A Stitch in Time

July 13, 2020
This well-crafted supernatural romance from suspense author Armstrong (Every Step She Takes) offers escapist thrills aplenty but ignores the issues underpinning its plot. When Bronwyn Dale inherits her great-aunt’s Yorkshire manor, memories from her childhood visits come flooding back—and with them decades-old trauma. As a child, a “stitch in time” in the house allowed Bronwyn to travel between her present and the 19th century, where she befriended William Thorne, the child of the manor’s Victorian era owners. At 15, their friendship blossomed into romance—until a terrifying ghostly encounter in the modern day leads to Bronwyn’s great-uncle’s death. Grief-stricken, Bronwyn finally told her parents about time traveling and seeing ghosts—resulting in her parents committing her to a psychiatric hospital where the doctors successfully convinced her that neither the ghost nor William were real. Now, 23 years later, Bronwyn must face her past and solve the mysteries that haunt Thorne Manor, all while she and William rekindle their impossible relationship. The gripping plot and thoughtful characters are mildly undermined by the way Armstrong blithely glosses over the paradoxes of time travel, the implications of a series of gruesome murders in William’s time, and the hospital’s gaslighting of Bronwyn. Still, readers looking to escape into a taut, sexy mystery will enjoy.