A Witch In Time

A Bewitching Mystery #6

by Madelyn Alt

This title has been removed from sale by Penguin Group, USA.

Genres: Mystery, Paranormal, Cozy Mystery, Witches, Fantasy, Magic, Paranormal Mystery

304 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 6, 2010

About the author

From the Authors Website

Madelyn Alt is the national bestselling author of the witchy and hip Bewitching Mystery Series, published by Berkley Prime Crime. The Bewitching series features small town single girl and fledgling empath Maggie O'Neill, her witchy boss, and an unlikely circle of ghosthunting friends, the N.I.G.H.T.S., as they investigate an increasing level of paranormal disturbance--not to mention a series of unrelated murders--in Maggie's hometown of Stony Mill, Indiana. In other words, they are: "Mysteries... with Hex Appeal."

Madelyn writes from her home, an 1870's era Victorian in northeast Indiana, which she shares with an extraordinary number of persons of the male persuasion of assorted ages and sizes, two Siamese cats who rule the roost, and a Shepherd-Lab mix sweetheart who is only too happy to let them.

Reviews

[Beverly · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

Not the strongest book in the series, but still enjoyable. The relationship between Maggie and Marcus needs to HAPPEN, FFS. Talk about dragged out. :-P

[Danny · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh and I thought the other one was as bad as it would get with this series.. Basically this is a short story padded with 220+ pages of 'ooh cute babies'. Skip it if you value your time.

I did laugh out loud at the book though, when Liss told Maggie she was a very strong woman.. I mean WTF? The girl is 30 and she still can't say no to her mother! Pathetic would be closer to the mark..

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not much mystery(except ending scene) Not much in characters (except for Grampa) Not much…
But I finished it. Maybe if I start from the beginning of the series, but it just fell flat for me.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

An okay book -- each book in the series has lost a little. The so called mystery in this book didn't start until over half way through the book and wasn't really much of a mystery. Not sure if I'll read any more of this series.

[Korin: A Crone Running Amok · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maggie is now up against some strange goings on in the hospital where her sister has just delivered twins. Her brother-in-law is behaving strangely. Trying to find some alone time with her hot friend-wanting-to-be-more. And oh yeah, her leg is broken. Challenges & fun abound.

[Myhotstylist · Rating 1 out of 5]

2 words: EPIC FAILURE!
what a HUGE dissapointment this book was! This has been one of my favorite series that Ive followed for the last few years, and for this book it seemed like miss Madelyn Alt wrote the first chapter, and then hired someone else to finish the rest for her. I literally gave up on the 8th chapter, (a little over 100 pages in) And during those 8 chapters, we only get to see Liss (one of the best characters) once in over 100 pages at the very beginning telling Maddy to take the night off. Then after a sizzled out almost sex scene with Marcus, she ends up in the hospital with her sister in labor. I mean seriously, how many pages can you write about waiting for some babies to arrive? I had to question my sanity tonight if this book should even be classified as a cozy mystery. Point being,. after 8 long, drawn out chapters, there was still no murder, and the plot just dragged. I skimmed other parts of the book, and they still always seemed to be in the hospital. (no mention of Liss or the N.I.G.H.T's either) At that point, I closed the book on this one. No need to waste valuable reading time reading about a character's sister having babies and mother being a mean b-witch. Give me some action. Give me a murder... interview suspects, just give me SOMETHING! Hopefully Miss Alt will redeem herself on the next book. I gave this book a 1/2 star, but if were up to me, Id give it a zero star.

[Cherise · Rating 3 out of 5]

The mystery was VERY weak in this book. I had everything figured out really early on but had to sit back as Maggie S L O W L Y bumbled through. I love Maggie, Marcus and Liss, but can we PLEASE make Maggie's mom the next murder victim in the next book? My Goddess she is an annoying and rude woman. And I really hope Maggie learns to ignore her every once in a while if Ms. Alt lets her live. At 30 years old you should be able to tell your mom NO without feeling like a rebelling teenager. 'Tis getting old!

And who the hell answers the phone when they are about 2 seconds from screwing??? I don't think a fire alarm would stop most people... Yet Marcus and Maggie let the phone dictate their sex life, repeatedly, or should I say what would be their sex life.

Over all, too many annoying things that prevented me from loving it. It's time for Maggie to grow up!

Cherise Everhard, September 2011

[Shelskharma · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the 6th book in the series, and while it was not one of my favorites, it was a great vacation read for me. Maggie O’Neil, Stoneybrooks newest witch is as usual up to her eyes in trouble of the paranormal (and not so paranormal) kind. This book was a bit different in that it seemed to deal with a bit less mystery than usual, but I enjoyed following Maggie and her developing romance with the sexy Marcus. While this isn’t a big thinker of a book, it was a pleasant and quick read, and I will read # 7 in the series when I get my hands on it!

[Cindi Kelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not much paranormal this time around. Unless you count Maggie hearing her Grandma Cora's voice in her ear now not her head. (Grandma Cora is dead btw) Otherwise this was a pretty basic cozy mystery. I figured out what Frannie was hiding and why but who murdered the guy no I didn't. And poor Mel had twin girls and her husband leaves her while they are still in the hospital. What a AH! At least Maggie and Marcus are happy together even if Maggie broke her ankle.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an entry in this series heavy on character development--actually, relationship development with Maggie and Marcus-- and light on the mystery. It was there, but it was really secondary to watching Maggie come into her own and accepting herself even more, while at the same time developing her new relationship with Marcus and exploring the end of her relationship with Tom. Liss and Enchantments barely make appearances, but it actually works well for this story. Fast and fun!

[Eclectic1 Fais · Rating 3 out of 5]

My least favorite of this series, I'm glad the protagonist finally got rid of that boring prick Tom...but I expected to see more about the relationship between Maggie and Marcus, not them just running back and forth around town every time the phone rang. The mystery was not really that mysterious either...it felt predictable and rushed.

[Kristin Whitehouse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sixth in the series and 1st in hard cover. While I love that we had more interaction with Maggie and Marcus, I miss the rest of the crew. There wasn't enough paranormal aspects either which make the series.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

contrary to some not-so-great reviews, i think this has been my favorite book of the series so far. The mystery part, although taken to the back burner, isn't quite as easy to guess from the beginning as the rest of them. Plus you have to love the oober romantic Marcus!

[Hilary (A Wytch's Book Review) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life never seems to go smoothly for Maggie, she is set up for the PERFECT evening/night with her new boyfriend Marcus when she gets a desperate call from her mother, her sister Mel has gone into labour early and everyone is meeting at the hospital, Marcus takes her there and waits (whilst discovering how crazy Grandpa G is and how controlling Maggie's mother tries to be!), the reason for the early labour turns out to be the fact that Mel was carrying twin girls, with her husband suddenly saying he needs to leave as he has a court case the next day, Maggie stays with Mel in case she is needed. Whilst watching over the two new arrivals and her sister she ponders a snippet of conversation she heard whilst stuck in the lift and she also witnesses an argument in the next room (well just outside the door). All of this means she isn't as careful as she might be and she ends up falling on the stairs and breaking her ankle!

Now she is staying with Marcus and at the same time discovering that she is not only an empath but a burgeoning psychic as well, both of which come in useful when there are a couple of very unusual deaths in the town.

[Melissa Levine · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've usually never had any issues when starting a new book, that happens to be several books in, in a series. Not the case with this one though. I didn't like this book, the characters, the plot or whatever you want to call it or really anything.

The plot itself was very weak in my opinion. I felt like nothing even really happened until over half way through the book. I kept thinking to myself, 'what the hell is the point of this story?' There seemed to be a bunch of 'little plots' (if you will) taking place like: Melanie and her husband and then Steff and Dan all having relationship issues, the dead kid, the dead intruder, blah, blah...just way too weak for me.

I couldn't stand Maggie. She's constantly complaining about the way her Mother acts, yet, never says anything negative to her Mother. For ex: her Mother has been calling/leaving messages wondering where she is. She calls her back, only to end up apologizing for not calling sooner. She does have a life! Or she pretends to. I mean if you want your Mother to stop calling a hundred times a day, THEN TELL HER! Common sense. But nope, Maggie would just sit there quietly and take it, same can be said when she was 'hanging out' with Melanie's gossipy friends. They're sitting there talking about her and Marcus and whoever else, some negatively, and she doesn't defend anyone.

I felt like characters were being thrown in and nothing was really said about them. No details or anything. Like Uncle Lou and Aunt Molly. Most of the characters lacked a back story...actually I think all of them did. But of course if you've read the other books in this series, you probably had no issues. Again, I get this was the 6th book in the series but still. Instead of Maggie constantly having issues with her cell phone, or us hearing about how she acts around people she's not crazy of, OR instead of talking about people having 'powers' but then not actually having anyone do anything really 'powers related', throw in a little details/back story about the characters.

One thing I really could not stand. The author was constantly bringing up past events that happened. Like the fact Tom and Maggie broke up, why Liss calls everyone, at least Maggie, 'Ducks'. What does N.I.G.H.T.S stand for? Or Melanie getting help from 'witches' then turning around and basically shining a negative light on them and Maggie's obviously still talking with her sister, no problems there for her. We already know what kind of person/friend she is.

When Maggie's in the elevator she hears the two guys talking. One says something like how he wants "to get her out of the way FOR A LITTLE WHILE." Yet, whenever that conversation is brought up, that last part is always left out. Making it seem as though whoever was talking planned on killing/hurting the person they were talking about. When in reality, if Maggie didn't pick and choose what she wanted to hear, this was not the case.

Maggie and Marcus end up in an elevator again. Prior to him stepping into the elevator, "Marcus puts his hand up and the elevator doors reverse and open..." Um...isn't that what they're suppose to do? They have the sensors on them...yet, Maggie acts as if he used magic or something.

So Julie is a State Cop? So how was she able to be involved with Frannie and companies case? She's related to them. Sorry but no.

Melanie leaves the hospital to search out information as to why her hubby has disappeared. Keep in mind that it's at least one or two days later. How do I know this? Because Maggie ends up going to sleep over Marcus' house, they both wake up the next morning. Yet, Melanie tells them that it was too late for her to go to the bank, which meant it was too late for her husband too. Um...is she under some medication here?

Seriously, who under the age of what....40?...refers to soda as 'Pop'?

Who were Hester, Joe Aames, Eli Yoden or Devon McAllister?

I found the ending to be really flaky. I seriously can't imagine the other books in this series are much better than this one, unless this was just the flake in the series. It happens. Either way, the author brings up all these little issues happening between people, and since she's at the end of the book already, just tosses in a few little lines letting the reader kinda know what happened between those couples.

The way this book was written, I wasn't a fan of either. It's like Maggie was writing in a journal or something and we're reading that. I really can't stand books like that. Case in point, on one of the last pages the author refers to something happening as 'magically' not 'magickally'....as if it's a journal we're reading.

Would not recommend this one.

[IslandRiverScribe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the 6th entry in the Bewitching Mystery series, with a storyline that begins less than a month following the conclusion of the previous novel, Where There’s A Witch. Like its predecessors, this is definitely not a standalone novel. The previous entries in the series have built considerable backstory that is necessary to the comprehension of all that happens in this tale.

This storyline did not contain one big mystery to solve as in the previous books. Yes, there was a death in the early pages of the novel, but our protagonist, Maggie O’Neil, was nowhere in the vicinity of the body this time. In fact, the death does not seem suspicious at all so Maggie is not concerned, even though she was involved with the murder of the decedent’s girlfriend several months ago.

As the story progresses, we are caught up primarily in Maggie’s and Marcus’s new relationship and with the birth of Mel’s twins. But as we spend the next two days in the hospital with Maggie, we begin to notice little things, little spider webs of information snaking out into the atmosphere. In fact, there are a lot of little things that keep piling up on top of each other, seemingly unconnected but too close in timing for comfort. However, since most of it seems to concern babies, we scratch our heads and read on.

Essentially we get lulled into thinking that the author has skipped out of the paranormal mystery genre into the area of contemporary romance. We are happy for Maggie and Marcus; we want to kick Tom’s behind; we really want to wring Greg’s neck; and we get worried about Steff and Dan.

Then it all snaps back when Maggie and Marcus accidentally find themselves at another murder scene. When Maggie joins her empathic abilities with Marcus’s channeling abilities, the various spider webs of information begin to make more sense and it’s game on to identify the murderer – actually both murderers.

This book is a sleeper, seemingly engrossed in new romances, newborn babies, troubled lovers and cheating spouses. But, in reality, all those little plot threads are simply holding the ingredients needed to mix up a good old-fashioned murder.

[Erica ☘️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story thus far is about Margaret Mary-Catherine O’Neil, aka Maggie, a slightly quirky resident of Stoney Mill, Indiana. She works alongside Liss, her boss at Enchantments, and has recently learned that she is an empath. Liss and Marcus are helping her to further develop her witchy gifts. They are both witches and proud of it. Still, no matter how much they try to help, it seems that Maggie has a talent for sniffing out trouble in Stoney Mill.

Of course, there is trouble brewing in Stoney Mill once again and it seems that Maggie is ever present and accounted for smack dab in the middle of it. There’s been another murder in the town and the ever vigilant Maggie has enticed Marcus to escort her toward it. One night while at the hospital visiting her sister, Maggie overhears a conversation while trapped in the hospital elevator. Two male voices are talking about doing something to a woman and Maggie believes it is up to her to figure out what the conversation meant. The accidental sleuth stumbles onto a variety of different scenarios and begins to piece together different coincidences she’s been privy to. She is undertaking all of this while battling the throes of a broken foot and a budding relationship between her and Marcus.

I really enjoyed reading about the variety of scenarios that Maggie comes up with to explain the conversation. After the murder she begins to think that the conversation had something to do with it and slowly pieces together the plot behind the plan only to discover the plan was so unexpected she did not even catch a glimpse of what it truly was. In my opinion, Madelyn Alt is a brilliant writer. I can’t seem to put down these bewitching mysteries once I pick one up.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

The actual mysteries in the Bewitching Mystery series are often pushed to the wayside in order to focus on the more paranormal aspects of the series. In A Witch in Time, the mystery is still way in the background, but so is most of the witchy action. The focus of A Witch in Time seems to be romance and relationships.

Normally, I'd be annoyed with a book that didn't even introduce the mystery until there was only 100 pages left but A Witch in Time used those early pages in the book to set the ball rolling on romance resolution that has been dangling for a long time now. Maggie, her sister Melanie and her best friend Steff have all had relationship that haven't had much progress in them. They've been stagnating, staying exactly the same, for many books now. While Maggie finally starts moving forward with Marcus, Melanie and Steff have clear cut resolution to their relationships that was necessary and will really help the series in the future.

A Witch in Time is light on the paranormal, especially compared to previous books. There are no N.I.G.H.T.S. meetings, no ghost hunting investigations and no witch rituals or spells. The "spirit"-ual feel is still there, but more in name than action.

The mystery, once it finally gets going, is very good. The clues to the murder were sprinkled throughout the book, well before the killing occurs, so unless you were paying close attention, the ending will be a surprise.

A Witch in Time is light on both paranormal and mystery, the two things the series is about. It doesn't do much to draw in new readers, but series fans will be ecstatic about the much needed plot progression.

[Jewels · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm fond of this series of books. The heroine is a spunky witch coming into her own, but she still has her doubts here and there which makes her vulnerable and intriguing to read about as she goes around solving mysteries in her home town. That being said, this book was a bit flat. The first half of the book is her visiting her sister in the hospital and getting clues to her next mystery. There wasn't the huge build up like usual. The ending was abrupt. She laid out the whole case in a very clinical way when it could've been dramatized more. I'm still a fan and I'll be reading more about Maggie's adventures but I was a little disappointed with this one in particular.

[GoldenjoyBazyll · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of this series!!!!!!! Maggie is up to her neck in a yellow cast and and a cast of wacky occurances!!!!!! Her sister has had twins- brother in law has gone missing- hearing grandma's voice (but she's dead)and keeps having her lovelife foiled- but for how long..... U wull have to read to find out too!

[Karly Kirkpatrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the characters and this series, but this book was a little slow for me. It seemed to take awhile for the story to get started. But I love the series and hope Madelyn is still planning to put more of these out. And that Marcus is hottie hot hot!

[Papayamariah Whurr · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite in the series so far, but probably because I'm a sucker for transitional stories written well. If you have a ridiculous passion for cozy mysteries (like writing them yourself) then I highly recommend this series as a whole.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful. Just like all the others. Madelyn Alt hooked me with the first one. I read one a day until I finished the series. Sigh...now I'm left waiting for the new one. I can't find out when it's going to be available although I do have it on hold at the library.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is fun series. They are light hearted and entertaining without trying too hard. The characters are all likeable if not loveable and Maggie is genuine, if a bit looney. These are great books to curl up with on a rainy afternoon in front of a fire and just read way the time.

[Beca Leininger · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the series but this particular book seemed to have an abundance of back story. I don't want to read 60 pages of back story when I just spent the last few weeks reading the series. It is the 7th book, I think the readers should know the characters fairly well by now!

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love these books. This is actually my second time reading this one. Imagining Stony Mill and its small town, it's exactly where I would rather be. I really wish In Charm's Way would come out, I'm not sure what's going on with the release.

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

All six books were really good, fast reads and entertaining.

[Brandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it! Enjoyed the tightening bonds between Marcus and Maggie but sad for her sister (although I feel she may have gotten a dose of karma). Can't wait for the next one!

[Christa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another good book in this series of cozy paranormal mysteries.

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great book, great characters, etc. Highly recommend it to everyone.