The Man In The Abbey

by Harriet Jo

After returning to Whitby following her grandparents’ deaths, Ivy discovers a hidden journal revealing the truth about the abbey ruins overlooking the sea. During a violent storm, she is pulled into the eighteenth century where she meets Carlisle Waters, the mysterious man known only as The Man in the Abbey. But Whitby’s storms hide dangerous secrets. Because the abbey is not simply haunted. It is broken in time. And the closer Ivy and Carlisle become, the more impossible their future together becomes. Some loves transcend centuries. Others destroy you completely. A ruined abbey. A man trapped in time. A love story that was never meant to survive.

235 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 19, 2026

About the author

Hello, I’m Harriet Jo.

I’m a fantasy romance author from a small town in the UK, writing stories about love that refuses to surrender across kingdoms, across centuries, and across time itself.

I first started writing when I was thirteen years old, creating stories in my bedroom long before I ever imagined readers around the world would one day discover them.

For me, stories have always been more than just words they are places where hope, love, and destiny can still win.

My books blend slow-burn romance, magic, destiny, and emotional journeys where love is tested against impossible odds.

I’m the author of The Echoes Saga, a time-crossed romance series, and The Black Raven Saga, a darker fantasy romance about war, enemies to lovers, and the mysterious power of ravens.

What started as a dream and a love for storytelling has grown into a journey shared with readers across the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, and beyond and this is only the beginning of the worlds still waiting to be written.

Reviews

[Elin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like the idea. The premise is good. I enjoyed the plot. The characters are engaging. But there are three major reasons why I can't give this book a higher rating.

Firstly, the punctuation is all over the place. To the point where I had to stop and go back to reread sentences, or sometimes entire paragraphs, to understand what was actually being said in that sentence because there was a missing comma, or an em dash would've been great, or it could've been two or three short sentences separated by full stops. Single word sentences exist and they're great to promote emphasis or tension or even emotion. On top of that there are so so so many adverbs. So many instantly, and immediately, and completely, and slightly. The sheer amount of them makes the text bloated. They don't help with world-building or creating that movie in my head while reading. They read as stutters. Like the movie in my head keeps buffering.

Secondly, the author could benefit from a few rabbit holes of research. The pocket watch that plays a pivotal role in the story for example. Ivy recognises it as a watch and she even looks at the hands move at one point, which tells me the minute hand exists and that it's decently recent for a pocket watch. Now, it's established that Carlisle is stuck in the 18th century. But the minute hand wasn't added to the pocket watches until 1680 at the earliest, which, depending on when in the 18th century he's stuck, the watch wouldn't even be a single century old. Yet Carlisle claims the monks created the watches many centuries ago. Now fair, pocket time pieces have existed since the 15th century, but they looked nothing like what we think today when we think pocket watch. Chances are Ivy wouldn't even recognise it as such. Another historical thing is when Carlisle notes that the green dress would elicit less of a reaction than the purple one... Well, NO SHIT. Purple dye was historically so extraordinarily expensive to produce that purple clothing was worn pretty much exclusively by royals, clergy and aristocracy until the industrialisation of the 19th century brought the cost down and made it available for the average person. The fact that Ivy even had a purple dress to choose from in the 18th century made me raise my eyebrows. Top it off with Carlisle never having heard of a shower and saying it sounds dangerous when the first "modern" shower was patented in the mid-18th century and THE ROMANS HAD SHOWERS. Also Ivy is surprisingly proficient at reading the monks' writings...

Thirdly, the timeline is... odd. Carlisle talks about having grown up with Peter and he's stuck in "his" century, which we've established is the 18th century. Yet he talks about the monks as if he knew the abbey when they were there. The monks' sketches of Carlisle unchanging through time, which Ivy finds, add to this idea that he's been there alongside the monks. Okay, so when did the monks leave? What happened? Did Carlisle really come from the 18th century, then? Did Peter? How do these two storylines fit together? Why did Ivy have to leave after exactly one year? Why not wait until the year after? Or the year after that? It's established that the storms and the crossing show up every single year. Why couldn't she return? As far as I can remember it's never established why she can't return, only that the crossing is dangerous, but Ivy seems like she would take that risk.

[Stacey Whiting · Rating 2 out of 5]

This had great potential, great plot for the story but it was lacking.

I struggled reading this, I kept going in hope of it improving but it just didn’t.

It was a tad difficult to read at times, definitely missing a lot of punctuation.

It was also very repetitive, no real plot twist or excitement.

The characters have some lovely factors about them, but this definitely could have taken up that little bit more.