This was so GOOD and also so stressful, I could not stop reading once I started!! Zaria and Kane's relationship is so fun to read about, and without spoiling anything (OMG) I cannot wait to see where they wind up in book 2. I liked that we got both their POVs as well. Kane especially has my heart, he has been through the absolute ringer and he deserves to behave badly (in my professional opinion). The magic system and the heist were both very cool and worked well together. Finally, the historical setting was so well done: I love the Victorian era and you could tell a ton of research went into this, but there was also enough of a fantasy element that it didn't feel loaded down with information. Thanks to the publisher for the early review copy!

no one is more disappointed in this rating than me. a historical fiction book and a fantasy book AND a heist book sounded like the perfect book for me. WRONG! this book is not historical fiction. yes, it does have a historical setting, but the characters are not historical. the main characters feel like modern people randomly thrown into a historical setting. you can’t just write modern feeling characters and slap them into a historical setting and call it done. that is just sloppy world building. why spend all this time researching the time period to make it historically accurate to then to not make your characters match?? just go make up your own world if you’re going to pull bullshit like this! don’t play fucking games with me.