instead I read a story of a woman remembering different reincarnations of herself. Any witchy magic parts were largely shoved into the background in what was more like a mashup of different historical fiction books throughout the past lives.

There was so much info dumping that I skimmed large sections and didn’t miss anything about the plot. The past lives were more interesting than the present, but by the third past life I was just ready for the story to be over.

I would not label this a romance at all. This was just not what I expected and it was not the book for me.

I would also like to add trigger warnings as follows: rape, pedophilia, grooming, physical abuse/domestic violence, miscarriage, sterility as a curse.

2/5 stars

Helen and Robert are heading for divorce. She almost always knew it would happen. Maybe they tried too hard to have a child. Anyway, he has a new woman in his life.
Helen has started having peculiar dreams. In her dreams she is different women. Juliet was her her first dream. Juliet is 15. She is to be married to the landowner's son.
Her favorite thing is when their neighbor an acclaimed painter comes to his house in the summer. He gets her mother's permission to paint Juliet. That last summer their relationship goes much farther. When her mother finds out she is beyond angry. Juliet knew her mother was a healer. She didn't know she was a witch. She puts a curse on the painter to never be with Juliet. Since the mother doesn't really know how to cast spells. The curse ends up binding the painter and Juliet forever.
When Juliet dies she comes back as Nora, when Nora dies she comes back as Sandra. Now she is Helen.
Through all her lives there has been one constant Luke. He has always been there to rescue her and help her into her next life.
Helen realizes that to break the curse she must kill Luke. She must hurry, her 34th Birthday is coming soon.
Intriguing, in your face story! Titillating, exciting! You can't imagine what will happen on the next page!

***Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.***

3.5 stars

The story itself was pretty good, but I couldn’t bring myself to like the main character. She was to me very spoiled and selfish. At around 80% of the book, I stopped caring what happened to the main character. I did really enjoy reading about her previous lifetimes…for some reason, these characters were more real to me.

I thought this story had very interesting premise, but at the end it just left me wanting more. All the past lives really annoyed me and I just skipped Sandra's part because I felt like they didn't add anything to overall plot. Really wished we focused more on the present heroine and the whole witch/magical aspect of the book. This book did have good things going for it: witch/demon "romance", past lives, and paranormal vibes but, they twiddled with all the back and forth between past present. And they ending just seemed really rushed and not resolved.