Plot: Portia goes through the time slip because Miranda, her sister, was meant to be back from the 18th century already, but isn't. When Portia arrives in the 18th century, she has to travel to where Miranda was headed. Along the way, she encounters two highwaymen, moves into a haunted, crumbling castle, and falls in love. A busy time.

What I Loved: I really think Armstrong does atmosphere so well. I don't know that this was my favorite book in the series, but the gothic castle vibes were immaculate.

What I Struggled With: I mean, truly, overall, I really did adore this one, but also I was a little wishy washy on how much I actually believe in the romance. I think the end, particularly, had me a little too skeptical of the overall longevity. This was one where I felt like the need for a little more breathing room for the couple to be together at the end of the book would have been extremely beneficial. Or even maybe having more conversations about the future during the course of the book.

Who I Would Recommend This To: While I think theoretically this series could be read as stand alone, I would strongly discourage anyone from starting with this installment in particular as I think it builds so much from book three. And, for that matter, the time slip isn't explained at all, so I also think it would be best if you've read all of the books, but that's just my opinion. Otherwise, if you're looking for a book with excellent vibes for Fall, definitely pick this one up! The atmosphere is excellent.

As per the author’s note at the start of this book, this is the fourth in a series of interconnected books but, with a tiny bit of background regarding time travel she gives in the note, each book can largely be read as a standalone. You just lose a little of the cameo/relationship building between each book’s MC. Personally, I read the first book, A STITCH IN TIME, immediately before picking this one up, so I had the concept fairly well in hand, but I haven’t read book two or three yet.
I liked the first book, but I think I preferred this one more.
I’d say the time travel aspect is less prevalent. For one, Portia pretty much stays in one timeline throughout the story, and for two, having the character go from eighteenth to seventeenth century is less noticeable to a modern reader. There are a couple of notes about fashion, but it’s not as obvious a contrast as STITCH, where you have the protagonist showing her phone to a Victorian love interest. Whether that makes the story more or less enjoyable will be a totally personal reader preference.
Portia is a really good protagonist – calm and level-headed, timid but brave. I liked the historical romance here. The chemistry between Portia and her love interest, and their relationships with the supporting cast were a lot of fun. The time travel and paranormal storylines that bracket that enemies-to-lovers, grumpy/sunshine romance well. There was lots of Gothic romance atmosphere woven throughout the setting, with highwaymen, unsolved murders, marriages for money, and a crumbling castle.

Dr Portia Hastings steps though the stitch in time back to the early eighteenth century to find out what has happened to her sister Miranda and her brother in law Nicholas who had gone to provide help to the family of a murdered highway man. The last of her family to endeavour time travel she is less interested in adventure than her strong sense of duty. We are quickly swept into a disorientating world with clashing sensibilities when Portia is herself is stopped by highwayman and her medical skills are required. This is an enjoyable fairly classic history romance adventure with added supernatural elements. Although it is readable and moves along at brisk pace, I felt that the time travel element ( in this story at least I have not read the others in the series) plus a ghost mystery adds enough to raise this book above others of this genre. However if you like this mashup of elements you may like it. Thank you to the publisher for providing a review copy.

Thank you for NetGalley for providing me with this book for review. Reading the latest installment of 'a stitch in time' series was an enjoyable way to spend an afternoon.

Another great story from Kelley Armstrong! I love the paranormal aspect of the ghosts in this story but the mystery was fantastic, I was not able figure out either mystery before they were revealed. I love that each book in the "A Stitch in Time" series centres around the manor but focuses on different characters. You might see characters from previous stories pop-up but they are always in the periphery. Looking forward to reading the novellas next, hopefully before the next book in the series is released.

Armstrong builds her stories on strong characterisation and convincing depiction of romantic relationships, and even with a paranormal thread lacing through them, human emotion remains the main building block of all her stories. Definitely an unputdownable read for me

Time travel paired with gothic romantic suspense is a heady temptation, and I wasn’t about to resist the pleasure of the latest in Kelley Armstrong’s "A Stitch in Time" series of standalones. A Castle in the Air is the fourth book, but only my second venture into the series. I read book two, A Twist of Fate, and I was able to appreciate the story perfectly fine because Ms. Armstrong filled in the story background nicely.



A Castle in the Air follows Portia Hastings introduced as a side character in the previous book who now gets her own adventure through the stitch in time hidden to all but a few. I enjoyed how the author doesn’t keep hitting reset with each new person who uses the time stitch. In the beginning of the series, of course, it was a scary new thing, but now a small circle knows of it. The action-packed plot is about a combination of relationships, and the intrigue is atmospheric and suspenseful, involving ghosts, crumbling castle, and a mystery needing solving rather than focused on the time travel element.

Portia’s match is reluctant though attracted with his focus on his troubles. I love that she is most definitely an older sister in nature and has chosen nurturing work as a doctor, too. She faces down highwaymen, ghosts, and someone not excited to have her riling up the earl; and she faces down that cranky man, too.



As to that ghostly, atmospheric part, like past stories, the ghosts are real enough, though the villains are flesh and blood. I enjoyed the bit of thrill that made me a little nervous as Portia navigated through her adventure, hitting surprises and twists. Series fans will enjoy seeing familiar faces, though this is very much Portia and Benedict’s story.

Another series hit! I can recommend it to those who enjoy a mashing of genres in a historical setting.

A Castle in the Air is the fourth book in Kelley Armstrong's A Stitch in Time series. I haven't read the first three (surprise, surprise), but this story stands alone, though there were some characters from a previous book here. I'm a huge fan of Kelley Armstrong and I've mostly read her mystery and thrillers books. This one, however, was a mashup of historical romance, mystery, highwaymen and time travel. Oh, did I mention ghosts? It all sounds silly, doesn't it? But it worked. I loved loved LOVED it! This book was FUN. That's something we all can use a little bit of right now, isn't it?

Portia Hastings has spent a lot of her life getting her sister Miranda out of trouble. But now Portia has to go from the nineteenth century to the eighteenth to do it; she must look for Miranda, who has not returned home at the appointed time. It's not long when she and her odious traveling companions are besieged by highwaymen. When one is injured, Portia immediately helps the man, as she was trained as a doctor. Her traveling companions desert her, leaving her with the criminals! The older highwayman demands that she accompany them and continue to treat the wounded man. They soon arrive at a crumbling castle occupied by Benedict Sterling, the destitute Earl of Ravensford. The man is in desperate need of funds, and his aunt decides a ball is just the thing. All Benedict has to do is marry a wealthy woman and grant her the coveted title of countess. And what will his bride receive in return? A very gruff, cranky and disagreeable earl! Portia agrees with a scheme to make Benedict look more appealing to a possible bride, and she will also continue to look for her sister. There's a bit of a problem, though...a ghost in the castle is attacking Portia and trying to get rid of her. Ha! Good luck with that, ghost!

This book was absolutely delightful! It was a fun story with lots of different things going on at the same time, but it wasn't confusing at all. I thought it would be overly absurd, what with time travel and ghosts, but Ms. Armstrong handled it beautifully, making it feel like a thrilling carnival ride. As great as the story was, it was the characters who shined the brightest. Portia was a doctor, though she had to act like a nurse when treating patients, it being the 1800's. She had a satisfactory life, if a little boring. She never wanted to time travel like her sisters, but she went through the time stitch when she needed to find Miranda. Portia handled herself perfectly fine in the earlier century. She managed quite well when the highwaymen stopped the carriage. She wanted to make sure the injured man would recover. As time went on, she developed quite a skill using sarcasm. (I speak sarcasm fluently, so I admired her turns of phrase.) Portia was fascinated with the crumbling castle and wanted to explore it. And then we have Benedict. He's one of the grouchiest heroes ever, but I absolutely adored him! He was grumpy with everyone, but Portia could handle him with sarcasm and aplomb. Benedict's father left his estate with barely any funds, plus there was a bad drought that made things dry and barren. He desperately wanted to turn things around, be able to repurchase the properties he had to sell, and improve the lives of his tenants. He and his brother Jude had to use creative ideas to obtain much-needed money. Benedict wasn't thrilled to have to basically sell himself for funds. He and Portia argued quite a bit, and they were both very stubborn. But their attraction and chemistry were off the charts. There were some very lovely and steamy intimate times, when Benedict would eventually shut up and stop arguing long enough! He handled things awkwardly and almost ruined everything, but true love will prevail. Supporting characters were all very good, but I had two particular favorites. Brother Jude was everything Benedict was not: sweet, funny and very charming. I just loved him. And puppy Lyta had to be one of the cutest puppies ever! I read somewhere this is the last book in the series. Say it ain't so! At least I can comfort myself that I have the three previous books to read.

I received an ARC of this book courtesy of the publisher and NetGalley. I received no compensation for my review, and all thoughts and opinions expressed are entirely my own.

This is a wonderful book for historical fiction/romance lovers that has a bit of a spooky twist.

Portia time travels into the past, and gets tangled up with some highway men. She eventually ends up at Lord Stirling's castle. She uses her doctor skills, but a ghost starts trying to harm her while she is there. Of course while all of the trying to figure out about the ghost, Portia starts to cozy up to Ben(Lord Stirling).

I had a lot of fun with this book with all of the different aspects to it. The ghost part and mystery part put me in the mood for Halloween, and the drama with Ben trying to save his land kept me interested in how it would play out. As always, I enjoyed the historical romance part too, with some time travel thrown in. I definitely have been liking Kelley Armstrong's books that are in the time travel themes.

Thank you to Victory and Netgalley for providing me a copy of this ARC for my honest review.

This might be my favorite of the series. It would be hard to pick my favorite between this one and the first one in the series. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes mysteries, time travel books, and historical romance. I really liked Portia and Benedict. Portia brought so much humor to the book. I found myself trying not to laugh out loud while sitting by myself in public. This story felt like it ended too fast, It is almost 400 pages, so I know it wasn’t short, but i couldn’t put it down.

I love this series and it just continues to get better every time. I loved Portia and Benedict's story! Dashing highwaymen, a destitute Earl in need of a lady to save him and his home, castles, vengeful ghosts, time travel, a cute dog, and a strong female main character determined to be more than a man's property... this book is full of action, fun banter, romance, and a little paranormal mystery. This has become one of my favorite authors and a definite must read every time.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This review was originally posted on Books of My Heart


Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Kelly Armstrong has done a fabulous job with her Stitch In Time series. While I don't accurately know the specifics of some of the time periods, they are interesting to see in these stories. The traveling is a bit magical, unreliable and not deeply explained.

Portia is the sister of the main characters in the last two books. She's been quite serious, working hard on her medical training, taking after her father, the doctor. Portia is really well developed here. She is really smart, honest and puts up with no nonsense. It's a joy to get to know her in A Castle in the Air.

Portia is worried about Miranda not coming back in a timely fashion. She decides she must go through the stitch to find and help her, even though she has had no interest in going to different times previously. She finds a ride to the town where her sister and husband planned to travel but the family's coach she travels with gets stopped by highwaymen. The family is quite disgusting, as the wealthy can be. They try to let just Portia be robbed but the crooks get the family's money also. When the rude son stabs one of the robbers, Portia is quick to come to his aid with medical treatment.

Portia ends up getting to know and appreciate the two highwaymen. They are brothers left in a tough situation when their father died. I won't spoil the details but Portia comes to care about their plight. They have a ghost in their home who is a bit determined to harm her. Eventually, Miranda is able to confront the ghost to resolve the issue. Portia is the one who really figures out the whole mess from Miranda's original errand, to the highwaymen's problems and to how the ghost was murdered.

As with many Historical Romance type books you don't need to have read the others to enjoy the story but it always helps. There is a stitch in time in the Thorn Manor that helps our characters travel between times. The Stitch has a bit of a mind of it's own and while sometimes it doesn't do what you want it does tend to do what you need.

Portia is the most levelheaded and timid of the sisters she was raised with. She is a healer by trade and would be a doctor if she could, but being a woman has limited her in this vein. Portia isn't the one who goes on adventures, she usually just listens to the adventures of her sisters, while she is the stable one. But Miranda went into the stitch days ago and has not returned. To save her sister she will risk it.

Traveling the same road her sister would have taken, Portia ends up in a family carriage on the road to her destination when it is set upon by highwaymen. One is injured in the exchange and Portia is taken with the highwaymen to help nurse him back to help. In the dilapidated castle, that only has a few rooms to live in Portia will have a meeting of the wits with the Earl of Ravensford, Benedict Sterling. Just so happens the castle is also haunted and while Portia can't talk to ghosts they certainly can lash out at her.

"I did not do this."
"Of course you didn't"
"Thank you. I would not want you to think me a killer."
"Oh, I do not know you well enough to say that. I only know you well enough to say that. I only know that you are too clever to put the body of your victim in your own castle, and in the same place you once trapped your brother."

The Earl of Ravensford is destitute and needs a bride of means who will bolster the coffers to get his lands through this drought. He is on the marriage market and is at least honest enough to make sure any of the women coming to the ball for him to chose a wife know what he is offering. It all seemed like a great idea until he meets Portia. The woman who has captivated his mind and possibly his heart.

Portia doesn't have a way to save Benedict's lands but she is also intrigued by the man who is ever misunderstood but whose actions prove him a good steward of the people and the land. Maybe she can at least help with the making him more attractive to the women coming to the ball and with his ghost problems. There is also a missing golden clock, if found it could give Benedict enough money he wouldn't need to marry for it.

This was one of my favorite books of this series. Portia is so much fun in her matter of fact ways of speaking and Benedict was a man trying to do the right things but his land and his family even at the cost of his happiness. The two of them together have some witty banter that is always a good time and I enjoyed it all.

The ending was also very practical Portia, which made it all the more fitting.

A Castle in the Air is the fourth novel in the historical time slip romance, A Stitch in Time by Kelley Armstrong. I absolutely love these romantic tales. Each delivers its own romance and adventure. This story belongs to Portia Hastings, who set out to find her sister and ended up with her own adventure.

Portia Hastings is a timid, levelheaded healer who would have been a doctor in a different era. She is brave, clever, and I quite adored her. When her sister and husband don’t return, she goes through the time-slip and ends up set upon by highwaymen. It seems they are honorable ones at that. They only want to steal from the wealthy family she shares her carriage with. A highwayman is injured, and Portia stays to provide medical aid. The leader of the group promises her safe harbor to find her sister. The tale that unfolds delivered swoons, ghosts, and plenty of suspense. I found myself completely caught up, as I suspected who the masked men were.

Armstrong’s characters are flawed but redeemable, and meeting The Earl of Ravensford and his family was a delight. Ravensford castle and farmlands are in ruins thanks to a drought, and his late father’s management. Another landlord is trying to run him into the ground and the Earl is considering an arranged marriage to fill his coiffures. I became completely caught up in the telling from the mystery to the slow-building, banter filled romance.

Fans of time-slip romances, hauntings, suspense and adventure will want to snag this for themselves. While the story will hold on its own, I recommend reading or listening to the series in the order of its release. According to Armstrong, this is the last in the series, but may revisit these characters again.

I have loved all the books in this series, and I think Portia and Benedict have just become my second favorite couple. just under Bronwyn and William.
I love Portia and Benedict together, and his run-down and actually for real haunted castle. His brother is an adorable rascal, and I loved everything about how they met and slowly fell in love. It had everything ghosts, romance, suspense, and a mystery.. of which I definitely was surprised by.
I can't wait to read whatever Kelley Armstrong writes next!!!!!

I do love time travel books! I thought this one was good. It’s fast paced with great characters. The mystery surrounding the ghost was good. The romance was a bit hot!! I had a hard time putting this book down.

I started at the beginning of the series for this ARC and I am so glad that I did! This was an awesome series and I hope that there are more books coming! I love getting to know the characters and living their adventures with them! This was my 1st time reading any of Kelley Armstrong's books but she is now on my always-read list!

#ACastleintheAir
#NetGalley

In book 4 of the A Stitch In Time Series, it is now Portia Hastings turn to go through the stitch. Portia's younger sister Miranda and her husband went through the stitch from the nineteenth century to the eighteenth, in order to pass along some much needed money to a widowed mother, at the request of her dead son. They should have been back days ago, and Portia fears something has happened to them, so she goes through the stitch to try to find them. Almost immediately the carriage she is riding in is held up by highwaymen. A skirmish ensues, one of the highwaymen is injured and Portia is abandoned on the side of the road with the two men. Because she is a doctor in her time, she is able to save the man, and they bring her with them to their family home - a crumbling castle inhabited by the destitute Earl of Ravensford. Benedict Sterling is in desperate need of money, and his solution is a ball, where a wealthy bride will win the title of countess, even if it does come with one thunderously ill-tempered earl. Portia agrees to a scheme to help Benedict look like a slightly more appealing bridegroom, while she continues to search for Miranda.

I love this series. Each book can be read as a standalone, although they are like M&M's....you won't want to stop with just one. Each book features a different family member and all new adventures, and at the very beginning of the book there was a recap in case you hadn't read the previous books, or it had been a while. All of the time travelers have been strong female protaganists, which I love. This one also had the mystery of who the ghost in the castle was, as well as the identity of the Robinhood-esque figure who roamed the highways, righting wrongs. This had everything you could possibly want from a good fantasy book - adventure, danger, mystery, romance, and suspense. I loved it and think you will as well. I know I am already eagerly awaiting the next book in the series!

4.5/5 stars


A Castle in the Air is the fourth and final book in the A Stitch in Time/Thorne Manor series. This series is a time travel Victorian mystery romance series.

Kelley Armstrong is my favorite author. I don't often gravitate towards historical fiction or time travel books. But somehow she mixes these genres (plus mystery and romance) and has created an incredible series.

This is book four in the series. It is Portia's story. It can be read as a standalone (the main characters are new). However I would strongly recommend reading in order since the previous characters do play a role in the story. Especially Miranda (Portia's sister, the heroine of book 3).

Portia is from the 19th century. But she decides to go to the 18th century to try to find her sister Miranda. While everyone else in her life has gone through the stitch in time Portia has always been too scared. So it was nice to see her live a little.

There was much to enjoy about this final book. I really enjoyed the romance. And I've always liked that Portia is a doctor. And while it was great that Miranda was in parts of this book I was a bit disappointed that we did not get to see Bronwyn. She was the original heroine of this series. And honestly I wish that she and Rosalind and their families could have had a part in the final book. But overall this was a wonderful series. And I will greatly miss these amazing characters.

Honestly I can't get enough of Kelley Armstrong's books...it doesn't matter if it's a time travel, mystery or paranormal! A Castle in the Air was such fun and I really hated for it to be done. Portia and Benedicts story was full of sarcasm, wit and mystery. I think this was my favorite of the whole series and I hope we see more time travel books from Kelley in the future.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review. All opinions are my own.

Publication date: 31 October 2023