A Stitch in Time (Stitch in Time, #1)

by Kelley Armstrong

Thorne Manor has always been haunted…and it has always haunted Bronwyn Dale. As a young girl, Bronwyn could pass through a time slip in her great-aunt's house, where she’d visit William Thorne, a boy her own age, born two centuries earlier. In the wake of a family tragedy, the house was shuttered and Bronwyn was convinced that William existed only in her imagination. 

Twenty years later, Bronwyn inherits Thorne Manor, exactly when she needs it most, her life stalled since her young husband’s death years earlier. And when she returns, William is waiting. 

William Thorne is no longer the calm and quiet boy she remembers. He’s a difficult and tempestuous man, his own life marred by a tragedy and scandal that had him retreating to self-imposed exile in his beloved moors. He’s also none too pleased with Bronwyn for abandoning him all those years ago. 

As their friendship rekindles and sparks into something more, Bronwyn must also deal with ghosts in the present version of the house, and soon she realizes they are linked to William and the secret scandal that drove him back to Thorne Manor.

• ISBN10: 1596069686
• ISBN13: 9781596069688
• Publish Date: 31 October 2020
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 5 May 2021
• Imprint: Subterranean Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 336
• Language: English
• Special: Numbered Signed

Reviews

[Berls]

Kelley Armstrong is an author I've had on my TBR for years and only managed to read a couple of times. I tend to prefer adult and she tends to write more YA - so I was eager to read this series when I saw it was adult. I've had book 2 for a while (not realizing it was book 2 when I first got it) but when the first book was selected for book club, I seized the opportunity. And I'm glad I did.

I really enjoyed the premise of A Stitch in Time and I think it works equally well for people who like time travel books and those who don't typically like them. You get the experience of going back in time, without the complications. It mainly feels like a contemporary romance, really.

But then there was also the ghost mystery, which was solid. It kept me on my toes to the very end with lots of twists and turns. I was second guessing so many characters!

And then the characters. First of all, I really appreciated that she has a trans character where pronouns are discussed but then it's just accepted and IS. It let me know a lot about Bronwyn - the heroine - that she understood her error and not only corrected but directly asked about pronouns. I knew at that moment I liked her. And I only grew to respect her so much more as the book progressed. She's a 38 year old widow and university professor. She's a historian, which perhaps drew me to her more, since I did my grad work in history. But I think what I respected most was the pragmatic way she thought about her relationship with William. She sees the barrier of the time between them in a very realistic way. Such a solid character.

I also really liked William. Since the story is told solely from Bronwyn's POV, we don't ever get to know him the way we do Bronwyn. But what we do see is someone who loves his family and friends deeply, respects Bronwyn, and is just an all around good guy. He and Bronwyn have incredible chemistry and I had no trouble routing for them to conquer their situation.

A really enjoyable story, only improved by a really solid audio performance. I enjoyed the narration by Samantha Brentmoor. I felt like she delivered the accents well (to an untrained ear) and brought the characters to life. I look forward to listening to more from her.

[Leigha]

Professor Bronwyn Dale inherits her aunt’s haunted cottage in this disjointed time travel romance.

This book didn’t know what it wanted to be. Was it a steamy historical romance or was it a gothic mystery? Bronwyn’s time travel romance with William Thorne is kept separate from the ghostly hauntings of the current timeline for too much of the novel. The two stories finally converge, but the ultimate climax felt unrealistic and unearned. While I can appreciate the separate elements of each, they never came together to create a complete whole.

I did not like Bronwyn, particularly her decisions in regards to her relationship. She has all the power in the relationship as she is the only one to time travel. She wants to be with William, but not give up anything in return although that plot hole is shored up damn quickly at the end of the novel. Every relationship requires some give and take, and it felt like all she did was take when, how, and where she wanted. I prefer a more balanced approach – both between romantic partners and thematic elements – that this book could not deliver.

tl;dr A big dud for me as I didn’t like the main character, the disjointed timelines, or the ending.

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

A Stitch in Time is a timeslip romance/mystery and the first in a series by Kelley Armstrong. Released 31st Oct 2020 by Subterranean Press, it's 336 pages and available in hardcover, audio and ebook formats.

This is a well written romance (heavy on the romance) wrapped around a time travel murder mystery. The characterizations were competent, the dialogue and plotting better than average (for romance). The murder mystery parts as well as the historical bits are -very- loosely plotted. There are some egregious errors involved (history mavens should cover their eyes).

The Victorian period ran from the coronation of Victoria (June 1837 for those keeping score) until her death in 1901. The author refers to traveling between the modern day (presumably *our* present day - I couldn't find a specific timeline for the parts of the story set in the present day) and Thorne manor of over 200 year ago (smack in the middle of the Georgian period - 20 years before the beginning of the Victorian era. It bugged me every time it was referred to in the text. The protagonist grew up being able to timeslip between her own time and the past over the course of her childhood and eventual return to the manor at nearly 40 years of age... so that's another 35(ish) years on top of whatever difference there was at the beginning (her friend/boyfriend/eventual lover ages along a parallel timeline with her).

There were some other anachronisms, but all in all, it really was an entertaining and fun read. There are ghosts aplenty, a dwindling cast of suspects on whom to pin the murders, some well written sex scenes, and kittens/cats.

Three and a half stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

[kimbacaffeinate]

I love time travel romances and this one adds a ghostly mystery, creeptastic suspense and a murder-mystery. Even the neighbors in the present are brilliant, but I am getting ahead of myself.

The tale takes place at Thorne Manor, in the English countryside near a small village whose property backs up to the moors. As a young girl, Bronwyn Dale could pass through a time slip in her great-aunt’s house, where she visited William Thorne, a boy her own age, born two centuries earlier. One night tragedy struck and Bronwyn never returned.

Now, twenty years later, she inherits the manor and returns for the summer. She has convinced herself that William was just an imaginary childhood friend. The tale that unfolds had all the elements of a fireside ghost story and time-travel romance.

William Thorne is no longer a young teenage boy, but a man who lives alone in the manor (in his time).

In Bronwyn’s room, there is a stitch in the fabric of time that allows her to slip into William’s time. As the two renew their friendship and possibly more, Bronwyn is seeing ghosts in the present who seem to warn her and the town shares history about the mad lord of the manor.

The characters and setting came to life through the author’s writing. She perfectly balanced the romance and suspense. In fact, she had me in quite a tizzy as I tried to sort facts and look for clues that would make me happiest.

I loved Bronwyn. She is sweet, faces her fears and is quite clever. William, while not always even-tempered, was sweet, romantic and was clearly hurt when Bronwyn didn’t return.

Sometimes an element suffers when you combine them in a story. Kelley Armstrong wove mystery, paranormal and romantic elements together masterfully giving each their full measure. It was brilliant.

Armstrong said it was a story she longed to write, and I cannot thank her enough. This was hands down one of my favorite reads of the year.

This is book one of Thorne Manor, but it wraps up nicely. That doesn’t mean I won’t have grabby hands when book two releases. I cannot wait! This review was originally posted at Caffeinated Reviewer

[Lindsey Gray]

4.5 Stars!

I’m a huge fan of time travel. Walking through stones like in Outlander or traveling through space and time in a blue box. I love it all. I’ve read stories and watched movies and shows about the theory of time travel. In this novel, time travel is revealed in a way I’ve never seen before.

Imagine there is a place where two timelines run parallel to each other. One in the present and one two hundred years in the past. Not just anybody could slip through time, only one who is sensitive or has the sight can do it. In this novel, Bronwyn Dale is that person.

This story has many layers and is a lot to unpack, but Armstrong makes it work in a way she never has before. She challenged herself to write a story unlike any of her others and I believe her challenge is her readers gain.

As a small child, Bronwyn spent her summers at her great-aunt’s manor house next to an English moor. Until she was five, Bronwyn slipped through a tiny stitch in time through her bedroom to play with her best friend, William, two hundred years in the past. After her parents divorced, she didn’t visit for ten years. At age fifteen, their friendship blossomed into love. Unfortunately, a tragedy caused by an angry spirit forced Bronwyn away from William and into a mental hospital. Twenty-three years later, thirty-eight-year-old Bronwyn is a widow and has inherited Thorne Manor. Once she returns and makes her first slip, she meets the man William has become. While they deal with the navigation of a new element to their relationship, a mama cat in the past, a kitten in the present, and a host of spirits waiting to be freed, nothing is easy for the fated couple.

This novel is an instant page turner. I was hooked just by the summary and couldn’t wait to read it. The pieces of the mysterious puzzle were scattered throughout the novel, but Armstrong brought them all together to create the perfect picture in the end. It seems Armstrong can put her mark on any genre. This novel has romance, science fiction, paranormal, and time travel elements all in one. All of them are perfectly packaged in this thrilling story. Now I need more stories with elements of A Stitch in Time to tide me over until Armstrong releases another best seller.

I received A Stitch in Time for free. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.