I enjoyed this more then I expected I would. I appreciated the humor and sarcasm. I enjoyed the addition of new characters to the story but not as much as I liked the original crew. I looked at these books as nice fun easy reads that are very entertaining. With that said this book had way more substance and detail to the story and I did appreciate. The story line adding the angels and demons did add more depth and intrigue to the mystery. I am sad to hear that this is the final book to this series because I do think this is the nest one I have read. But you might as well end on a high and that is what I feel the author has done here.

Strange New World is a welcome return to the world of Dr. Greta Helsing. Though quieter than the previous book (how can you be louder than the apocalypse?), the book brims with political intrigue on the terrestrial and infernocelestial planes. Which I normally dont like in books, but the down-to-earth approach to the running of Hell and the hands-off approach to Heaven kept me glued to my chair . That and the mystery of 'what' was happening and 'who' was really behind it made me finish the book in just under two days.

I love Greta, Varney, and Fass, and the wonderful additions of the angels and demons that filled out the cast. I especially felt for Raphael. I love this cast and this world so much and it was an ABSOLUTE JOY to read and ARC from one of my favorite worlds.

Vivian Shaw has written a fine conclusion to her amiable fantasy series featuring doctor to the mythical and monstrous, Greta van Helsingborg. The series has built to this conclusion, as Heaven and Hell have been driven by circumstance to work closely together, although that is often uncomfortable and sometimes unwanted. I think He’ll. As portrayed, is charming but utterly bereft of its traditional menace. It is a bit too mundane for me. And while monsters feature, they are less a presence than in earlier volumes, although the New York Nosferatu are entertaining. Still, I read straight through and enjoyed seeing familiar characters again. One notes that no flights from the UK fly into LaGuardia.

I absolutely LOVED this!!! What a fantasy way to finish off such an enchanting and exciting series I LOVED the new characters and enjoyed the way some characters are allergic to one another. What a wonderful analogy for real life blue and red folks. And I especially loved how they tried to find a way to work together. I wish we all could do that!

Thank you Orbit for allowing me this arc, as this made my Greta/Varney loving heart so happy!!!

This one didn’t quite do it for me. It felt like a repeat of the first book with some *Good Omens* vibes mixed in, but it didn’t bring enough new elements to keep me engaged. Even with the change in setting and the introduction of Gabriel, it still felt repetitive. The pacing was a bit too slow for my taste, though I did really enjoy Adariel and Orlax.

I have complicated feelings about this, the purportedly final novel in the Dr. Greta Helsing series. I'm a longtime fan, and really loved the recent novella, Bitter Waters, because it spent so much time with the many characters I loved.

Strange New World sounded like it would be about Greta and company, and maybe there'd be a magical bus tour with new friends along the way, but it was really more about the infernocelestial conflict between Heaven and Hell, and in particular about the Accords' impact on angels. Which was interesting, but not what the blurb implied and thus not what I was expecting.

There were things I really liked about Strange New World. It was fun to see Greta and Varney travel together. I liked the glimpses we got of Ruthven's visit to the Voivode. Fastitocalon and Faust made a great mystery-solving team. I enjoyed the angels and demons, like Cold War spies, finding more common ground with each other than they sometimes did with their superiors. The New York nosferatu underworld was a delight. There were also some excellent plot seeds I hoped would come to fruition about the need for a more engaged guardian in London and cross-continental vampire colony relationships.

Ultimately, the book's centering of metaphysical themes and storylines about angels didn't work as well for me as its plottier predecessors. I honestly would have been happier with a book twice as long that spent more time with the familiar main characters, gave greater depth to the New York vampire mafia storyline, and maybe even involved some road tripping. As with all Vivian Shaw's books, though, it's well-written, thoughtful, and engaging, and if it's not the book I had hoped for, that's a reader problem, not an author problem. I'll cross my fingers for a surprise novel or novella to come, but if this really is the close of the series, I think it was done well.

Firstly, thank you very much Orbit and NetGalley for the e-ARC copy, in exchange for my honest review.

This was one of my most anticipated books being released this year and my gods it did not disappoint!

From the moment I opened the book I was hooked. It was such a strong opening and omg Good Omen fans. Boy, does this little book have something for YOU. I'm screaming I could not have asked for a better finale to the series. I'm just euphoric over how good this was. Thank you Vivian Shaw for this magnificent book series with all of its wonderful cast and your beautiful writing and THAT ENDING. I was weeping!

📚ARC REVIEW 📚

What to expect:

📚 Humourous and eccentric characters
📚 interesting plot with some unexpected twists
📚 Science fiction and fantasy theme wrapped into one
📚 chapters that run fluidly into each other
📚 It's an enjoyable read with some funky events

My opinion:

📚 I love the theme and seeing good and evil trying to work together
📚 I laughed at how the two forces had allergic reactions to each other
📚 The plot kept ke interested and intrigued and enjoyed how easily it was to follow along with
📚 Story structure was well written, and the theme was well thought out

My rating

✨️✨️✨️✨️

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Dr. Greta Van Helsing's demon transportation, Harlach, is late, which is something he has never been. As she waits at the pre-arranged bench, he is always at when she leaves her clinic she's not really worried, and she's not quite irritated yet. Just as she is working up to one or the other, Harlach appears out of nowhere and poofs them to her husband Varney's home, where it becomes clear that something is very wrong with Harlach. He reveals that someone shot him with something like a blow dart and he appears to be having an allergic reaction to it, knowing there's no way she can treat him on this plane she has him sent to Hell.

In the meantime, Harlach's angelic counterpart, Haliel, has had a similar experience but was able to shrug it off almost immediately. He reports the incident to his boss Gabriel and thinks nothing of it. Until he discovers that his colleague, his friend, Harlach, did not recover so quickly and easily. Both of them determine that something is attacking demons, and they have no idea why, especially after the Accords were signed. And while they aren't perfect, it was supposed to end or at least help end the ongoing animosity between Heaven and Hell.

However, as Greta is about to learn, that doesn't seem to be the case. The Accords are forcing Demons to work in Heaven and Angels to work in hell, and as both groups are allergic to the other, this is resulting in numerous Angels and Demons winding up sick. And Raphael and Dr. Faust, the heads of medicine in their perspective realms have had it up to here with the powers that be not listening. So, with the help of Greta and Fass, they hatch a scheme to at least try to find a way to keep their people from being sick. Unfortunately, they have no idea that an Angel has gone rougue and he's out to cleanse the Earth of everything he deems evil, and Greta is caught straight in his crossfire.

I love this series, so of course I loved this, but this was significantly better than I thought it was going to be. The entire Heaven portion of this book was really a simple conversation about understanding oneself. And I think at this point in time in the timeline of the world how understanding oneself leads to empathy for others and being able to simply stand up for yourself. There isn't a bad guy perse in this, there is simply a very confused man who has lived his entire life with an idea of what he was supposed to be and the rules he had to follow and when those rules felt wrong he did what many would do he lashed out and hurt those around him. Those he felt broke those rules. Now given everything that is going on in the world right now I could be reading much to deeply into this and even if I am I am not sure I care because I know a lot of humans on this planet right now could do with understanding that just because you've been taught to never question something doesn't mean you shouldn't. And for that message alone, this is a five-star read easily for me.

But all that aside, we have what this series has always been at its heart, a wonderful conversation about found family and a community that takes of each other. The introduction of the New York Nosferatu as mobsters was absolutely glorious, and I fell in love with Contini not because he was a stereotypical mobster, but because he wasn't. He was incredibly smart in all of his decisions and while sure yes fine he was probably a bit more violent than he needed to be I mean he is a vamp and he is a NYC mobster and to make him not violent would have been freaking weird.

Now, though I have a few questions, ones I will not pose here because it would be a spoiler but ones I *hope* means we will get another book because all of these new characters were absolutely amazing!


Definitely recommend if you've read the series and highly recommend it if you haven't, but you enjoyed Rivers of London because this is going to be right up your alley.

As always, thanks to Orbit Books and NetGalley for the eArc!