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In a A Stitch in Time (A Stitch in Time, #1) Kelley Armstrong has managed to write an old fashioned ghost story, mixed with time travel and a love story, seasoned with a haunted house mystery. Armstrong has a talent for making the paranormal, the frightening, and the unusual all seem normal. Or almost normal.
I really want to forget this book, so that I can read it fresh to enjoy again. At my age forgetting would normally take a couple of weeks, but this pleasurable book will stay with me. That seems to happen with many of Armstrong’s books. They stick. Doesn’t matter, I will reread again this winter; or maybe next month.
When Bronwyn Dale was two and visiting her great aunt and uncle’s Thorne Manor, she tumbled through a time slip or a stitch in time, and into the bedroom of another two year old. William Thorne lived 200 years before Bronwyn, but for the two year old kids it seemed a perfectly normal way for summer playmates to get together to play marbles. If Bronwyn occasionally talked about William living in her bedroom, well, imaginary friends are quite common. Around age four both of them instinctively realized they needed to stop talking about one another.
As one knowing woman put it: "When Judith asked, you pretended not to what she was talking about. She said you were adorable. Like a tiny MI6 agent protecting top-secret data. All shifty-eyed and “I don’t know what you mean, Auntie.'�
Then Bronwyn’s mother stopped the visits to Thorne Manor for ten years in a nasty divorce dispute. Finally Bronwyn was able to return when they were fifteen. Bronwyn and William reconnected and their secret summer friendship started to deepen until they were torn apart by a tragic death. The death forced Bronwyn to flee Thorne Manor and forced her to deny something she in knew in the deepest part of her soul to be true.
Twenty-three years later Bronwyn inherits Thorne Manor and returns.
Very few are happy with Bronwyn. William, a mother cat, and some very active and maybe deadly ghosts all carry grudges. Bronwyn wants a future with William, but she realizes unless she solves the mysteries surrounding the ghosts, she is unlikely to have one.
There are enough suspects to keep the reader intrigued in what turns out to be a possible serial killer mystery. Did I mention Thorne Manor was located on an English moor? Where else can a haunted house-time travel-romance-mystery be located other than on a wild English moor with its bogs and winding paths? Of course you can’t really have a moor unless there are missing young girls, right? Or the scary guy with the sharp spade.
William and Bronwyn had their share of flaws. William sulked at the beginning, but soon got over them. Bronwyn was a bit selfish, only wanting to go through the stitch when it was convenient for her.
It might be me, but I was a bit confused on the rules for to-ing and fro-ing. I was mighty amused by Armstrong deciding to ignore some of the time travel “rules� such as the butterfly effect. Good for her, it’s not as if we actually know.
All in all I thought A Stitch in Time a vastly entertaining book. One I can’t wait to read again. Well heck, maybe I’ll just start again now.
Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC. All of the review comments are my own.

Addendum. Well I reread it, and its even creepier. But still so romantic. sigh