So... here's the deal: I havent finished this book yet but I already have a quite a bit to say about it.
A little side note though, I'm currently in a bit of a reading slump and this book has definitely suffered from it. Yet that is not the only reason why it's hard to get through this book (for me)

So what I'd like to say first, I will actually be trying to finish this. In other words what I've read so far has piqued my interest enough that I want to know what happens. I do like the characters so far so I'm interested to see where they'll go, especially since this is a triology.
The world built in this book is certainly something but personally I felt like it was all over the place as well. Still that's probably just me. After the first few pages what I was prepared for was finding out what the chronomancer part is about and dragons... and then a bunch of mythical creatures basically ambushed me. I'm not opposed to the idea of basically taking everything out there and throwing it into a mixing pot but like I said, to me it felt too random.

Now if nothing has caused me to instantly dnf this book, what's taking me so long to read it?
The editing. I received an e-ARC, meaning that there's a chance that it's been revised again in the final version and I really hope that's the case. This has been published before, I've never read the original and can't say what was changed or why, but half my notes on this are just grammar things or random stuff happening that doesnt make sense. Adjective repeating in the same sentence, same action being explained several times, unnecessary parts of sentences that should just have been cut, certain wording that just threw me off or didnt flow well, one paragraph having the same noun appear far too many times... and so on. I saw someone else describe it as "literally unreadable" in their review and well, I get what they meant. Also the chapters feel like they're way too long. I calculated an average length of 20 pages (kindle is being mean and not showing me the page numbers so I couldnt check there) but I think that some chapters were more towards the 10 pages while others drifted to 30. For reference, most of my owned books have an average chapter length of 10 pages. I dont think that there's some sort of rule how long a chapter should be and it's very possible that I was just bothered by it since I'm not used to it. The biggest issue around this was that there were several times where I thought "This would've been a good point to start a new chapter" but alas.

Like I said, I'm hooked enough to continue this but I also wouldnt be surprised if I do end up dnf-ing it.

I really liked the premise of the story, but sadly I didn't like the writing style so I ended up DNF-ing this book. The language didn't "flow" for me. I kept reading the same sentence twice because I read it wrong the first time. English is not my first language, so that might have something to do with it, but still. If I end up buying this for the library where I work I might give it a second try though, because I still think the story is interesting and it makes me happy that the book has an ace main character.

This book is loaded with adventure! It is uniquely written and will keep you on the edge of your seat. I enjoyed all of the characters and mythical creatures. There is a lot of diversity in this book which is always great to see! The mix between modern technology and the lack of today's amenities (hot water, properly running electricity) plus the mythical realms was a perfect blending of the worlds. Lots of twists and turns, lots of emotions reading this book!

There was great character development. I really enjoyed watching Kou's personal journey to accept his destiny as Chronomancer. He is such a kind, compassionate young man who was all about doing the right thing. I loved all of the side characters and their relationships that continued to grow throughout the book. The banter between Jace/Kou and Jace/Rhiannon was so enjoyable. I can't wait to read the next book in the series!

Thank you to NetGalley, Steely Co.Publishing and Ralynn Kimie for the Advanced Readers Copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

I really enjoyed this YA fantasy novel. I don't normally read YA anymore, but this one makes me want to read more in the future. It was a great story about friendship and family! I loved the Dragons in the story line. It flowed smoothly all together. I never found myself having to reread any pages or chapters to understand what was going on. I look forward to reading more from this author in the future.

Very sweet book. I realised about a quarter of the way through that I had read the book before. Was happy to read it again.

The Last Chronomancer by Ralynn Kimie is a wonderful urban fantasy filled with a myriad of mythical creatures. From vampires to werewolves to dragons, this book has it all! I loved the aro-ace representation in this novel and also appreciated the fact that the main character wasn't sexually driven, as is the case in most fantasy type novels. This allowed me to be able to focus on the crazy adventure Kou was on rather than wondering when he was going to make his move.

I thought the characters were so likeable and had me coming back for more. The world building was also very solid and descriptive. I can't wait to follow these characters on their next adventure!

I received an ARC from NetGalley.

Okay, so where to start with this book? First off, I didn't hate it. It was interesting enough and it had good bones. I liked the MC and was ready to go on an adventure with him. I like the queer rep as well. But beyond that, this book fell short. There were large portions, especially toward the beginning, that read very much like a middle-grade novel. In fact, I double and triple checked to make sure it wasn't a middle-grade novel. (It's definitely not.) The world was a little complicated and needed to be fleshed out and explained little more because it got confusing at times. It probably also could've done with a bit more editing and tweaking to smooth out the story and writing.

Like I said, I didn't hate this book, but I didn't particularly love it either, which is a pity because it had so much untapped potential.

Book Review for: "The Last Chronomancer" by Ralynn Kimie
Source: ARC from NetGalley
Score: 3/5 stars

The book "The Last Chronomancer" follows Kou as as he faces his past and his family's curse in order to save the world and his friends.

The book has quite some depth as it deals with issues of identity and coming-of-age.

Plot:
The book has a neat backdrop for the plot - 9/11. It sets the stage for the war between Chronomancers and Necromancers.

The book itself doesn't really follow the war. Instead, the story follows Kou as he tries to learn more about his past and how to prevent the Grim Reaper from returning to destroy the world. In fact, there are many subplots that go on throughout the book. So many that the main plot feels almost like a subplot that gets lost in the mix.

Overall, there was some interesting ideas for the plot but it doesn't get fully developed as there are many side stories happening.

Writing:
The book was challenging to finish. The pacing is very slow and wordy at times, and then fast and exciting at others (quite limited). Also, the main plot seems to get lost throughout the book - the writing doesn't feel like it highlights key moments that are meant to be important/memorable.

Overall, the book is quite slow and does a lot of "telling" and not a lot of "doing".

Characters:
The cast of characters are quite likable.

Kou is the main character and we see his (limited) growth throughout the book. At the end of the book, he becomes who he's meant to be... but the book abruptly ends.

Jace, Rhiannon, and others are quite interesting. Their backstories help develop the characters and help us connect with them. Hands down, the best part of the book was learning about their histories.

Finale:
Overall, the book is slow with some offerings of fast-paced action. The constant derailment from the main plot makes this book challenging to stay invested in. With some reworking, this book could be an epic standalone. Instead, we get a half-baked story and await the arrival of (hopefully) a more exciting sequel.

I just want to start of by saying that I really wanted to like this book. I really did. It just has a few issues I couldn’t look past and either ended up distracting me or I just didn’t care anymore. I put this book down after 42% but as far as I can tell, the synopsis is accurate.

My big frustration is that the author wanted to create a big world with a rich history but only gives hints to that history that you’re trying to piece together to then realize you have pieces that are on different sides of your puzzle. (It’s a puzzles metaphor, you see?) This book needed a prologue in my opinion. Wait, let me backtrack for a second. This book has a prologue, but not the one that was needed. It needed a fairytale/history/legend type prologue where the author goes into detail what happened, how it happened and why. As of 42% into the book, I know 9/11 was involved (which I don’t know how to feel about in general), that technology does exist and that a lot of people think certain people are dead and gone.

The technology aspect is one that ended up bothering me a lot because the main character talks about how he needs to charge his phone and that’s difficult, and then they have no hot water etc. Basically everything changed after 9/11, however bands like Imagine Dragons are still a thing? A band that gained major popularity in 2012 after It’s Time was featured on Glee – Imagine Dragons? I’m trying to wrap my head around the logistics of this world and I cannot. I try to visualize the books that I read and I couldn’t even visualize Kou’s phone. Is it an iPhone? Is it a flip-phone? Like did technology stop suddenly? Was it a slow process and the resources are just running out? I had a lot of questions and very little answers that I needed.

Another frustration, I just didn’t care. For a main character who had to pretend to be a completely different person for 10 years and then goes on a quest to find his family and himself, there seems to be very little emotion in this book. Everything is focused on the action of it, and the action scenes go fast and sometimes time is questionable in those action- scenes (but ok.), but the action is a main focus. The writing goes over what Kou should be feeling, but I do not feel it.

I really wanted to like this book. The queer asexual representation, a young indie author… But it just didn’t work for me. I had too many frustrations and questions written down in my kindle to actually recommend this and I actively was not looking forward to finishing this book. So I stopped.

‘The Last Chronomancer’ is a deeply emotional magical coming of age story. I cried reading it. Beautiful themes of grief and coming into your own.

Thank you to NetGalley and BookBuzz.net/Steely Co. Publishing for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Full disclosure, I did not finish this book. I found both the worldbuilding and characters were lacking, but what kept me from finishing was the way things were described. Several times a chapter the author selects one detail to highlight and repeats it again and again for seemingly no reason, and it's never details that have importance to the plot or characters.

In the first chapter, we meet a man named Vihaan, who is a lot bigger than the protagonist. I know this because Vihaan is described as "much larger," "towered over him like a giant," made him (protag) look "more like a boy," and "their sizes were incomparable." All this and more, on three pages. Perhaps his size will become important, but Vihaan didn't make another appearance in the 100 pages I read.

Other details just didn't make sense. Later in the book, the main characters need a place to stay and recuperate. They break into a home, and one of them immediately complains it smells like something died. The other investigates and finds a room filled with dead bodies. He shuts the door, plugs the cracks with towels, and ignores the issue. They live in the house for days and apparently the towels were enough to control the smell of an entire rotting family?

I wish I could give more detail on the story's contents, but the writing made it hard to focus on anything else.

*Thank you NetGalley for the E-ARC in exchange for my thoughts*
General thoughts:
1.75 star rating (2 starts for GoodReads as I can not do .75)
I did not like this book. I DNF’d this book at 50% as I had no interest in continuing the story. The reason I struggled so much with this book was due to the quality of the writing. The general premise of the book has potential, but the writing quality makes it incredibly difficult to read.

The good:
- The core ideas in the book are interesting.
- Queer representation


The not so good:
- This book is written in the third-person perspective but only focuses on the main character Kou. If the narration is only going to follow Kou (and at times even explain what he is thinking) then the book might as well be just in Kou’s POV. Due to the outside narration, it is incredibly hard to connect to the characters.
- Tells you everything, and shows you next to nothing.
- HP reference (it’s 2023, and this book is queer. Please leave out mentions of the TERF and her works)
- The pacing is all over the place. At times the characters just sit around doing nothing (and complain about it), and in the next moment, there is a life-or-death situation. There needs to be better transitions between scenes.
- The characters lack depth and lack connections to each other. Kou and Jace are supposed to be best friends, but they (at most) seem like reluctant allies. There is also next to no character building for the dad figure, bully figure, and so on.
- The first half of the book shows curiosity as a bad trait. Multiple times throughout the Book, Kou thinks about how horrible his curiosity is, and what a curse it is upon him. I have never seen a book make curiosity such a bad thing.

Concluding thoughts:
There is potential in this book I just think it needs a lot of re-working to get there. I am not here to completely destroy a book, certainly not one with a young indie author. That being said, the sheer amount of problems in the book and writing makes it incredibly hard to digest. Due to this, I can not comfortably suggest this book to others.

The book sets out as a coming of age story where protagonist Ankoku/Koukan is dragged into an adventure by his childhood friend Jace. They set course to Scotland but due to drastic turn of events they are forced to change destinations to the magical Dragon kingdom(Mithlonde). Kou is actively avoiding his destiny to be the last chronomancer while simultaneously propelling himself towards an adventure which inevitably will result in him confronting his true self. This books will give you a fill of various magical creatures Elves, Ogres, Vampires, Werewolves, what have you. The author has cleverly navigated the delicate nature and raw truths of adulthood of supernatural beings. It was well worth the read.

Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the ARC but sadly this one isn't for me. I thought the premise was interesting but sadly there was just way to much going on with out much explanation/very confusing information that didn't make much sense then either. I had to check if there was another book before this one because that's how in the dark I felt and in other places it felt like sentences were missing because things just jumped forward or just happened and you were just supposed to go with it. I found myself asking why or going what with almost every page. Maybe if you're one of these people that can shut their brain off and just go along with the ride then you'll enjoy this, but unfortunately I am not one of those people.

An incredibly original and fast-paced urban fantasy about a young man acknowledging his identity and coming to terms with his magical abilities.

The mythology of this story is very unique, drawing on creatures and concepts from multiple mythologies. I really loved that the author drew on her own heritage for an intricate set of Own Voices characters and she has my respect for that.
I really loved the diversity of this story, with a primarily non-white and mixed race cast and lots of LGBT inclusion - even an asexual main character! (Being both ace-spec and a minority ethnicity, I loved that aspect of the story.) I think the inclusion is genuinely one of the most stand-out aspects of this story. It all feels both natural and important: most of these characters experience alienation from their magical cultures, mimicking alienation they experience as mixed-race individuals.

Early on in this novel, the writing felt more geared towards a middle grade audience, though the violence would certainly put it in the upper YA range. The narration did find its footing after a few chapters, but it was never as descriptive as I would have hoped.
There were some really great instances of fight scenes - I especially enjoyed the Witchfen Worm as an exciting creature to see in this kind of fantasy - that had the right balance of pace to description, but overall I found the writing sacrificed scene-setting for pacing. It made for an engaging story, but not necessarily because I was drawn intimately into the world.
I also thought the timeline of the story was very drawn out. There is a lot of waiting around - for characters to heal, for an equinox to come... I don't necessarily think it needed the eight-month time span, and it possibly could have been collapsed into just a few weeks of setting.

I have to admit, using 9/11 as a plot device for a magical war is the MOST urban fantasy thing I can imagine happening. (I promise, this is a compliment. Very good use of modern history!) But I found it at odds with some of the language used. More than once, places and characters are described as villages/villagers, and it was just a bit jarring. Somehow I don't feel like that's quite the right wording for a story taking place in the 2020s. I think language is very important for scene-setting, especially in more genre specific pieces. I love it when the language telegraphs time period.

Anyway, unrelated, but I'm such a sucker for vampires (lmao puns B) ) so the inclusion was a very exciting and welcome surprise!

In "The Last Chronomancer" by Ralynn Kimie, Kou has always felt like an outsider, haunted by the tragic loss of his twin brother and the curse that follows his bloodline. He's turned his back on a world of enchantment, but when he's given the chance to explore his magical abilities, he's forced to confront the secrets that have been kept from him. The main conflict of the story centers around Kou's journey to come to terms with his past and the people who have kept him in the dark.

Kimie masterfully weaves a tale of self-discovery, with Kou as the central character coming to grips with his magical heritage. The conflict is fueled by the struggle between Kou's desire for normalcy and his curiosity about the magical world. The story is filled with action and suspense, and the magical system is fascinating, adding depth to the narrative.

The author does an excellent job of creating well-rounded characters, and Kou is no exception. As he struggles to make sense of his newfound abilities, he must also confront the loss of his brother and the secrets that have been kept from him. The supporting cast is equally compelling, with each character bringing something unique to the story.

Overall, "The Last Chronomancer" is an engaging and thought-provoking novel that explores themes of self-discovery and the importance of confronting the past. The magical system is complex and interesting, and the characters are well-developed, making for a compelling read.

DNF - 46% - 3 stars so an not to mess with the Star Rating.

This book has a wonder core and a MC that would be able to be fleshed out over a few books. There is too much going on and what is going on isn't amazing writing. There are too many creatures, characters, curses, locations, plot points. I feel like this is trying to set up all five books in the series without establishing this book as its own narrative.

I didn't feel engaged with any of the characters to be honest. I didn't believe that these MC's were even friends.

The concept of having this high fantasy world also based in our own universe was jarring - things like mobile phones existing but candles being the preferred means of lighting.

I probably could have held out to read the entire book but with a 2 year last TBR stack the pin had to be pulled..

Interesting premise and I liked the characters but they were a little two dimensional. The writing was a little flat and things that should be explained weren't and things that didn't need to be were. Lots of unnecessary repetition too.

I loved reading this book, and completed it in one sitting. The general arc of the plot was really interesting, and while there are some, shall I say...interpersonal points that were a bit predictable, those moments didn’t detract from the story or the reading experience. Tropes exist for a reason, and seeing them employed somewhat creatively allows for a deeper focus on the intricacies of the world. One thing I enjoyed about Kou, specifically, is that while he has every reason to be fearful, sad, or even hardened to the world, he doesn’t come off as whiny or overdramatic, as so often happens with a troubled male protag-type. I felt like it struck a nice balance and really contributed to his overall development.

I’m serious when I say it was fast paced! There wasn’t a single moment when it dragged, and, in fact, the development of both plot and character moved at such a clip, that I felt we missed out on some complexity that was itching to be delved into. The world that Kimie created has so much variation and potential, but we very much skated over the surface without diving deeply into many of the specifics. Generally speaking, I would say we were just learning as Kou did, but there were moments where he clearly knew so much more than we did, leaving us with a sort of bland exposition of him thinking as if reading from a field guide or encyclopedia. Nothing felt out of place, per se, but it felt like the scope of the book prevented us from really understanding or catching the subtleties of the world - as though in order to keep it tight, the author had to cut the legs off of some of their ideas. That being said, I am a huge fan of deep worldbuilding, especially in fantasy or magical worlds, and while this book is lighter on that, it is also the first book in a series - I anticipate that we will learn much more over time.

Overall, I would recommend this book for anyone who enjoys YA urban/light fantasy, relational stories, or good twists on the classic heroic journey, or someone looking for that good good ace representation without a focus on the perils of being queer.

3.75/5 stars (rounded to 4 for some platforms) - I loved reading this book, and completed it in one sitting. The general arc of the plot was really interesting, and while there are some, shall I say...interpersonal points that were a bit predictable, those moments didn’t detract from the story or the reading experience. Tropes exist for a reason, and seeing them employed somewhat creatively allows for a deeper focus on the intricacies of the world. One thing I enjoyed about Kou, specifically, is that while he has every reason to be fearful, sad, or even hardened to the world, he doesn’t come off as whiny or overdramatic, as so often happens with a troubled male protag-type. I felt like it struck a nice balance and really contributed to his overall development.

I’m serious when I say it was fast paced! There wasn’t a single moment when it dragged, and, in fact, the development of both plot and character moved at such a clip, that I felt we missed out on some complexity that was itching to be delved into. The world that Kimie created has so much variation and potential, but we very much skated over the surface without diving deeply into many of the specifics. Generally speaking, I would say we were just learning as Kou did, but there were moments where he clearly knew so much more than we did, leaving us with a sort of bland exposition of him thinking as if reading from a field guide or encyclopedia. Nothing felt out of place, per se, but it felt like the scope of the book prevented us from really understanding or catching the subtleties of the world - as though in order to keep it tight, the author had to cut the legs off of some of their ideas. That being said, I am a huge fan of deep worldbuilding, especially in fantasy or magical worlds, and while this book is lighter on that, it is also the first book in a series - I anticipate that we will learn much more over time.

Overall, I would recommend this book for anyone who enjoys YA urban/light fantasy, relational stories, or good twists on the classic heroic journey, or someone looking for that good good ace representation without a focus on the perils of being queer.

3.75/5 stars (rounded to 4 for some platforms) - thank you to Steely Co. Publishing for the eARC!

Thank you, Steely Co. Publishing, for allowing me to read The Last Chronomancer early!

I hadn't had the chance to read Kimie's work before this reissue, but I know it was deeply changed and I think that this final form is a success. I enjoyed it very much.