18% and I give up. It's slow, boring and what is actually happening? To much confusion due to the enormous amount of storylines and time travel. I read The Last Magician back in 2018 and thought it was okay, but confusing. Turns out it has been too long in between these books and I just cannot handle these big complex books anymore unless they're from Sarah J. Maas or Cassandra Clare it seems.

This book was so incredible! Wow what a great continuation of an already epic series. That ending - words can't describe the frustration/awe that I felt while Maxwell tore us apart through her words.

Thank you to the publisher, Simon Pulse, and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Picking up right after the shocking ending of The Last Magician, The Devil’s Thief finds Esta and Harte somehow managing to cross the Brink and make it off the island, as they begin their quest to retrieve the four stones scattered across America. But the world beyond the Brink is very different from what they have been told. With the book’s power now inside Harte, and Esta’s affinity also affected by it, an attempt to make a short jump in time to save themselves from Jack results in an accidental two year jump into the future, landing them in a much changed world of 1904 where they head to St Louis and the World’s Fair to find the first of the stones. Back in 1902, Violet and Jianyu find themselves in very precarious positions after Dolph’s murder, no longer under the protection of the Devil’s Own in a city increasingly controlled by the Order, the gangs, or in certain cases, an alliance of both. With Nibsy Lorcan manipulating events in both the past and future, the stakes are about to become higher than ever.

And now to my very overdue review, considering I was supposed to read this book over a year and a half ago. The Devil’s Thief is definitely a more plot centric book, and there isn’t nearly as much action, which results in it being rather drawn out. I’m a little conflicted on this book though – I did end up enjoying it, but there were a lot of places where the point could have been gotten across in a much more concise manner and easy cut down atleast a quarter of this book. It felt unnecessarily long, and really there is absolutely no reason why the second book in a trilogy should be this long – and for people who did read it back in 2018, with a wait of over two years for the finale in this series (which is supposedly even longer), it is very probable that many of the more salient plot points will be forgotten. I’m not one to complain about the length of a book usually, as long as it stays entertaining, but this was not always the case with this book.

The Devil’s Thief not only has constant POV switches, but also frequent timeline changes, will definitely make your head spin, but every change is clearly marked with subheadings which made it a lot easier to get used to over the course of the book. I loved seeing the St Louis World’s Fair come to life through Esta and Harte’s POVs, and as with the first book, the setting and feel of the story is very authentic. This, along with keeping the massive time travel plot free of any loopholes is truly impressive on the part of the author, especially considering just how complicated thing got in this book – and how much more complicated they’re about to get.

I’m not entirely certain about the new Thoth and Seshat plotline for the Ars Arcana as frankly, there’s enough going on in this book without the addition of some kind of divine interference which is not very clearly explained – intriguing yes, but detracting from the main conflict of Order vs Mageus. The same goes for the Antistasi – it was certainly an interesting twist learning who was behind it’s creation, but there was an unnecessary amount of focus on them – a POV certainly wasn’t needed. I am rather curious about North though – sounds like there’s a big secret there, especially following that epilogue! It was also nice to spend some more time with characters like Violet and Jianyu who didn’t really get to take centre stage in The Last Magician, but are now involved in crucial plot lines of their own.

The characters I so loved in the first book are the same for the most part, with one glaring exception – Esta. She is completely unreasonable in this book to the point of irritation, fully aware that something is wrong with Harte, but getting angry when he drew away from her. And let’s not even get into her fascination with the Antistasi – clearly a group who’s just using the unintended infamy behind her name to carry out their own morally questionable plans. She certainly wasn’t this rash in the first book, nor so easily distracted from the real task at hand and seeing such irrational behaviour from Esta was just really infuriating as she continued to not listen to Harte who ended up being the sole voice of reason in nearly every situation.

Nonetheless, I did enjoy this despite the heavy second book syndrome, ending in the now expected, but no less shocking cliffhanger. At 700 pages, The Devil’s Thief is a rather intimidating read, but once the story really gets going, it’s impossible to put down with the nail biting tension as the cards continue to be stacked higher than ever against our heroes. This is definitely a series that is not nearly as hyped as it should be, and I would highly recommend it for fantasy and time travel fans!

I am a huge fan of historical paranormal/fantasy and it's always nice to find some as this isn't the biggest market. One of m biggest pet peeve about the genre is when there is a lot of inaccuracy with the era - this book is not one of them. While there are a few, you can see that the author put effort in the research.

The book is a bit hard to get into, but then again so was the first - the pace picks up and the story is still interesting. The point of views are a bit daunting though.

I was so excited to read this book! I loved The Last Magician and this one was just as great!

There were many layers to this story. It alternated between two years, 1902 and 1904. The puzzling part was that we don’t really know what happens between those years, because some of the characters jumped forward in time. Though there was a gap in the timeline, the story flowed seamlessly. There weren’t any spoilers in either narrative as to what happened in the past or what will happen in the future.

The only thing that this story was missing was a shocking ending. The end of The Last Magician had some shocking revelations. I found some characters suspicious in this story, and that was confirmed at the end, so it wasn’t a surprise. Other than that this book was amazing! I highly recommend this series to fans of YA fantasy.

I received an ARC of this from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Aside from the first book in this series, I've read the 2 other books that this author wrote and I have to say that she seriously stepped up her game. Lisa Maxwell has created an incredible world, loosely based on our own where magic exists but it is outlawed. Esta, the main character of these novels must travel back and forward through time to try to help her fellow magicians restore balance to the natural order. What results is a complex tale of family, friendship, betrayal, intrigue, and love. There's a heavy Egyptian mythical element at play as well which is only starting to become apparent in this 2nd installment to the series.

I'm really enjoying this series and this novel ended on a bit of a cliffhanger so I can't wait to see where it goes next.

I was sent this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review and given that THE LAST MAGICIAN was one of my favourite books, I have a lot to say, so buckle up, folks.

First of all, I definitely enjoyed the first book better. Maybe it was simply due to the excitement of exploring a new magic system and getting introduced to all of the characters and their backstories, but I found THE LAST MAGICIAN to capture my attention in a much more powerful way. My primary complaint with THE DEVILS THIEF was the multitude of storylines. I found between the motivations and goals of the Order, the Antistasi, Paul Kelly's men, Jack Grew, and the Guard, I frequently lost track of what was going on. While some of these groups were discussed enough in detail to gain a more comprehensive grasp on what they were aiming to do, I found others to lack enough background information to truly understand what perspective they had on magic. Moreover, while I appreciated the various timelines of the story, (taking place in 1902 and 1904), I consistently felt like aside from setting Esta and Harte back in their plans, this didn't play as important of a role in the story as it should have. Typically with time travel, I find authors to more carefully outline how the changes made in the past impact the future, but I didn't see enough of that in this book to see a point to the various timelines.

On the other hand, I really did enjoy the progression of both Viola and Jianyu's characters. I found both to have such different responses to Dolph's death which effectively moved the plot forward in their respective storylines. The introduction of Ruby Reynolds and Cela Johnson to each of these characters' stories didn't sit well with me at first, but upon finishing the book, I do believe these two brought a much-needed commentary on the various social injustices that were present during this time period. I think while we did see growth in both Ruby and Cela throughout this book in their understandings of Mageus, the roles that each of them played in empowering Jianyu and Viola were crucial to creating a stronger 1902 storyline.

Although I did enjoy the 1902 storyline, I found the events that occurred in 1904 with Esta and Harte to be both confusing and scattered. The inclusion of the Antistasi and Mother Ruth definitely did provide an interesting perspective on the rebellion and the blurred lines of what is right and wrong, but at the same time, I found this to simply add fuel to Esta's impulsiveness (which was really starting to bother me by the end of the book because poor Harte was really doing his best to protect her and she only made things more difficult), and further steer away from the end goal of obtaining the artifacts. This being said, this was redeemed at the end with that cliffhanger, but even still I felt this was one of the major plot points that caused this book to suffer from second book syndrome in my opinion.

My final concern with this was the Seshat and Thoth conflict. I think the decision to place their spirits in Harte and Jack, respectively was quite smart given their feelings towards magic, however, this was another part of the plot that felt very cryptic and difficult to follow at times. While the introduction of the real meaning behind the Ars Arscana was interesting to explore, I really do hope that in the next book this is something that is made clearer.

Overall, while I do have many complaints about this book, I still did appreciate the progression of the story on the whole and I do think this book definitely sets the stage for the next in the series to be extraordinary. I'm excited to see what becomes of many of the unanswered questions and most of all, the future of magic.

I loved, loved, loved The Last Magician its epic tome of a book. When I found this was available on Netgalley I think I fainted when I got approved. Just like its predecessor. The Devils Thief is an immersive read and I find that I had to sit down for an afternoon without any distractions to really enjoy this book. And it was so worth it. The Devils thief was still full of corruption and magic and alchemy what a spiders web of amazingness, and HUGE. it's even bigger than the first one. what can I say I like big books and I cannot lie. And the slow burn romance was to swoon over. The time travel is the best part seeing history shapes our present was great. And I loved how Esta is still fierce. There's f/f romance cross dressing/ drag queen POC fighting for their rights, this book had everything. We also get introduced to new characters my favourite being Calla.


Overall this is an epic tome full of twists and turns that don't always follow the action packed some books do ca but leans on its ability to hook you into all the deception and magic. And the slow burn romance.

Loved this sequel to The Last Magician. Lied up to its premise, and lhe characters are so enjoyable.

Just as imaginative and exciting as the first book, but I didn’t find it to be as fun and it felt overly wordy at times.

I really enjoyed the new narratives as well as a whole new cast of characters, but the highlight for me was getting to know Jianyu better. He quickly became my favourite character.

I was slightly disappointed that I didn’t like this book as much as the first. I think if it had been around 200 pages shorter and gotten to the point more quickly, it would have been more enjoyable.

All of that aside, after that ending ... there’s no question that I’ll be grabbing the next book ASAP.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This book was so good. If you were a fan of the firs book The Last Magician, you’ll enjoy this continuation! Very well written.

I didn't realize this was the second novel when I requested it, but needless to say I'm glad. It made me read the first---which was fantastic---and this was just as great. I love the world and the magic. Can't wait to read more from this author.

Absolutely loved this sequel to The Last Magician by Lisa Maxwell! I found the pacing to be great, with a sensible mix of dialogue, action, character growth and internal monologue. The story was riveting and never felt dull or boring, even when it wasn't a high action scene. Overall loved the novel and thought it was beautifully written. My one suggestion would be to add more focus on the side characters, because i loved them!