I am so angry I finished this days before the sequel was released because I want the sequel right freaking now. I will be buying it right now. I received the beautiful Fairyloot edition last year, and because I read based on books randomly chosen, it has taken me quite some time to get to it. Once I started, it was tough for me to stop reading it. I loved that the main character loved history, worked at a historic house, and focused on seeing art from the Renaissance destroyed in a fire rather than saving the world. I have never felt so seen.

I am a stickler for the magic system, and I'll be honest: when they said monsters, I thought something different than what it was. At the same time, I liked how the magic system was explained to us. Looking from the outside in, I find it challenging to understand magic systems and world-building when you are thrown right into the mix. In this case, we, as readers, learned alongside the main character as she was thrown into this world; we learned as she learned. I also found the time-travel aspect an exciting way I hadn't read before. Taking time from a human to travel in time creates a morally grey aspect of being a Monster. The timelines being wrong was also very enticing to me that their living time is wrong and needs to be changed even though the consequences are devastating on both sides.