The Last Magician by Lisa Maxwell
Travelling back to 1923, to steal an invaluable jewel from the most secure safe available on the market in the 1920’s, is a no brainer for Esta, a trained thief and a picklock but, best of all, a time-traveller. Her partly natural, partly artefact induced powers are what allows her to slip in undetected and steal literally whatever she may want from under people’s very noses. Yet as much as jumping from one time period to the next is a part of her everyday life, coming back to see nothing much changed and her friends, which probably feel like family to her, still alive and well, why, if ever, would she have suspected that a simple mishap on one of Professor Lachlan’s carefully selected targets, would lead to the nonexistence of Mari, her lifelong friend? Or that the very artefact which allows her to channel her powers would simply disintegrate upon her arrival in the time period of her latest assignment? An assignment, which if The Professor is correct about, which he usually ends up being, could be the most important she’d embarked on to date and which could ultimately decide the fate of the entire magical people, her people, The Mageus.
This is why Esta can not afford to be distracted, even by her latest target, The Last Magician. No matter how enticing or refined The Last Magician may seem, Esta must keep her head in the game and can not afford to lose focus on the her most important objective of this mission, obtaining a book of mere legend, The Ars Arcana. She must do so before he steals it during a raid . With it’s secrets, Esta, along with the help of The Professor and the rest of the crew, could take down the ever-present barrier which surrounds Manhattan, preventing any Mageus who’ve ever entered into Manhattan, from leaving… well still alive that is! In order to do this Esta must steal The Ars Arcana from the very people who claim to have created the barrier and to do so during the height of their power. Otherwise The Ars Arcana will be lost forever and any hope of freedom lost with it… No pressure!
Teen Rating: A witty, action packed adventure, which doesn’t allow you even a single second to put the book down. All in all a magical read (please excuse the pun). 4.8/5 13+