A Top 2020 Read: A Witch in Time by Constance Sayers – Book Review

What I Loved:

I LOVED this book. Every single word, every page, every character. Can I also just throw in my massive cover-love for this one! It was a wonderful, exciting ride filled with a witch’s curse, a romance that spans lifetimes, secrets, and so much more!

How I Felt:

This book just grabbed me from the start. I love it when a book does that because I’m immediately invested and find myself flying through the pages. With A Witch in Time, I never stopped being invested and it was wonderful.

The Characters: The main characters are a bit mixed up in this story because this is about a woman cursed to relive her life forever. In each life, she is a different person with a different name, but essentially, she loves the same man over and over, and she is destined to die young over and over. The book starts with Helen. She doesn’t know it yet, but she is living the fourth life of Juliet LaCompte. I liked Helen a lot. She was feisty and determined, but what I really connected me to her was her compassion and forgiveness. She had so much character growth as she learned more about her history. All around, she was just a lovely character. Luke Varner is the male lead in this story. I loved him. He is protective and caring. He is bound to carry out his job, but he does so many extra things that made me enjoy his character overall.

The characters in A Witch in Time could easily become a confusing mess, but Constance Sayers did a great job of slowly introducing the reader to each new character. Here’s why it can get confusing. In 1895, Juliet LaCompte is accidentally bound to a curse meant for her lover, Auguste Marchant. The curse binds the two together, forever, making them live a new life each time they die. They will forever find each other and hurt each other. They are new people with new names and lives in each lifetime though. Auguste does not remember his past lives, but Juliet begins to remember at some point in each life. Below is a character grid for you.

Female Lead:

1895 → Juliet LaCompte

1930 → Nora Wheeler

1970 → Sandra Keane

2012 → Helen Lambert

Cursed Lover:

1895 → Auguste Marchant

1930 → Billy Rapp

1970 → Richard Nash

2012 → Roger Lambert

Curse Overseer:

1895 → Lucian Varnier

1930 → Luke Varner

1970 → Luke Varner

2012 → Luke Varner

The Writing: This book just blew me away. It’s a fantasy with a romance storyline, but it’s also a beautiful story of self-discovery for Helen. When Helen begins to remember her past lives, she essentially dreams about them. These dreams/memories were somewhat long, giving the reader a chance to fully immerse in the new portion of the story. I was so impressed with how Constance Sayers’s writing managed to capture my attention immediately with each new piece of the story. She was able to weave all of these beautiful stories together into one amazing book.

Content Warnings: Abuse, murder, witchcraft, child-loss, infertility, rape.

Overall: A Witch in Time is a well-written and exciting story that I enjoyed so much. The characters are easy to connect to, the plot is fascinating, there is some mystery, and some danger as well, adding some thrilling elements to the story. I am already sure that this will be on my top 2020 reads list.

To Read or Not To Read:

A Witch in Time should appeal to a variety of readers. The witchcraft for the fantasy readers, doomed romance AND the unending love Luke has for Juliet for the romance readers, and the reliving of lives for the paranormal fans.

Readers that enjoy any of the below will like this book:
⇝ A bit of witchcraft
⇝ A romance sub-plot
⇝ A story set in multiple eras
⇝ A mystery to solve

Where to Find This Book:

A Witch in Time by Constance Sayers is available at these sites.

Bookshop.org | Amazon Kindle | Amazon | Audible | Goodreads

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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…

A Witch in Time is perfect for fans of A Secret History of Witches, Outlander, and The Time Traveler’s Wife.

Just the Facts: