Rose Novak, a free-spirited museum employee who dabbles in magic, has had her share of disappointments. So when she tries a little spell for a romance with an “old-fashioned gentleman,” she doesn’t really expect it to work…especially literally. And yet, the duke from a painting she admired at the museum is now standing in her apartment, demanding to know who abducted him.
A man of science and truth, Henry Leighton-Lyons, the Duke of Beresford, has searched tirelessly for a way to turn back time and be with his late wife again. Instead, just as he’s about to pose for his portrait, he’s ripped centuries forward by a feckless, scantily dressed—and utterly bewitching—woman who believes in nonsense like magical crystals and astrology.
Unable to immediately reverse her spell, Rose vows to help Henry return to his own century, even though disguises and high jinks are required to get their hands on an enchanted astrolabe and master the art of time travel. But it’s hard not to fall for the irritable yet honorable duke.
Little does she know that he’s starting to wonder: did a reckless love spell get it right, after all?
Release Date: Dec 9, 2025
Heat Level: Sensual
Publisher: Penguin Group
Imprint: Berkley
Price: $10.99
“Henry was positive it had not been. And it was not the first thing she’d known of his life that she had no reason to know. When he’d first told her and Jason that the astrolabe had been a gift from his wife, Rose had behaved for all the world like she remembered that. The fact that Rose had quoted the same Shakespeare as Charlotte could, of course, be counted as a coincidence, but could her handwriting? Too many strange things were adding up. And Rose believed she’d lived past lives. She said she didn’t remember anything…. but with the right questions, or in the right situation, might those memories come back to her?”
I think time travel is one of my favorite tropes of all time, and I don’t think it gets utilized enough in romance. Many times, it’s the modern woman being thrown back in time to a restrictive, old-fashioned society, swept off her feet by the handsome gentleman. I liked that this one didn’t follow that formula, and it thrust Henry, Duke of Beresford, into the future at the behest of Rose Novak’s love spell. Henry had been attempting to time-travel to the past to save his wife, Charlotte, who had passed a few years earlier, but instead, he was thrust into the future, where he did not know anything or anyone. Rose Novak is a self-proclaimed modern witch, and she couldn’t believe that her spell brought a Duke to the future. There is more at play here than magic. Two souls fated to find each other in more than one life.
I found this story to be incredibly cute and heartfelt. I loved the reincarnation aspect and how they reconnected in another life. The author did a good job laying the groundwork for how all this would work, and I respected that. It wasn’t an empty plot hole that went nowhere.
Occasionally, Rose would irritate me. She was a witch who believed in magic and past lives, but as soon as Henry mentioned that he thought she was Charlotte reincarnated, she became distraught. I would have thought that, given her belief in magic and her experience of someone being transported from the past, she would have been more open and accepting of that revelation. Once she embraced the truth, traveled back in time, and regained her memories, I liked her much better. These two had to fight for their happily-ever-after because they were from different eras. They had to face tough choices about their lives, but in the end, love won out.
If you’re a fan of time travel stories like those of Lynn Kurland and Jude Deveraux, then I absolutely recommend checking this out. This book has something fresh and different for romance fans.
~ Michelle
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