Review: The Devil's Thief by Lisa Maxwell

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.

Synopsis

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.

Goodreads

Purchase Links

BARNES AND NOBLE | INDIEBOUND

AMAZON | BOOKS-A-MILLION

Start the series with The Last Magician!

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.

Amazon | B&N

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lisa Maxwell is the New York Times Best-Selling author of THE LAST MAGICIAN. Also of UNHOOKED, SWEET UNREST, and GATHERING DEEP. When she's not writing books, she teaches English at a local college. She lives near DC with her very patient husband and two not-so patient boys.

Follow her: Website | Twitter | Goodreads | Instagram 

REVIEW

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Title: The Devil's Thief
Series: The Last Magician #2
Author: Lisa Maxwell
Release date: October 9, 2018
Cliffhanger: Yes

    At her side stood the Magician. Once he had been her enemy. Always he had been her equal. Now he was her ally, and she had risked every thing to come back for him.

After reading and loving The Last Magician this year, I couldn't have been more excited about getting an arc of the second in the series. Book one ends in quite the cliffhanger, so obviously I was eager and excited to continue with Esta and Harte's incredible adventure.

Fantasy lovers will find so much to love about this series. Lisa Maxwell knows how to pack in the action at a nail biting pace, and plenty of suspenseful, pulse pounding moments. The unpredictable twists are sure to keep you hanging on until the very end, because you know that at some point she's going to deliver a jaw dropper. But the biggest draw for me? The time travel trope. Add magic into that scenario, and I am one happy reader. This series has all the ingredients for my perfect happy place, but it didn't all come together as well as I was hoping this time around. I was still a solid and enjoyable read for the most part, but I did have some frustrations that took away from my enjoyment.

We take off right where we left off at the end of The Last Magician. Esta and Harte have succeeded in their heist at Khafre Hall, and now must make it past the Brink and collect the five artifacts that were sent into safekeeping. Or at least, that was the plan at the time. But we all know that plans don't seem to work out so well for this pair, and it was never more evident than in this installment. The Ars Arcana book holds power and knowledge that would be cataclysmic if it falls back into the wrong Sundren's hands. Unfortunately, Harte has unwillingly transferred the energy or power inside himself, and this causes some monumental challenges for the pair.

    The dark choir merged into a single voice, one that was speaking in a language he should not have recognized but understood nonetheless. A single word that held untold meaning. Soon.

There are two alternating timelines: 1902 & 1904. But we get a ton, and I really mean a TON of POV switches and new characters. Jianyu and Viola were not in the forefront of the story in the previous book, but they definitely shared the spotlight here, feeling much less like secondary characters. Jianyu is tasked with keeping Cela safe, as well as stopping Logan from reaching Nibsy with invaluable information. All this while keeping out of the hands of those who betrayed Dolph, and the ever sinister Order. Jack has a strong ascension into power, as well as the new leader of the Devil's Own. Viola places herself into the Five Pointers' gang, at her brother's mercy in order to gain information and bide her time. She will find a new love interest as she plots to destroy the Order by whatever means necessary.

1904 introduces us to a whole new set of challenges, created by a chain reaction of mishaps with Esta and Harte. The Anistasi anarchists have now entered the scene, and their intentions are murky at best. It takes some time to decide if they are friend or foe. Ruth, Maggie, and Lucas are new intriguing characters that have their own score to settle, and the appearance of Harte and Esta may be an interference they couldn't have anticipated. Everyone is on their guard, watching their backs and holding their cards close to their chest.

    True power was the ability to bend others to your will while they thought the bending was their own idea.

Here's the thing: the world building quality Ms. Maxwell produces here is notable, and her ability to keep a time travel plot free from holes is truly impressive. BUT...the length. The length of this book was problematic. I'm not one to complain about a book being too long, especially a fantasy. In this case, the book started out strong, but slowly deteriorated in pace. I would describe the middle chunk of this book as stagnant. There was little to no progression with the characters, it was simply hopping from one character to another at a frenetic speed where they never seemed to achieve any of their goals or noticeably move things forward.

Failure after failure kept occurring, bad luck following everyone like a black cloud ready to unleash a storm. After a certain point I started to become frustrated at how little success had been gained. In fact, they were worse off in every regard than when they started. Like there was a lot of filler content simply to fill time or set up the next book. Yes, Harte did finally understand more about the power inside the book and himself, and what they were up against. But in regards to their original mission at the start, it seemed to all crumble like a house of cards.

Esta and Harte had some hints of a romance brewing in book one, and I was really looking forward to seeing that develop more. There was constant back and forth between them, a lot of repetitious internal pining or a moment of weakness, followed by a surge of the darkness inside of him, and then retreat. It never produced any change in their relationship, any chance for romance was slimmer than ever before. Viola's love interest had considerable development in comparison, with the promise of even further growth. I have to say, I was more than a little surprised that she was falling for someone so soon after grieving that deeply for Tilly, but it was at least not an insta-love situation.

In the end, while there were no inconsistencies, my main issue was the pacing and progression. It held my attention in parts, but there were long lags were I struggled and my attention wandered. My favorite things about this part was seeing more depth from Viola and Jianyu. Their past and present were fully fleshed out, and it endeared me to both of them so much more. As always, I loved the Mageus and their many varied talents, as well as the time travel and how it potentially influenced the course of the future. We didn't leave off in the most positive of places, so I'm anticipating that it's still going to take a lengthy conclusion to wrap the series up. I'll be really interested to see how she brings everything to a close with all of the new information brought to light.

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