Incredibly engrossing and decadent in all the best ways, A Witch in Time by Constance Sayers is a sumptuous story of love and loss that’s perfect for fans of historical fiction with a touch of fantasy.

Brought together by a curse born of the darkest magic and sacrifice, a man, young woman, and demon are forced together over and over again throughout time, doomed to repeat the same cycle of an ill-fated relationship that ends in heartbreak and devastation.

In 1895 rural France, young Juliet foolishly falls for her married neighbor, an artist by the name of Auguste Marchant. Their love affair, doomed from the very beginning, ends in heartbreak and a botched curse. Instead of condemning Marchant to lifetimes of unhappiness, the witch (who’s Juliet’s mother) instead bound Juliet to the artist and forced the young woman to repeatedly re-live her relationship with Marchant and die young.

The only saving grace of Juliet’s mother’s curse is the stipulation of an administrator, a demon charged with looking after Juliet. Things get complicated when the demon falls in love with the young Juliet and is forced to witness her infatuation with Marchant and brutal death in every reincarnation.

After multiple lifetimes of tragic loves, Helen, Juliet’s most recent reincarnation, has had enough and sets out to find a way of breaking the curse before she meets her fated end. But what she finds is so much more than that.

Let’s get this out of the way first: A Witch in Time is a beautiful and ethereal piece of historical fiction that cares far more about its character development than large set pieces and thrilling storylines. This novel concerns itself with what makes these characters who they are, establishing past lives as building blocks and not just stops along the way.

In other words, though the dark magic and the curse are very important here, they’re not at the center of the story. The characters are. This is not a fantasy novel with human aspects dotting the periphery. It’s a story of love, loss, and other very human experiences that are only really influenced by magic. (Magic, that is, that allows these characters to experience more of those human experiences than an average person.)

Because of the title, I’d expected a tale of magic, intrigue, and danger. I thought there’d be numerous scenes involving spell-casting and conversations revolving around the mechanics of magic. But what you’ll quickly learn while reading A Witch in Time is that the magic is simply in service of the people. It brings the individuals together and is the catalyst for much of the story, but it’s not a focus. While I love fantasy books and stories of witchcraft, I think this story works well because of the way it downplays the magical aspects and uses them as a garnish rather than its main course.

And so, instead of going too far into the specifics of magic and its presence in this version of the world as we know it, the novel instead takes its time unpacking the characters, their many incarnations, and the relationships between all of them.

Though they all have a bit of Juliet in them (and the young girl determined much about their lives decades before they were even born), no two of the women who share Juliet’s spirit are the same. Each one of them is headstrong, yes, but they all have their fair share of strengths and flaws.

Not only that, but those aspects vary from woman to woman. In fact, it would be difficult to say whether or not all of the women would be friends because of how different they are. For instance, some can’t help but question everything around them while others seek comfort in their current situation. They all also have varying degrees of supernatural power that comes into play in very fascinating ways.

But although they’re different, these women are similar enough to where the story flows seamlessly from one lifetime to another and the stakes of the curse feel very real and very pressing for each woman as well as their past selves.

Admittedly, Juliet was my least favorite of all of them, but I believe that A Witch in Time made me feel that way on purpose. Though she’s young and naive, Juliet is an adult in the eyes of her community and the time in which she lived. She’s supposed to feel stupid and impulsive, which then renders the cursing of her just as senseless, if not more so (regardless of the intentions there).

Unlike Juliet, the Marchant figure, as well as his many incarnations, is such a wishy-washy man. He’s not all that likable, but, at the same time, he’s not really a villain here either. He’s simply a selfish human being who always takes far more than he can give, and yet he is somehow also sympathetic and alluring to some extent. It’s evident why Juliet’s spirit falls for him time and again. But also, there’s rarely ever chemistry between his reincarnations and Juliet’s, which is slightly disappointing (as it’d help make the case for why the curse should’ve been cast in the first place) but also highlights the foolishness of their pairing the first time around.

Though Juliet and Marchant’s romance is nothing to write home about, her relationship with Luke, the administrator demon… well, that very much is. It’s not technically a stipulation of the curse (as her mother didn’t know she was cursing her daughter as well), but every time Juliet’s spirit returns, she inevitably falls for Luke as well as Marchant. And it’s honestly really easy to see why.

While Marchant is kind of the worst, Luke is absolutely lovely. He’s not perfect by any means (as he makes some pretty big mistakes and the ways in which he withholds information is frustrating), but he’s much kinder and gentler than imagined — he’s a DEMON after all — and can be extremely thoughtful.

He always tries to do what’s best for Juliet’s spirit and helps her live as comfortable a life as possible. Not only that, but he’s always there for her at the end of every life, forcing himself to witness her last breaths, so she won’t be alone. Their romance, in every form and every decade, is both heartwarming as well as heartbreaking.

A Witch in Time is the ideal novel for fans of carefully crafted character pieces, historical fiction, and slow burn romances. The fantastic elements (namely the dark magic) only add to the decadence of the premise and depth of the characters. The experience of reading this story is a warm blanket and a hot cup of tea on a rainy, foggy morning, and I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it.

A Witch in Time by Constance Sayers is available now. Be sure to buy your copy from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, The Book Depository, or your local independent bookstore. Also, don’t forget to add it to your Goodreads “to read” shelf!