I loved this book so freaking much! I’m not big on historical fiction, but this one weaved historical fiction and paranormal together seamlessly

I quite liked the concept of this book, as well as the storyline and the characters. I can’t really tell if it was a middle grade or YA book, but i’m leaning more towards YA due to the violence that was portrayed throughout this book.

the diversity was wonderful, however k was a bit thrown if by the use of 9/11…

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

I accessed a digital review copy of this book from the publisher.
This was definitely the beginning of a series, so there was a lot of world-building and gaps in info. It was nice to see that Ankoku was Aspec and it wasn't treated as something wrong. This left me looking forward to the next in the series.

This was fine. It was an interesting mix of mythologies and creatures and the premise was strong. However I found it difficult to keep track of the plot and what was going on and the story overall didn't really hold my interest. It's an interesting book but I didn't love it.

We follow Kou who lives with his adopted father and best friend, Jace in the small town of Clay, West Virginia. Kou has been hiding his real identity of being a resident from the world of enchantment, due to the tragic loss of his twin brother which he blames on himself. However, an opportunity arises and Kou finds himself on an adventure with Jace traveling to the world he once left behind.

I absolutely loved the first chapter of this book! The first chapter really pulls in the reader and sets the tone for the level of magical world elements and creatures we’ll meet on this journey. However, the pacing is not consistent and sometimes makes the story fall short of entertaining. There are times when the story gets slow and time flows slowly delaying the progress of the main story.

The characters in this story are unique and interesting. Kou is an individual who just grows and learns as the story progresses. He’s not a strong main character but he’s sincere and driven by his emotions in a good way. The remaining characters fell a bit flat for me. I felt they lacked steady growth and their relationships were quite vague and sudden. Sometimes the dialogues felt weird to me, but I’m not the most social butterfly so take this with a grain of salt.

The story is riddled with magical creatures and events. They are all creatively executed and placed, however sometimes they are ‘magically’ resolved. I like how the events were not similar to the other. There were a variety of situations with some more severe and dire than others.

Overall, this was a magical read with a lot of world-building; self discovery and growth; courage; and the value of friendship and trust.

This was a very interesting fantasy, that I will likely need to read again to truly comprehend everything. It has an D&D-esque feel about it, with interesting characters and magical creatures.

This novel was one of those fun, sweet novels you just want to pass around to everyone. The characters and world building were excellent. A book like this shows urban fantasy at its finest. It's very character driven, which is something I love in novels. It explored grief, romance and friendship in a very engaging way. This is a must-read. Thanks as always to NetGally for the ARC!

tl;dr
Lots of mixed mythologies and a relatable lead, but this reader found it incredibly difficult to follow along.

Thoughts
Ankoku is a likable lead, and I clicked with a lot of his feelings, but I had trouble keeping tabs on the story. There's a lot going on in here: werewolves, dragons, elves, vampires, time travel, 9/11 (???), and a grab bag of other world mythologies. Reading the other reviews, I feel like the odd one out here, because I felt the pacing to be really slow - stopping often to explain the various pieces of world building and describe settings in great detail before moving the plot forward. I think the stop-and-go nature of this made it hard for me to follow along, because I found myself losing the plot more than once. Anyone who likes heaps of world-building and mythology will probably find more in here than I did.

Kou ist ein Teenager der ohne Vergangenheit bei seinem Ziehvater in einer kleinen Dorfgemeinschaft ein langweiliges Leben lebt. Und genau das macht ihn zufrieden. Wäre da nicht sein bester Freund. Ebenfalls ein Findelkind, Dorf-Troublemaker, Weiberheld und demnächst offiziell der letzte Werwolf. Und darum muss er das Dorf verlassen und möchte das Kou ihn begleitet. Was Kou natürlich auch macht, jedoch hat Kou eine Vergangenheit, die er jedoch zu unterdrücken versucht. Denn Kou ist eigentlich Ankoku, einer der beiden verschollenen Söhne von Vater Zeit, der seit dem Krieg der Drachen und der Gefangennahme des Grim Reapers ebenfalls verschwunden ist. Doch so langsam muss sich Ankoku mit seinem Erbe auseinandersetzen. Und darum geht es in dieser Geschichte. Der Roadtrip von Kou und Jace, auf dem sie immer mehr in die magische Welt hinter unserer Welt eintauchen inkl. Drachen, Wasserdämonen, fliegenden Pferden und Vampiren. Die Einsortierung in das LGBTQI* Genre erschließt sich mir noch nicht zu 100%, denn natürlich scheint es als ab Kou mehr als nur Freundschaft für Jace empfindet, jedoch identifiziert sich Kou wohl bisher eher dem Ace-Aspekt des Regenbogens, was ich in Geschichten bisher noch gar nicht so richtig hatte. Einen non-binären Charakter gibt es auch, also stimmt die Zuordnung wohl schon, auch wenn ich wohl einfach eine andere Regenbogenfarbe erwartet habe. Aber das war dann mein Fehler und nicht der des Buches. Ich bin Auf jeden Fall sehr auf Teil 2 gespannt.

The Last Chronomancer was a relatively interesting read. I found some parts to be convoluted and hard to follow, but for the most part I found the story enjoyable. My favorite part, by far, were the characters. Kou and Jace were the main MCs of the story, but there were lots of other interesting side characters as well. The fantastical elements of the story were intriguing and the author wrote about lots of creepy monsters, and some more familiar ones as well (such as vampires and werewolves). I also appreciate the aro/ace representation, which is one of the harder queer identities to come across in books. Overall, I'd say I enjoyed the story. There were some parts that I didn't care much for, but lots of others I enjoyed. I do think I will pick up the sequel whenever it gets released.

I think that the story is fun and engaging, I think that the audience for the novel is slightly confused with it feeling more middle grade, but then more towards YA at the end. Overall I enjoyed the novel and look forward to further installments.

Oh my goodness, I was blown away by this book! The storytelling and seamless world building are so well done. Fantasy novels, even urban fantasy, sometimes feel tedious in the setup, making me impatient to get to the storyline, but I never had that feeling reading this novel. I was invested in and intrigued by Kou’s story right from the start. The adventure pacing and character development struck just the right balance to hold my interest straight through to the very end. And the characters! Each character has such an intricate back story. Several could easily carry their own novels. I didn’t want to put this down. So good, with fantastic representation for LGBTQIA+ and underrepresented minorities to boot. You can count me in for auto-buy on book two.

4.5 stars rounded up!

I found it hard to put this down when I started it. When I was younger I always enjoyed the novels you could escape into new worlds and explore new ideas. This was exactly like that. The world building and the description in this book instantly drew me in. I was so excited to continually find out what happened next. The concept of this book is new and exciting, the Modern Fantasy of it all was fun and thrilling. The chapters are a bit longer than what I’m used to and my brain struggles staying engaged with longer chapters. Not a bad thing on the book at all, but why it took longer than hoped to get through the book even though I was excited to see what happened next. The found family and characters filled the story and I found myself really rooting for them like I would my favorite superheroes in a Marvel movie! Overall, highly recommend if you like urban fantasy, can’t wait to read the rest of the series!

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for this ARC of the Last Chronomancer.

First off, I want to say I absolutely adored the LGBTQ+ representation in this book! The fact there's an MC that is aro/acespec is astounding, and am always so happy when I get to see them represented. This world is very unique and enchanting. However there were a lot of gaps that didn't make sense, I found myself missing information at times.

This book is a fast-paced urban fantasy, when I started this book I felt as if it was geared towards a younger/middle grade audience, but the violence definitely put it upper YA. The narrating found itself a few chapters in, but I just felt the description lacking.

Overall this was a nice book, I enjoyed it.

✨He clicked his tongue absentmindedly and looked around in the darkness, unsure of where to start. There were so many places he could begin. As his eyes darted around the dungeon, he felt like he was searching the ceiling for an answer—a starting point—something. Anything. “You’re right,” the prisoner said finally. “My name isn’t Koukan and I’m not really... human.”✨

𝙂𝙚𝙣𝙧𝙚 🎭: YA urban fantasy
𝙋𝙖𝙘𝙚 🏃🏼‍♀️: moderate
𝙎𝙥𝙞𝙘𝙚: 🚫
𝙍𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 🖤: Percy Jackson
𝙏𝙒 ⚠️: none identified

🪄large cast of characters
🪄magic + modern world
🪄sensitive MC
🪄queer/ace/aro representation

Holy cow that prologue/first chapter really hooked me! I love when a book starts with action. Mic drop.

I enjoyed the authors creativity in combining a modern American world with elements of fantasy and fantastical creatures - dragons, werewolves, vampires, elves….You definitely need to pay attention to keep up with the different characters.

I always love a book with the found family theme. These two boys are loyal, loving, and brave. As they continue on their quest, their friendship is challenged over and over again. The loyalty and friendship themes are strong throughout the story which was very heartwarming.

I think I would like to see some more explanation of the magic system in book two! Since this book starts in the middle of an adventure, the reader is tossed right into the action. With a unique concept of world building between modern America and ancient magic, the reader may need a little more handholding to keep up.

This series has fantastic potential - there are lots of different ways the characters’ stories can play out. I can’t wait to see what happens next!

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸. 𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯.

The Last Chronomancer by Ralynn Kimie and I give it only 3 stars because of the slow pace throughout the book and the confusing setting and plot. It's supposed to be set in the modern world just with magic, but there is no background on how that is. It mentions the fall of the twin towers and airplanes, cars, and other modern conveniences but never really uses them. This book was so slow I almost put it down 3 times but kept picking it back up hoping it would pick up, spoiler it doesn't. I will say that the character development was well written though and that is how I made it through to the end. I do not know if I would pick up the second in the series, as the story did not impress me.

Thank you to netgalley and steely co. publishing for the advanced reading copy of The Last Chronomancer by Ralynn Kimie. I felt as if this story was way to hard to read. the world building was a good attempt but left so many holes. the magic was just not quite there. the mistakes were incredible. they chapters felt to drag on I had to put this one down and couldn't finish it. I had high hopes because i like to jump to the back and read author notes and the not made me excited but I think it just fell flat for me sorry to say

So... here's the deal: I havent finished this book yet but I already have a quite a bit to say about it.
A little side note though, I'm currently in a bit of a reading slump and this book has definitely suffered from it. Yet that is not the only reason why it's hard to get through this book (for me)

So what I'd like to say first, I will actually be trying to finish this. In other words what I've read so far has piqued my interest enough that I want to know what happens. I do like the characters so far so I'm interested to see where they'll go, especially since this is a triology.
The world built in this book is certainly something but personally I felt like it was all over the place as well. Still that's probably just me. After the first few pages what I was prepared for was finding out what the chronomancer part is about and dragons... and then a bunch of mythical creatures basically ambushed me. I'm not opposed to the idea of basically taking everything out there and throwing it into a mixing pot but like I said, to me it felt too random.

Now if nothing has caused me to instantly dnf this book, what's taking me so long to read it?
The editing. I received an e-ARC, meaning that there's a chance that it's been revised again in the final version and I really hope that's the case. This has been published before, I've never read the original and can't say what was changed or why, but half my notes on this are just grammar things or random stuff happening that doesnt make sense. Adjective repeating in the same sentence, same action being explained several times, unnecessary parts of sentences that should just have been cut, certain wording that just threw me off or didnt flow well, one paragraph having the same noun appear far too many times... and so on. I saw someone else describe it as "literally unreadable" in their review and well, I get what they meant. Also the chapters feel like they're way too long. I calculated an average length of 20 pages (kindle is being mean and not showing me the page numbers so I couldnt check there) but I think that some chapters were more towards the 10 pages while others drifted to 30. For reference, most of my owned books have an average chapter length of 10 pages. I dont think that there's some sort of rule how long a chapter should be and it's very possible that I was just bothered by it since I'm not used to it. The biggest issue around this was that there were several times where I thought "This would've been a good point to start a new chapter" but alas.

Like I said, I'm hooked enough to continue this but I also wouldnt be surprised if I do end up dnf-ing it.

I really liked the premise of the story, but sadly I didn't like the writing style so I ended up DNF-ing this book. The language didn't "flow" for me. I kept reading the same sentence twice because I read it wrong the first time. English is not my first language, so that might have something to do with it, but still. If I end up buying this for the library where I work I might give it a second try though, because I still think the story is interesting and it makes me happy that the book has an ace main character.