Thursday, November 12, 2020

A Stitch in Time (Thorne Manor #1)

 52669736

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 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.


No comments:

Post a Comment