A Stitch in Time

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 visited William Thorne, a boy her own age, born two centuries earlier. After a family tragedy, the house was shuttered, and Bronwyn was convinced that William existed only in her imagination. Now, twenty years later Bronwyn inherits Thorne Manor. And when she returns, William is waiting.
The story has time-travel, ghosts, suspense, mystery and romance all wrapped up in this wonderful novel

There's just something about time travel romances. or any other genera that draws the reader in. Maybe it's because it's something that may truly be impossible for us to actually show more achieve. I said may, because who knows...we might all be able one day to have visits to other timelines, past and future. I'm not holding my breath though. This book, like most all of Kelly Armstrong's novels adds a ghostly mystery, creepy suspense, and even a murder-mystery.

The story takes place at Thorne Manor, in the lush English countryside near a small village whose property backs up to the moors. As a young girl, Bronwyn Dale found she could pass through a "time slip" in the house of her great-aunt, where she could visit with William Thorne, a boy who was her own age...but was born two centuries earlier. One night tragedy struck, and Bronwyn never returned t her own time.

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. She will discover that William Thorne is no longer that teenage boy, but in the time that Kelly finds herself in, is a man who lives alone in the manor.

As the two renew their friendship and the hope of possibly more, Bronwyn is seeing ghosts from the time that she left who seem to be warning her. Also, the town in the time she is in with Willima are sharing history about William, calling him the "mad Lord of the manor".

I've read almost everything that Kelly Armstrong has ever written. She has such a talent for giving believable life to her characters. She perfectly balances the romance and suspense. I loved the Bronwyn character. She is sweet, faces her fears and is fairly clever and level-headed...if you can call someone that willingly walks through a rip in time "level-headed":) William, while not always even-tempered, was sweet, romantic and clearly hurt when Bronwyn didn’t return. Perhaps waiting all that time is what made him a bit "mad".

Kelley Armstrong managed to combine mystery, paranormal and romantic elements together beautifully giving life to every element of the story. In a side article she said that it was a story she longed to write, and she did a magnificent job.

This is book #1 of Thorne Manor series. I have to find the rest, show less

Kelley Armstrong never fails me. Yes, sometimes I disagree with the choices she makes, but ultimately, if I see her name on the cover it's a no-brainer. Smoldery guys who are into consent and talking about their feelings! Heroines who don't just propel the plot by making exactly the wrong decision every time!

This latest book is a delight from a wonderfully original mind. It's got it all. Ghosts! Sexy man! Cats! Horses! Mysteries! Time travel! An acknowledgement that the whole world isn't heterosexual and cisgendered! It exactly filled a niche I did not realize needed to be filled and I'm already waiting impatiently for book 2. Definitely recommend.

A STITCH IN TIME is a time travel romance complete with an impossible love and vengeful ghosts.

Bronwyn Dale has recently inherited Thorne Manor from her great-aunt. Bronwyn had spent happy childhood summers there and made a friend of William Thorne, a boy of her own age, who lived in the house nearly 200 years earlier. But she hadn't been back since a terrible accident when she was fifteen.

When she's fifteen, childhood friendship has turned into adolescent love. But there are ghosts, ghosts. that only Bronwyn is able to see. When one of the ghosts frightens her awake one night, she runs out of the house in a panic which causes her uncle to come out onto an unsafe balcony and fall to his death. Her mother doesn't believe her ravings show more about ghosts and hospitalizes Bronwyn.

After treatment, Bronwyn begins to question what she saw and becomes convinced that both her time traveling, and visions of ghosts were hallucinations. She goes on to live her life. She falls in love and marries but loses her husband to a fast-acting brain cancer. She gains her dream position as a professor of history at a university in Toronto. And then she inherits Thorne Manor and needs to go back...

Once in Thorne Manor, she remembers those things she had suppressed, and she is still seeing a variety of ghosts. She also finds that she can still travel back to William's time where she finds a man who is at first angry with her for leaving him all those years earlier. He's also a man who has never stopped loving her. They rekindle their romance but there are still many obstacles not least of which is that they each have lives in another time.

There are also mysteries to solve. A strange number of disappearances have centered around Thorne Manor and William has gotten the reputation that carries into Bonwyn's time of being a reclusive murder. His sister, his fiancée, and his best friend's wife have all disappeared under suspicious circumstances.

Bronwyn needs to solve the mysteries and clear her lover's name but is concerned that righting the wrongs will repair the stitch in time and separate her from her William forever.

This was an entertaining story. I am not a big fan of time travel but thought that Kelley Armstrong dealt with the problems in a creative way. Samantha Brentmoor did an excellent job narrating the story. show less

Bronwyn Dale inherits the English home she spent her summers in until an untimely death when she was 15. Along with the house, comes the ghost of the young man she fell in love with all those years ago...as well as some others. Bronwyn slips through the stitch in time to visit her old crush who has grown to be a handsome man as well as help the ghosts who inhabit her home finally rest in peace.

I was unsure about this story originally as I am not one for time slip books and the story started a bit slow but I was impressed with the way the story picked up. I was genuinely surprised one night to discover I was 80% through with the book. The story was properly finished and did not leave you wondering about any details. I am looking forward show more to reading more of Kelley Armstrong's books as she tells a wonderful story. show less

{first of 4+3 in [[[Stitch in Time]]]; historical, paranormal, Victorian, time-travelling, romance, thriller}

This was a historical, paranormal, Victorian time-travelling romance thriller - none of which are my main go-to genres but I was hit by a book bullet on Litsy by Honeybeebooks and it intrigued me. It seemed to be a similar premise to [Outlander] - but I haven't read that book, so don't quote me.

Bronwyn Dale, a Canadian history professor, returns to Thorne Manor; a house on the Yorkshire moors that she has inherited from her aunt. She used to spend holidays at the house as a child when she would slip back 200 years through time to play with William Thorne, a boy her own age who grew up at the same rate that she did (so they were show more always the same age as each other whenever she went back in time). Unfortunately something happened when Bronwyn was 15, just as they were falling in love, and she never went back to the house - until now, about 20 years later. She thinks William was a figment of her imagination - until she accidentally slips back through time again. As well as going back in time, Bronwyn can also see ghosts, some of whom are malevolent and some who don't seem to be aware of her.

This was an interesting venture into the unknown for me - I don't usually read about ghosts. I did find it confusing as to whether she was seeing ghosts or just visions of something that had happened in the past (because she could apparently do both) or the rules of how the ghosts interacted (or not) with each other. We weren't told what happened to prevent her from returning to the house for a while, which was a bit frustrating, and the story had another mystery in the past to clear up, which involved the ghosts. And, of course, there's always the issue of paradox with time-travelling and although that didn't really come up, as a history professor she should have paid more attention to the possibility. My usual peeve with Regency/ Victorian romances - that they are not genuinely period-authentic or have the odd Americanism creeping in - was addressed by the main protagonist being a modern-day time-travelling Canadian so points for that, I suppose. I do think the cover, with a lady in sweeping skirts, is a bit ironic as Bronwyn dressed in her closest modern approximation to Victorian dress which would not have looked like that. The end, as things were heading for a resolution, was quite tense.

Easy to put down but also easy to pick up again - although the tension towards the end had me putting it down - and picking it up - more often (I told you this isn't my usual genre - this is one of the reasons I don't tend to read thrillers). I may continue with the series but I don't think I will rush to do so.

(April 2025)
3.5 stars show less

Bronwyn, a widow at 38-years old and a history professor in Toronto, has inherited an old large home in rural England(?). This is a home that she hasn’t visited in 23 years. When she used to visit as a child, she met a boy her own age… turns out this boy was from about 200 years earlier! She saw him when they were children, and again when they were 15, but that summer, tragedy struck and Bronwyn stayed away for all those years later. When she returns this time, she finds not only is she still able to slip back in time, but the house is full of ghosts.

I really liked this. There was more romance than I normally read, but there was enough ghosts, mystery, and time travel to make up for that. Some of the ghost happenings were creepy show more (which, for me, is a good thing!). I did, however, feel badly for the poor neglected kitten, Enigma. Kitty was supposedly too young to be away from mom, but since Bronwyn wasn’t around for hours and hours at at time, I worried that Enigma would die without milk (knowing that was unlikely to happen in the book, but very unrealistic to say kitty was too young to be separated from mom, then neglect her like that without dire consequences; unweaned kitten, I believe, should be bottle-fed milk every 2 hours; maybe kitty was a bit older than that?) Obviously, that did not bring my rating down any. The mystery was good and I loved the creepy hauntings! show less

After the death of her aunt, Canadian university professor Bronwyn Dale has returned to Yorkshire where she's inherited her aunt's house. Bronwyn returns with trepidation as she hasn't been to the house since she was 15, the night her uncle died. When she arrives, she is not surprised to see several ghosts still lurking about the manor. However, she is astounded to discover that she can still time travel back to the Victorian era and back to William Thorne, her childhood love. William whom she'd convinced herself (after a lot of therapy) was a fantasy of a lonely child. As Bronwyn tries to determine why she can still travel back in time to William, the ghosts in her present are trying to pass on a message that could change show more everything.

This book is a lot of things and if that summary sounds appealing, I think you should definitely read it. I had a largely meh reaction. I didn't hate it and I'm always a sucker for a time travel tale, but I'm largely not a ghost story person so that element was much less for me. There are a few rocky moments in the writing (stylistic preference that might not bother all readers) and the ending did a lot of things I'm not sure the plot entirely justified. But if you want a time travel, Victorian haunted house, romance, this is the book for you. show less