Virlana Kardash’s A Dark Slip of Time is a bold time-slip romance that follows one person across three distinct eras after a love that constantly slips away. Allie Sutherland is a doctoral student researching medieval Scottish warfare in modern Toronto. She has been through a divorce and is reluctant to entertain new suitors until a stranger crosses her path and the chemistry is something she can’t ignore. When Callum Brodie touches her wrist in a library, she is transported into 1296 as Aileen Douglas, the wife of Callum Brodie, a commander of the Black Douglas clan. Treachery breaks them apart, but that is not the end yet. Aileen wakes up in Halifax in 1750 as Annie Jean Turner, a laundress who finds her heart again with David Williamson, a merchant captain, the reincarnated soul of Callum. The story follows their love through piracy, shipwreck, and the liminal space between lives. Can what they experience now endure?

A Dark Slip of Time was an engaging story that I read in one sitting; it is character-driven and suspenseful. I was captivated by the exceptional depiction of the heroine. Allie is intellectually detached and focused, Aileen excels in her grit, and Annie is street-smart with the kind of desperation that translates to female survival. The worldbuilding was expertly handled, and the author rendered the clinical modernity of Toronto with brilliance. Medieval Scotland is depicted as a place where clan betrayals and prophecies coexist, and the maritime world of 1750 captures the threats of pirates and the brutal calculus of commerce. Virlana Kardash uses compelling conflict to drive the plot forward, underlining the physical dangers, such as pirate raids, alongside the inner torments of a woman unraveling her love and identity while trapped in different bodies. The author treats time in this story as a “scrunched-up napkin” of parallel strands where the boundaries between the past and the present bleed through inherited scars and déjà vu.

In Virlana Kardash’s A Dark Slip of Time, Toronto doctoral student Allie Sutherland lives under constant pressure while raising her young daughter Delilah and researching medieval Scottish warfare. A chance encounter at a public skating rink with a stranger wearing a Boston Bruins jersey begins unraveling her sense of reality. The man recognizes her with alarming familiarity, and his presence awakens memories tied to Aileen Douglas, a Scottish noblewoman living during the wars against Edward Longshanks in thirteenth-century Scotland. As Allie becomes increasingly drawn toward the stranger, she experiences another life filled with castle intrigue, clan warfare, betrayal, and devotion to Highland commander Callum Brodie. The connection stretches further into eighteenth-century Nova Scotia, where laundress Annie Turner boards a Scottish merchant ship commanded by David Williamson and finds herself trapped in another dangerous turn of the same enduring bond across centuries.

Virlana Kardash’s A Dark Slip of Time approaches reincarnation as a lingering spiritual memory that refuses to stay buried once Allie Sutherland encounters Callum. Kardash gives these shifts between lives a haunting sense of recognition because familiarity arrives long before understanding does, creating the feeling that the soul recalls truths the conscious mind cannot explain. The historical references are authentic, especially aboard the Bonnie Lass, where Annie Turner moves through greasy lantern smoke while freezing seawater crashes over the deck. A similar intensity appears during the nighttime assault on Douglas Castle when exhausted defenders stumble through smoke-filled corridors as English soldiers close in. What ultimately gives the novel its lasting impression is Kardash’s belief that moral character survives across centuries. Annie’s instinct to comfort dying galley worker Antoine Laframboise during violence aboard the captured brigantine reveals compassion surviving even when survival itself feels uncertain. Readers drawn toward reincarnation fiction rooted in history and spiritual connection will likely remember this novel long after finishing it. I know I will.

It appears that Allie Sutherland cannot catch a break, whether in love or at work. Her thesis is not going as planned, and to compound matters, she does not see herself making compromises in this regard. She has already given up on love thanks to the scars she carries from her divorce. She focuses on completing her thesis while caring for her daughter, Delilah. All that changes when she meets a mysterious man while out with her daughter. Something about this handsome individual tells Allie there is more to his friendly demeanor than meets the eye. Her determination to get to the bottom of this mystery leads her on a whirlwind journey that forces her to reconsider her views on love in Virlana Kardash's A Dark Slip of Time.

In A Dark Slip of Time, Virlana Kardash keeps the origin stories brief. She uses dialogue specifically between Allie and her parents to give an idea of just how bad her dating life has gotten. The dialogue goes from casual to intricately detailed and back almost imperceptibly. The author deserves plaudits for using appropriate Gaelic and Old English phrases in the dialogue. This approach gives the narrative a realistic feel. When combined with references to popular English regents, unique fighting styles, and weapons specific to particular timelines in the British Isles, the result is an immersive narrative that will impress even diehard romance and fantasy purists. Factor in the graduated pace, strategically placed clues, and intense romantic scenes that leave little to the imagination, and you have a masterpiece. I enjoyed reading this fascinating novel.

They say that true love comes only once in a lifetime, and perhaps that’s true. But what about love that comes across several lifetimes? What about love that can never die? Allie never expected that kind of love, except perhaps for her daughter. Men let her down, after all. But then she meets a mysterious stranger who suddenly makes everything in her life make sense … and not, at the same time. But who is he? And who is Callum? And who is David? And why do all of these men seem so important? You’ll find out in A Dark Slip of Time by Virlana Kardash.

Allie Sutherland is a smart, albeit somewhat distracted, woman. She’s determined to achieve her goals and set on her path of life, or so she thinks. A mystery man showing up out of the blue was not in the cards. But it wasn’t in the cards for Aileen Douglas either. Or for Annie Jean Turner. Each of them is a strong, smart woman. Women who know what they want out of life and aren’t afraid to fight for it and for the ones they love. A Dark Slip of Time is their story. And also, a story of love, of loss, of destiny, of tragedy. It’s a slow-moving story that draws you in and makes you truly see the growth of each woman, each couple, and even the time period that they lived in. Virlana Kardash weaves a story that’s full of interesting characters, beautiful settings, and emotional scenes you won’t forget.

A Dark Slip of Time by Virlana Kardash is a historical time-travel romance novel. Strange things start happening in the life of Allie Sutherland, a Medieval Studies scholar. Allie has a thesis to finish, works at the university to support herself and her daughter, and has no time for dating. One day, she meets a man she has never seen before in her life, who takes her breath away. Shortly after meeting that man again, her life takes a drastic turn. Twice, Allie and Callum find themselves transported back in time. The first time, they find themselves in the year 1296, and the second, in the New World of 1750s Nova Scotia. In both cases, they have other lives and are bound to love each other. Yet will they be able to overcome all the unfortunate events that may come their way, threatening to destroy their world?

A Dark Slip of Time by Virlana Kardash contains enough hardship, suspense, romance, adventure, and medieval history to keep you turning the pages to see how it all turns out. It's tragic and also hopeful. It's a love story with satisfying romance, adventure, and immersive storytelling, and I had a wonderful time reading it. I found the female protagonist most memorable for her determination to be the mistress of her own fate. I also enjoyed all the twists, the characters' relationship dynamics throughout the book, and how everything played out for them in the end. Anyone interested in historical fiction, time-travel novels, or love stories will enjoy this tale of fierce love and adventure across the centuries.