The Devil's Thief Series: The last magician #2 Published by Simon and Schuster on October 9, 2018
Source: ARC Trade
Genres: Fantasy, Historical, Prejudice & Racism, Science Fiction, Social Themes, Time Travel, Young Adult Fiction
Pages: 704
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Format: ARC
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Goodreads
In this spellbinding sequel to the New York Times bestselling The Last Magician, Esta and Harte set off on a cross-country chase through time to steal back the elemental stones they need to save the future of magic.
Hunt the Stones. Beware the Thief. Avenge the Past.
Esta’s parents were murdered. Her life was stolen. And everything she knew about magic was a lie. She thought the Book of Mysteries held the key to freeing the Mageus from the Order’s grasp, but the danger within its pages was greater than she ever imagined.
Now the Book’s furious power lives inside Harte. If he can’t control it, it will rip apart the world to get its revenge, and it will use Esta to do it.
To bind the power, Esta and Harte must track down four elemental stones scattered across the continent. But the world outside the city is like nothing they expected. There are Mageus beyond the Brink not willing to live in the shadows—and the Order isn’t alone in its mission to crush them.
In St. Louis, the extravagant World’s Fair hides the first stone, but an old enemy is out for revenge and a new enemy is emerging. And back in New York, Viola and Jianyu must defeat a traitor in a city on the verge of chaos.
As past and future collide, time is running out to rewrite history—even for a time-traveling thief.
Review
The Devil’s Thief by Lisa Maxwell picks up where The Last Magician left off. Now that Esta has traveled back in time to save Harte, the two work together to find the scattered elemental stones. Can they find them before the Order does? The Devil’s Thief bounces back and forth between multiple character’s perspectives. There are a lot of characters in this book, and you get inside each of their heads. My biggest problem is that Lisa introduced many threads and conflicts by the end of this almost 700-page beast; it didn’t feel like anyone accomplished anything except the two primary antagonists. The protags saw a net victory count of just about zero, and that’s incredibly frustrating. Why did I go through 700 pages to find that we’ve moved two spaces on the board instead of twenty, you know? All these new threads are interesting, but nothing resolved itself, which means I want the third book, but I didn’t enjoy this one. It’s kind of an awful case of second book syndrome. If the author’s note had been introduced at the start of the book, the 700 pages would have made more sense. Lisa had to do lots of research to make this story seem accurate and realistic, and she does tell us where she added her author flare. I have book three on hand and tried hard to figure out how it fits into the storyline; by the end of book two, you got that figured out. Also, I thought book 3 was the end of the series, but Goodreads has us slated for a fourth book in 2022.
About Lisa maxwell
Lisa Maxwell is the New York Times Best-selling Author of THE LAST MAGICIAN.The book is being translated into seven languages and has been sold in nine territories. Her other books include the award-winning UNHOOKED, as well as SWEET UNREST, and GATHERING DEEP. She has a PhD in English and currently is a professor at a community college outside of D.C. She has a soft spot for loud music and fast cars, so when she’s not teaching or writing, you can probably find her catching a live band or going on adventures with her husband and two boys in the Challenger she named Viola.
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| Overall: | 4 |
