The Last Magician by Lisa Maxwell

The Last Magician by Lisa Maxwell

Published: July 18th 2017 by Simon Pulse

Stop the Magician. Steal the book. Save the future.

In modern-day New York, magic is all but extinct. The remaining few who have an affinity for magic—the Mageus—live in the shadows, hiding who they are. Any Mageus who enters Manhattan becomes trapped by the Brink, a dark energy barrier that confines them to the island. Crossing it means losing their power—and often their lives.

Esta is a talented thief, and she’s been raised to steal magical artifacts from the sinister Order that created the Brink. With her innate ability to manipulate time, Esta can pilfer from the past, collecting these artifacts before the Order even realizes she’s there. And all of Esta’s training has been for one final job: traveling back to 1902 to steal an ancient book containing the secrets of the Order—and the Brink—before the Magician can destroy it and doom the Mageus to a hopeless future.

But Old New York is a dangerous world ruled by ruthless gangs and secret societies, a world where the very air crackles with magic. Nothing is as it seems, including the Magician himself. And for Esta to save her future, she may have to betray everyone in the past.

I have had this book sat on my shelf since some time last year, so when I saw that book 2 is being released some time this year, I had thought I had better pick it up. The premise of this sounded amazing and I have had high expectations for it since I first heard about it pre release. However, this book just fell short of what I was expecting and I was left pretty disappointed.

The beginning of this book felt extremely jumpy and disconnected. It didn’t make a lot of sense until Esta really went back in time for what she was meant to do throughout the main portion of the book. The constant jumping around between characters felt relatively jarring and I struggled to get into the book because of it. It did start coming together when Esta went back for the book and that is when I started to enjoy the book a little more.

Carrying on from that point, there was no real hook for me. Whilst the story was enjoyable whilst I was reading it, there was nothing really compelling me to pick it back up if I put it down. The book didn’t stay in my head when I had to do other things and it failed to really blow Me away.

The plot itself was ok, if not a little predictable. I enjoyed myself throughout reading it and it was a relatively quick read – butI had predicted a major plot twist at the beginning of the book. It was missing that spark to really blow me away and it didn’t leave much of an impression after I had finished the book.

Another issue I had was that I didn’t feel any real connection to any of the characters. Whilst I enjoyed reading the interactions between Harte and Esta because they were sassy and fun, none of the characters really stood out to me. The characters and their personalities bled together within the multiple POVs because their voices were just all too similar.

All in all, whilst this book was a quick read, it didn’t leave a lasting impression on me. The plot was ok, but it was reminiscent of other booksI have read in this genre, and was executed as well as others I have read. I gave this book 2.5/5 stars.