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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 don’t know why I waited so long to read this book, when I finally got around to reading it, I got it done in one sitting.

Esta has the ability to jump through time, by grabbing strings and being able to jump to those points in time, making her the perfect thief. The book takes place between modern day New York and 1902 New York, after a few chapters the majority of the book takes place in 1902.

Esta is given the responsibility of stopping a Mageus from using an ancient book that could possibly destroy the Brink and or the Mageus. This is an evil book, that can even be used to control those with magic. Not a very nice book to have around.

Esta relies on a newspaper clipping from preset day to let her know if what she is doing is helping change the past, at times it would go blurry like the letters were trying to rewrite themselves. I thought this was a great way for Esta to know if things were actually being changed or if time was going to stay the same despite her actions.

The rest of the cast was a bit annoying, especially when there was 0 trust being shown, and what little trust there is, is hidden behind secrets.

Harte was also an interesting character, being an escape artist who studied the ancient magic’s and wanted to prove that the tricks he performed were nothing more than that.
Loved that you find out why the Auyrn is on the cover and what it represents in the book. Very fitting in my eyes.

When you find out who the magician is at the end of the book, and what their true motives are and how they were able to manipulate not just Esta but everyone from the thief’s crew, just blew my mind. I mean I had an idea as to who it really was but at the same time was still shocked. I did get a good laugh  from the “nefarious villain” trope where they divulged their plans to the hero, and the hero in the end finds a way to stop the plans.

I enjoyed the way the book ended and how it sets up the start for the second book.