It is time for my long-pending review for A Witch in Time. If you want a book that will let you travel in time to different parts of the world, this is the one. Constance Sayer’s writing is descriptive to the point that you are transported to that place, no problem. Let’s take a quick look at the synopsis before we dive in.
A young woman in Belle Epoque France is cursed to relive a doomed love affair through many lifetimes, as both troubled muse and frustrated artist.
In 1895, sixteen-year-old Juliet LaCompte has a passionate, doomed romance with the married Parisian painter Auguste Marchant. When her mother — a witch — botches a curse on Marchant, she unwittingly binds Juliet to the artist through time, damning her to re-live her affair and die tragically young lifetime after lifetime as the star-crossed lovers reincarnate through history.
Luke Varner, the worldly demon tasked with maintaining this badly crafted curse, has been helplessly in love with his charge, in all her reincarnations, since 19th century France. He’s in love with Nora, a silver screen starlet in 1930s Hollywood. He’s in love with Sandra, a struggling musician in 1970s Los Angeles. And he’s in love with Helen, a magazine exec in present-day DC who has the power to “suggest” others do her bidding.
In this life, Helen starts to recall the curse and her tragic previous lives. But this time, she might have the power to break the cycle…
Content Notes: Sexual Assault, Suicide.
Why I chose to read A Witch in Time
You know my love for time travel? I have read about it more in a science fiction capacity through books like The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenas, but A Witch in Time is different – it is paranormal with witches and demons. A girl born again and again, forgetting her past over and over. I was quite taken by the synopsis and just had to request this book from Hachette Book group – they are fantastic!
Themes for Thought
A Witch in Time is a paranormal romance mystery. How did Juliet end up getting stuck in time? Why does the person with the last name, Varner, appear in each of her lives? Why is Juliet’s time so short lived in each life? How can Helen get out of this cycle?
On Identities
In the course of the book, we meet four different women. There is Juliet from 19th century France, Nora and Sandra in the 20th century and, finally, Helen in the 2000s. All these women have different lives yet they are connected. Juliet’s love for painting, music and the arts is something that is evident in each of the women. They are similar, but they are not the same. They are related by blood and have grown up in different families. I really liked this perspective of unpacking what a soul reborn might look like – it is not as simple as remembering all that happened in prior lives. There is a lot of trauma and understanding that needs to happen – to accept that there was this other life that was but wasn’t really yours.
On Replay
A Witch in Time allows us to know each of the versions of Juliet, while at the same time, contrasting them in their social situations, societal standing, and upbringing. Though the book explores the curse that is put on Juliet, it was quite neat to see how it affected her first lover, Manchant, and Varner, as the executor of the curse. They too, are stuck in the cycle of rebirth, varying in how much of the past they remember.
You don’t know what the time is like without you… until you surface, until you call me.
Varner in A Witch in Time.
On Control
This is just one of the many quotes in A Witch in Time which talk about the control we have on our lives. At its heart, A Witch in Time is a timeless love story, with all the players trapped in time because of a low level witch’s course.
Varner loves Helen and every version of Juliet before her. He understands that with each new lifetime, she gains a better perspective of this curse and her willingness to be trapped in it forever. But what is the cost of breaking a curse? A Witch in Time answers that question, speaking to the things we have to do to have control over our lives.
Through this book, I enjoyed a rich style of writing, traveled to different parts of the world in time as well as got to reflect on magic, power and destiny. It also reminded me of A Time Traveler’s Wife in some ways. Since this is a paranormal book, there were some spooky elements in there. Constance did an amazing job of unfolding the mystery of the curse on Juliet – all the questions that I were answered in the best manner I could have imagined.
** A Witch in Time is now out in stores so get a copy and let me know what you think! **
Amazon Print
Amazon Kindle
A special thanks to the Hachette Book Group Canada team for sending me this book.
Photo of books and threads by frank mckenna on Unsplash
Photo by Fabrizio Verrecchia on Unsplash
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