Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Spoilers are hidden below.

Diving back into this series after a three year gap between the second and third book was difficult. This book jumps right back into the action immediately where book 2 left off which is great for readers who are binge reading the series but confusing for readers like me who waited the three years for publication. I wish the book had started with a recap of what had happened in books 1 and 2. However, after taking time to check out some summaries online and a quick reread of the last 100 pages of The Devil's Thief, I felt confident enough to jump back into this book.

Unfortunately, this third book is a weak addition to a series that started out so strongly with The Last Magician. This book suffers from a bloated plot and poor character use. Firstly, the book is far too long and filled with so many dialogue scenes that add nothing to the story and are just there to fill in the page count. I lost count of how many chapters were filled with arguing between characters over what decision to make. I also got tired of characters being in mortal danger every 10 chapters or so and having to be rescued from death.

This book could and should have been more heavily edited to get rid of the unnecessary scenes across the multiple timelines including, but not limited to, the scenes with Viola and Ruby in 1902,

Harte and his step-brother in 1952, and the scene with Al Capone in 1920. This book also features pointless character additions that add nothing to the story; the Antistasi sharpshooter in 1904 and all of the characters featured in 1952.

The side characters that were integral to the story in the first two books felt pointless in this book. Cela, Abel and Jianyu added nothing to the story. Ruby was so unnecessary that the author herself wrote the character out of the story.

Viola was completely unsympathetic the moment she decided to postpone helping the dying Jianyu for 12 hours.

The villains felt extremely cartoonish in this book and some of the decisions around them were just perplexing and odd.

I also felt that Jack Grew and the machine he was building wasn't fleshed out enough and it just left me feeling confused on how it even worked. I feel like the Jack Grew plot line with the Magisterium could have been so much more interesting if the author could have just focused on the 1902 storyline instead of having Esta and Harte travel through three different timelines throughout the book.

Finally, I do not understand why this series needs a fourth book. Even though this book was already too long, I feel like if the author had just added the extra 200 pages and made the book the 900 page finale it was originally planned to be, this series could have successfully ended as a trilogy.

Ultimately I was disappointed with this book especially because of how much I adored The Last Magician and how excited I was to see where this series would go. However, since I read this ARC at the same time as my best friend, Megan I am curious to see if our predictions for the fourth book come true. I think we have a good idea of what is going to happen.