Rating: ☆☆☆☆
Audience: Young adult fantasy
Length: 512 pages
Author: Lisa Maxwell
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release Date: July 18th, 2017
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads
BOOK SUMMARY:
Stop the Magician. Steal the book. Save the future.
In modern-day New York, magic is all but extinct. The remaining few who have an affinity for magic—the Mageus—live in the shadows, hiding who they are. Any Mageus who enters Manhattan becomes trapped by the Brink, a dark energy barrier that confines them to the island. Crossing it means losing their power—and often their lives.
Esta is a talented thief, and she’s been raised to steal magical artifacts from the sinister Order that created the Brink. With her innate ability to manipulate time, Esta can pilfer from the past, collecting these artifacts before the Order even realizes she’s there. And all of Esta’s training has been for one final job: traveling back to 1902 to steal an ancient book containing the secrets of the Order—and the Brink—before the Magician can destroy it and doom the Mageus to a hopeless future.
But Old New York is a dangerous world ruled by ruthless gangs and secret societies, a world where the very air crackles with magic. Nothing is as it seems, including the Magician himself. And for Esta to save her future, she may have to betray everyone in the past.
WHOA TO THAT LAST 100 PAGES THOUGH.
I listened to this as an audio book and thought it was really well done. At first it was a little confusing with the changing time periods each chapter, but once they stayed in the same place (a few chapters in), it was easy to follow and enjoy.
This book was trippy. I picked it up on a whim and ended up buddy-reading it with a friend and we were both wholly impressed with how much we liked it by the end. Enough to seek out the second book soon.
Esta and Harte had all the angst and I am STILL WAITING. Their slow-burn enemies to lovers is a small fire currently and I am soooo wanting more for them. I love watching them interact and each time they ran into each other it was awesome banter and had me snickering. These two stole my heart. But mostly, Harte Darrigan. He’s the heart of this story (I’m not even mad about this pun).
The mystery kept me on my toes. I honestly didn’t realize who the bad guy actually was until late in the book, practically when it was announced. I MEAN WHOA. That was amazing. I love when books keep me guessing. There was an even bigger twist that I had NO IDEA about. I don’t know how much it’ll play into the next book, but it was still crazy. Those are the best kind of reveals.
I love all of the secret societies and magic gangs that were running around New York in the 1920’s. It was an interesting world and added even more danger as they went on increasingly risky heists.
Overall audience notes:
- Young adult historical fantasy
- Language: very little
- Romance: a few kisses
- Violence: guns, knives, physical, ritual murder
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