A Witch In Time
A Witch In Time was a completely unplanned read. I was at our local library to pick up books on reserve, and I decided to check out the new arrivals book case. The big spine of A Witch in Time caught my eye right off the bat! I read the synopsis and became intrigued. From there I checked out the book and ended up flying through this gripping tale of love, heartbreak and loss.
A Witch In Time is a tale that has some dark themes mixed in with a romance plot about a witch and a demon who are connected through time by a witch’s curse. The story follows the short, tragic lives of four different women, starting in 1895 Paris and ending in 2012 Washington D.C. There are supernatural elements at play here, but I found the historical aspects and the fascinating connections among Helen, Juliet, Nora and Sandra to be the main draw.
The story begins in 2012 Washington D.C. as we meet Helen Lambert, the successful owner of a critically acclaimed magazine called In Focus . Helen is recently divorced from Roger, an art dealer and museum curator, and has reluctantly been pushed into a blind date by her well-meaning co-worker. Her date turns out to be Luke Varner, an enigmatic man. During their dinner together, Luke drops cryptic comments about unfamiliar people and places that he swears Helen should remember. But of course, Helen has no idea what he’s talking about.
That is, until she starts to have weird and extremely vivid dreams about a young French girl named Juliet LaCompte in 1895 France. As Helen gradually relives Juliet’s life during these dreams, Luke begins to fill in the blanks, explaining that Helen and her ex-husband Roger are part of a binding curse, cast long ago by Juliet’s mother. Unfortunately, the curse went badly and bound Juliet and her lover Marchant together for eternity. Luke explains that Helen and Roger are the latest reincarnations of Juliet and Marchant, and that Helen is doomed to die on her thirty-fourth birthday, unless she is able to break the curse.
I absolutely loved the format of this story. Sayers jumps back and forth among four different time periods, but it was seamlessly done and very easy to follow, which kept me reading nonstop (finished this book in two days). The author uses Helen’s dreams as a way to frame these time jumps, so the present day story of Helen is the anchor for all the other time periods.
It’s also through Helen’s eyes that the reader learns about Juliet, Nora and Sandra, the other three women in the story. Each woman was carefully depicted, and I was fascinated by each of their stories. Juliet is only sixteen when she falls under the spell of the much older painter Auguste Marchant. Their affair is the catalyst for everything else that happens in this story. In 1920’s New York, we meet actress Nora Wheeler who falls in love with film director Billy Rapp. Nora’s story moved me the most, for some reason, since her entire adult life is spent trying to escape a horrible, controlling man named Clint. And finally, Sandra Keane is a talented musician in 1970’s Los Angeles. She meets and falls in love with photographer Rick Nash, but their love affair is doomed just like all the others. Making an appearance in each timeline is the mysterious Luke Varner, who we find out is the “administrator” of the curse. Luke acts as a protector for all four women, but his secrets aren’t revealed until nearly the end of the story.
I absolutely loved all the connections between the characters, which are revealed slowly over the course of the story. In each timeline, Juliet/Nora/Sandra/Helen is a piano virtuoso, and I loved the way Sayers used music as a binding thread through all their lives. The Marchant/Billy/Rick/Roger characters all have similarities as well, but I won’t spoil the surprise and let you discover those for yourself! There is a secret painting of Juliet that makes an appearance throughout the story, which I thought was another brilliant way of tying everything together. And in the present day, as Helen is coming to terms with what’s happening to her, she visits the Hanover Collection, Roger’s obsession and the real reason for their divorce, and sees the evidence from each of her lives gathered in one place. Some of these scenes were simply magical and gave me goosebumps.
Sayers picks time periods that really resonated with me, from the beauty of the French countryside and the excitement of turn-of-the-century Paris, to the dazzling lives of 1920s film stars in Hollywood, to the music scene in 1970s Los Angeles. Sandra and her band hang out on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood and rehearse and smoke pot (of course!) in the famous Laurel Canyon area, and there’s lots of name dropping of musicians of that time, like Janis Joplin, Elton John and Jimi Hendrix. You would think with so many different places and times, the story would become confusing or bogged down in too many details, but I thought the author did a masterful job of wrangling all these elements into a cohesive story.
I usually love stories about witches and the supernatural, but for some reason the scenes involving the curse almost felt out of place. The ritual that Juliet’s mother performs, which involves making a deal with a demon, was so odd and horrifying. I was so shocked that I couldn’t tear my eyes away!
Overall, I’m so glad I spontaneously picked this book up to read at our local library. If you are looking for an unusual love story that veers more towards the tragic, with a touch of the supernatural, then I highly recommend this book and new author.
