3.5 Stars

I read this book specifically because I hated the cover. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a beautiful cover, but the designer used a dead version of the Ayron from the Neverending Story. To an older reader like me, this symbol represents the childlike empress, not a 1900 New York magic street gang. So for all current and wannabe book cover designers, DO NOT us cult followed nostalgia symbols to sell a book, if it has nothing to do with the original story. It would be like making Ted (the bear from the Mark Wahlberg movie) look like Winnie the Pooh. It’s a NO NO!

Now on to the story. It is well known I do not read book jackets because I want to be surprised and have no prior convictions on the author's story. I let the cover do that for me. I knew going in this was not a NES retelling, but that is all. And I have to say, if I had known, I would never have picked it up. You see I am not a fan of time travel novels. You know within the first 3 chapters that time travel plays a major factor. Not everyone can pass through the ages, that is Esta’s special ability. And it is this ability that allows her to steal magical relics from the past.

Surrounding the island of Manhattan is the Brink. It’s a special wall that if Trump was alive in the turn of the century, he would have been touting whole heartedly. The Brink kills any mageus (those with magic) who passes across it. It sucks the magic out of a person, and if they are lucky enough to live, they are a shadow of the person they were before. Esta is collecting relics to help break the Brink. She doesn't know much, just that she has to stop the Last Magician. To do so, she must travel from the reader's time back the 1900’s, where she is to infilter Dolph Saunders gang. Then, and only then, can she stop the last magician.

There are lots of twists and turns in this story. Some you can see coming a mile away, and others a surprise (both good and bad). The author does an excellent job of intertwining real people and places into this magical story. They included banker J.P. Morgan and his son. Charles Schwab, and a few others. Plus they describe their beautiful mansions, things they once collected, and various monuments around the city past and present. You can tell that the author has put in a lot of time on research. I question the plot point with the Metropolitan Museum, I think it should have taken place at the Morgan Museum, but you be the reader and make your own opinion.

Overall I enjoyed the book, it wasn’t 5 stars for me but for someone else it will be. I liked the book enough to not only recommend it to others, but to choose it as my traveling book. I think there are many who would enjoy this story where magic is everyday, but has been forgotten, and where it walks side by side with muggles who are trying to destroy and copy it at the same time. The highest compliment I can give to a book is to say I will be reading the sequel. And yes, there will be a sequel (not publisher confirmed, but come on there will be a sequel).