Monsters, time travel, hunters, and star crossed lovers. This is the first book in a trilogy. The story follows Joan, a sixteen year old girl who loves her job at the historic Holland House and is staying in London with her eccentric family. On the day she is suppose to go on a date with her co-worker/crush Nick things go terribly wrong and she discovers her family secret, or rather the fact that when her grandmother told her they were monsters, she meant it literally and Joan has just awakened her powers. Soon Joan is thrown into a situation where it turns out Nick her crush... is actually a monster hunter and has plans to kill all the monsters in London and has already murdered her whole family. The only person she can turn to to help is Aaron Oliver, a fellow monster from a family who hates Joan’s. After saving Aaron’s life they both time travel to the past to run from Nick. Joan is hell bent on saving her family and preventing the massacre. So let me first begin by saying I loved all the proponents of the story and I enjoyed the time travel/magical families aspect of the story, I loved Nick and Aaron and how they had such interesting stories and personalities... but my biggest issue? Joan. The entire 80% of the book Joan is just “ I am absolutely right and everyone else is wrong” when she literally just discovered two days ago the monster world and doesn’t think to, oh I don’t know, actually talk to the monster guy who has been living and been educated in the world? She’s 16 and she’s traumatized, i absolutely get that, but Joan come on, please for the love of god just take a moment and consider your situation. You literally time traveled back and are placed in a society you have no clue what the rules are and go around just doing as you please without taking into consideration how the culture works and the consequences that could hurt your entire mission and the people in it. Joan is extremely juvenile, and I felt for Aaron being stuck with her for the entire trip, Aaron constantly trying to be the voice of reason only to get steam rolled by Joan. Now onto the other not so great part, the love triangle and romance. This is labeled as an enemies to lovers, with Joan and Nick being considered star crossed lovers but 1) he literally murdered your entire family and promises to kill you and 2) Nick only made an appearance in the first part of the book and the last like 30% of the book. Aaron on the other-hand, I fully 100% am behind. Aaron was there for most of the book and he really was being helpful, protective, and just an overall better love interest. If I had to pick a favorite character it would be Aaron, I would love to read from his POV and find out more about him, he truly seemed so much more interesting. I felt for Nick after you learn the truth, and he also had a super interesting story... but Joan... and her “special power that only she has” really just didn’t do it for me in this book because she really doesn’t grow as a character and she doesn’t even acknowledge that she could be wrong until 80% into the book. So yes i loved the world of the book and I loved the side characters, and despite my somewhat harsh review, I definitely enjoyed the book and am looking forward to where the story goes next!

*Thank you to the Monstrous Girls Contest for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*