City of Time and Magic by Paula Brackston
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publication Date: November 23, 2021

City of Time and Magic is the fourth book in the Found Things series by Paula Brackston. I have not read the previous books yet, and while I wish I had, I still was able to enjoy this book without feeling lost.

This books seems to pick up where the previous book left off, so it did feel like I was joining the story mid-way. That feeling quickly went away as I was swept away by the story and lost in this new world.

This was a beautifully written book, with fascinating characters. I loved how this was so much more than just historical fiction, there is time travel, magic, and so much more.

I can't wait to dive into the previous books, so I can get to know the characters better and I'm so excited for what is happening next! I highly recommend this book!

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This is the fourth in the time travel series from Paula Brackston. Xanthe, the protagonist and a time spinner, who can travel through time to right wrongs when she finds an old object that calls to her, is desperately trying to find her boyfriend Liam, who disappeared on her last trip home. He's been kidnapped by another spinner, and it's up to Xanthe to make sure he makes it back to their own time. She travels to Victorian London and joins forces with spinners and a witch (from another of Brackston's books) in order to take down a pair of corrupt, wealthy, powerful white men who take what they want in order to make more money.

The world-building is still a little slippery to me, and I noticed one or two small inconsistencies. Overall, this is an entertaining story and worth it if you're already invested in the series.

This is the fourth book in the series by Paula Brackston and I like each book more than the last. Xanthe is a spinner of time. Objects "sing" to her and call her to different places and times to right injustices. Xanthe has returned from her last trip to the past without Liam. She believes that Mistress Flyte has taken Liam and she is on a quest to find him. She finds three objects that sing her and she must try and determine the correct one to lead her to Liam. What she finds is a group of Spinners who call themselves the Visionary society who mess with time in ways that are dangerous. I love the way Brackston makes each character in the book fuller and brighter with as the series continues.

Thank you St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for my copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Magical in every sense of the word, I enjoyed reading this book. Through objects singing to her, Xanthe travels through time to unravel the events happening to people in her life. Excellent writing.

I liked the previous books in the series but this one didn't hold my attention. I think I was expecting a little more action from the start instead of agonizing over the articles again. Sorry, just my opinion and no reflection on the writer herself. I have liked her previous stuff but this one I couldn't get into.

This is a great series of magic, history, and time travel. This installment has many twists and turns sure to keep you glued to the page. There is much adventure and some great characters.
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I have been reading this entire series and still find it interesting and original. Normally I don’t read fantasy books but I have really loved this series and plan to read any future books too. I think the books will appeal to many different readers because they cross genres. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the arc. Opinions are my own.

After the cliff-hanger of the last book (The Garden of Promises and Lies), I was eager to jump into this book...even though I had to wait a year. I was a little lost initially, but soon the past pieces came back to me.

In City of Time and Magic, we start off with Xanthe trying to find an object to sing to her so she can find Liam, who was taken at the end of the previous book by Lydia Flyte, and is being held in an unknown location and time. With Harley, she travels back to the mid-to-late-1800s, where she meets and befriends a fellow spinner, a mysterious woman named Elizabeth, and their son -- all who help her on her journey in finding Liam. However, she soon learns that things aren't what they appear, and Xanthe learns of the Visionary Society -- an elite club where several Spinners abuse their gift of time travel to bring riches to their clients -- who must be stopped. With her friends with her, she will need to figure out how to stop them.

I did really enjoy this book. The cast of characters was interesting, albeit tame, and I really liked the fact that Harley was able to travel back with Xanthe this time! I never read The Witch's Daughter (though it's been on my TBR for a while), so the cross-over wasn't as highly-anticipated as it would otherwise have been, but I really enjoyed Elizabeth's character as well (and would've liked to know more about her background...guess it's time to finally read The Witch's Daughter...). The pacing did feel a little off at times. Close to the end of the book, I was convinced it would leave on a cliff-hanger like the previous book in the series, but thankfully everything was resolved, albeit a little too quickly, making the ending feel rushed. However, although there was a resolution to the climax, City of Time and Magic did end on an open note, leaving room for the author to revisit and expand the series in the future.

3.5, rounded up to 4 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own.

City of Time and Magic by Paula Brackston, is the fourth entry in the magical series of “Found Things.” A master of layered genres, Brackston seamlessly combines fantasy, time travel, historical fiction, and romance. Her writing flows easily, and the plot is well-paced, priming readers for a breathless conclusion. With each book, the characters become more nuanced, developed, and committed to each other. Xanthe, the central character, manages enormous challenges and accepts great responsibility. I must confess that I missed Flora as this novel gives little time to Xanthe’s mother. Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommend the entire series. I look forward to the next book in the series!

As always, I recommend readers to start at the beginning of any series and work your way through. Your affection for the characters and your understanding of the plot will grow with each book. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read a digital ARC. It was a pleasure!

It has become my early winter tradition to snuggle with a cup of hot cocoa and a new Found Things book where I get to revisit the charming small town of Marlborough and the characters I've grown so fond of over the years.

City of Time and Magic is just as magical and adventurous as its predecessors. There's intrigue, danger, suspense and a few very well placed twists. I also found it to be the most emotional out of the four books in the series. And as with the previous installments, I loved the detailed descriptions of the historical era Xanthe travels to. I very much enjoyed the new supernatural angle and also the time travel and fantasy aspect that the author has immaculately embedded into the story. Also, a welcome surprise was the sweet, heartwarming and long awaited romance between Xanthe and Liam.

I feel like this might be the last book in the series because there was no cliffhanger and everything wrapped up neatly, but if the author wishes she can definitely continue with the series. Meanwhile I am going to check out The Witch's Daughter series that I believe is related to this one.

In the fourth installment of her Found Things series (after The Garden of Promises and Lies), Brackston focuses on time spinner Xanthe Westlake’s journey to find her boyfriend Liam Adams who failed to move with her from their journey to Regency England to present day. Xanthe is troubled by the trickery of Lydia Flyte, another time spinner, who prevented Liam from returning to the present with Xanthe.

Using a writing slope she found on a trip to buy new stock for her mother’s antique shop, Xanthe focuses on the writing slope’s singing to her as it takes her back to Victorian England where she meets up with Lydia.

After her arrival in Victorian London, Xanthe meets bookbinder and time spinner Erasmus Balmoral who, along with his wife Elizabeth, a powerful witch, helps Xanthe find Liam and Lydia. Lydia explains to Xanthe that she was using Liam as a lure to get Xanthe to come to Victorian London so Xanthe could help Lydia combat members of the Visionary Society, time spinners who use their ability to travel in time for financial gain.

With some assistance from her present-day friend and pub owner Harley who decides to travel back to Victorian England with her, Xanthe works with Erasmus and Elizabeth to devise a plan to stop the Visionary Society from pursuing their time travel for nefarious purposes.

Though Brackston’s series installments can be read as stand-alones, reading the installments in series order provides additional context, enabling readers to have the complete background of Xanthe’s journey as a spinner and the author’s ability to completely transport the reader into the past. Brackston’s latest installment is especially revealing, highlighting the budding relationship between Liam and Xanthe and Xanthe’s increasing powers as a spinner.

City of Time and Magic
Found Things series, Book 4
Paula Brackston, author

Fast paced, adventurous, excitement and of course, an endearing love match....

What's not to love about Xanthe and her time travels? In this next installment of Xanthe's adventures, she must find Liam, as he was blocked from returning home with her. Harley decides he must travel back to 1878 where Liam was taken to. In traveling back, Xanthe meets Elizabeth and Erasmus. And then, the excitement and all the plotting begins to end the nefarious actions of the criminal spinners.

Ms. Brackston brings her highly acclaimed, The Witch's Daughter series together with the Found Things series in this book. And it is done quite well.

Ms. Brackston weaves a dynamic tale of adventure while crafting a story full of magic and entertainment. I always look forward to another new release from her.

While I received an advanced reader copy from Netgalley, the publisher and the author, I also chose to listen to the audio version of this novel. How exciting! The narrator was phenomenal. I thank Netgalley most highly for the digital reader copy. I chose to voluntarily leave this review.

When I opened this book I was smiling at an old friend knowing that I was going to enjoy the next installment in Paula Brackston’s “Found Things” series. She makes time travel so interesting and the interwoven mystery is artful and clever. Her characters have more depth and the surrounding colorful descriptions get better and better.

In this episode Xanthe has multiple missions but first she has to figure out why she has been betrayed, lied to, hurt and terrorized. She has some heavy lifting ahead of her, but she is not without the help of close friends as well as the addition of several new and very interesting characters. The explanations of time travel are so believable that they are just that - believable.

The definition of the story and the nod to morality is beautifully summed up: “What matters is how we proceed from the point of awakening. What we do with the challenges set us. How we behave toward others while we follow our destiny.”

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for a copy of this book that sends the reader a “protective wave of goodwill and sincerity.”

I was so excited to read the fourth book in the Little Shop of Found Things series and was absolutely ecstatic when I learned this was a crossover book with Elizabeth from The Witch's Daughter!

For current fans of the series, this fourth installment has the same flow as the the three before it with a steady pace. However, this one felt....done. this one did not end with me NEEDING to know what happens after. I hope it's not the end!

A crossover title assumes you understand all the elements from before, that may not be the case here. I found it easy to follow and a fun read. Xanthe is center of this story, she must choose from items that sing to her. Each carrying a consequence of their own. Drawn into the conflict is Liam the romantic element and part of the reason this mission is so dangerous, that and the fact her own are selling their gifts to the notorious Visionary Society. Gathering all her allies and family she must fight with all her skill set if she and the world is to survive.

I came into City of Time and Magic not having read the previous 3 books or any of the books for the author's other series which has a bit of a crossover here. So obviously, first I had some catching up to do, and second my reading experience is going to be vastly different from readers who have read all of the other books. (I am thinking that Xanthe fans will be happy with the story but that fans of the other series may be less so.) That said, I did feel that the author did do a good job of bringing me up to speed on the world and characters and tossing in enough hints as to what has gone before that I enjoyed this story and will likely check out the stories for the main character Xanthe at some point. (Especially since I won't have to wait for the resolution of cliff hangers that I saw mentioned for earlier books.) I like the idea of time travel and the fact that special objects were the key to Xanthe's ability to travel was a neat device for making that work. So, it was the gorgeous cover that drew to reading this story but it's what's between the covers that will have me checking out the previous books.

ARC courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley release date 23 November 2021 - I received no other compensation for this review

I'd like to thank Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Uggh why do I do this to myself and not realize that this was the 4th book in a series and I had not read the first 3. I was sucked in by the beautiful cover and was like I need to read this. That being said it would have been helpful to read the first three but I was able to follow along and still enjoy the story.

This is a story about a girl named Xanthe who travels through time as a time spinner. When she is returning (spinning) to her time with her friend Ian, he ends up being kidnapped by a fellow spinner Miss Flyte and doesn't make it back to his time. This story is about Xanthe who is trying to find Ian and being him home.

The book was well written and ok to follow - I would recommend reading the other books in the series first. I liked the characters and found the spinning pretty interesting, There is even a start of a romance between Xanthe and Ian that felt natural and pretty sweet. The story had a good flow to it and again that cover is amazing!

This 4th book in the series was very interesting as it pulled together people from the previous books in the time travel adventures. I enjoy a good time travel series and this one also has very likable characters

I have been a long time fan of Paula Brackston and I have read the other books in this series so naturally when this one came up for review, it was a no brainer to say ‘yes’. If you haven’t read the other books in this series, I would not start with this one. This book picks up where the last book left off and continues to build on the series and established characters.

Brackston is known for the ‘witch books’ which I have enjoyed and they are not necessarily part of a ‘series’ but they all maintain similar themes of witchcraft and a bit of a love story. The Found Things books have been different yet have the same trademark story telling style that Brackston is known for. And this book in particular introduces readers to some other characters from the other ‘witch books’ she has written which I thought was fun. I would say you don’t have to read the ‘witch books’ to enjoy this series but the Found Things books should be read in order.

While this is the last book in the Found Things series, Brackston leaves plenty of room to revisit familiar characters and expand on the possibility of spin off series. If you love witchy stories with some history, romance, and time travel this is definitely a series not to be missed! Brackstone is a magical story teller with talent and experience that will delight readers.

Summary
Xanthe meets Brackston’s most famous heroine, Elizabeth Hawksmith from The Witch’s Daughter, in this crossover story with all the “historical detail, village charm, and twisty plotting” of the Found Things series (Publishers Weekly).

City of Time and Magic sees Xanthe face her greatest challenges yet. She must choose from three treasures that sing to her; a beautiful writing slope, a mourning brooch of heartbreaking detail, and a gorgeous gem-set hat pin. All call her, but the wrong one could take her on a mission other than that which she must address first, and the stakes could not be higher. While her earlier mission to Regency England had been a success, the journey home resulted in Liam being taken from her, spirited away to another time and place. Xanthe must follow the treasure that will take her to him if he is not to be lost forever.

Xanthe is certain that Mistress Flyte has Liam and determined to find them both. But when she discovers Lydia Flyte has been tracking the actions of the Visionary Society, a group of ruthless and unscrupulous Spinners who have been selling their talents to a club of wealthy clients, Xanthe realizes her work as a Spinner must come before her personal wishes. The Visionary Society is highly dangerous and directly opposed to the creed of the Spinners. Their actions could have disastrous consequences as they alter the authentic order of things and change the future. Xanthe knows she must take on the Society. It will require the skills of all her friends, old and new, to attempt such a thing, and not all of them will survive the confrontation that follows. (summary from Goodreads)

Review
One of the things that I enjoy most about Brackston’s novels is her ability to create realistic plots that aren’t actually realistic at all. Time travel? Sounds impossible right? Except in Brackston’s books I find myself nodding along and thinking ‘ya makes sense’ and next thing I know I am completely invested in the story. I love how realistic everything feels and how well researched the history parts are. This book is no different and I loved reconnecting with familiar characters and a few new ones. As I mentioned earlier, Brackston’s ‘witch books’, also known as The Witches Daughter books, are mostly standalone reads but here in this series we have a cross over from this series to the witch books. I am not sure how I felt about that. On one hand, I liked what Elizabeth brought to the story and thought it was fun to connect with other characters from some of Brackston’s books, but on the other hand I felt like it was almost unnecessary to have a cross over but then again Elizabeth did add quite bit to this one (no spoilers!). So I don’t know, ultimately I just went with it and it was fine but it felt a little meah for me.

I will say that since I have read this series from the beginning, I think it got better as the books went on. Then I read the first one, I thought it was pretty good and was interested to see where things went and the more books I read in the series, things developed well and now seeing the series into the fourth book is so satisfying and I can honestly say the books got better and better as the larger narrative went on. Though this book is a little less action throughout. It’s still has quite a bit of things happening but not as action filled and some of the other books in the series. This one is hard to review since I don’t want to give any spoilers!

The thing that stands out to this book for me though is how Xanthe develops as a Spinner. In the earlier books she grows and changes appropriately but here we really see her come into her own. I also love her relationship with Liam. He’s such a great match for Xanthe and I just love them together and fans of the series will be excited to see Harley also time travels in this one. If you have enjoyed the other books in this series, no doubt you will love this one an be excited for what the future holds either within this series or via spinoffs/crossovers. I really enjoyed my time in Victorian England and getting reacquainted with some of my favorite characters.

Book Info and Rating
320 pages, hardcover

Published: November 23, 2021 by St Martin’s Press

ISBN: 9781250260697

Free review copy provided by publisher, St Martin’s Press, in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and in no way influenced.

Rating: 4 stars

Genre: historical fiction, witch lit, time travel

Title: City of Time and Magic
Author: Paula Brackston
Genre: Historical fiction
Rating: 5 out of 5

City of Time and Magic sees Xanthe face her greatest challenges yet. She must choose from three treasures that sing to her; a beautiful writing slope, a mourning brooch of heartbreaking detail, and a gorgeous gem-set hat pin. All call her, but the wrong one could take her on a mission other than that which she must address first, and the stakes could not be higher. While her earlier mission to Regency England had been a success, the journey home resulted in Liam being taken from her, spirited away to another time and place. Xanthe must follow the treasure that will take her to him if he is not to be lost forever.

Xanthe is certain that Mistress Flyte has Liam and determined to find them both. But when she discovers Lydia Flyte has been tracking the actions of the Visionary Society, a group of ruthless and unscrupulous Spinners who have been selling their talents to a club of wealthy clients, Xanthe realizes her work as a Spinner must come before her personal wishes. The Visionary Society is highly dangerous and directly opposed to the creed of the Spinners. Their actions could have disastrous consequences as they alter the authentic order of things and change the future. Xanthe knows she must take on the Society. It will require the skills of all her friends, old and new, to attempt such a thing, and not all of them will survive the confrontation that follows.

I love this series! This is a time travel novel that doesn’t gloss over the likely challenges of everyday life in the past (At least, they’d definitely be challenges for someone from the present.). I wouldn’t even be able to dress myself!

I thoroughly enjoy the writing and worldbuilding, but the characters are my favorite part of this series. Xanthe herself is flawed yet determined, and the supporting characters are just as likable. The conflicts, challenges, and choices she faces had me completely enthralled.

Paula Brackston lives in Wales. City of Time and Magic is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)