What a book! I loved it so so much!
You could really feel Joans hurt with both Aaron and Nick not remembering her.
I found a mistake in the book though, there was written NIC once instead of NICK.
I was hoping for a bit more Aaron Oliver, or at least more of the love triangle between the three of them.

I love how the groups does everything together, how they blindly follow Joan from time to time.
The plottwist though, I did not saw that comming.

I need the 3rd book now!

I hugely enjoyed 'ONly a Monster', and raved about it to everyone.I thought that in Vanessa Len, we finally had an author, who could write funny fantasy YA novels-while there are well written YA fantasy novels, none of them manage humour. I read 'Only a Monster' again, before starting 'Never a hero', and it was just as charming and fun as the first read. I could not be more disappointed with the absolute mess that is 'Never a hero'. Firstly, every third sentence ( and I’m not exaggerating one bit) is Joan swooning over how handsome Nick is. I get it, teenagers are swoony, but to this extent? And she gushes about him all the time, to the extent that I couldn’t help wondering if Nick is Vanessa Len writing about her own teenage crush. Every third thought is variations of NIck's unbelievable good looks -running away from people who want to kill them, trying to hide, eating a meal. The plot went absolutely nowhere, and is completely forgettable. The first book benefited from the banter between Aaron Oliver and Joan, which is completely missing from this one,and no attempts at levity are made at all. It makes for a very boring book, particularly when the time jumps and action don't really seem to advance the plot forward,and seem inserted merely so she can hit her pages target. I don't think I'm even going to bother reading the third book. I'll just stick to my Harry Potter when I want funny and entertaining YA fantasy!

Vanessa clearly does not suffer from the dreaded second book syndrome!

Only a Monster was a surprise favourite of mine last year, I got it as part of a subscription box without really knowing much about it but I ended up reading it in 2 days & it blew me away, so Never A Hero was at the top of my 2023 anticipated releases & it did not disappoint!

Following on from the events of Monster, Never A Hero picks up the pace & increases the stakes straight away! I was immediately reinvested in Joan’s life, how the alternate timeline looked & the repercussions of the ending to Monster. The plot was engaging, fast paced & in my opinion stronger than Monster, the complexity of the world Len set up really paid off in this book & I cannot wait to see where it takes us in book 3!

Never a Hero ends on a really really great cliffhanger, there’s a lot of foreshadowing in the book leading up to it, but it will leave you desperately wishing book 3 was already out!

I think the only thing that slightly frustrates me about this book (because it actually doesn’t really), is the romance! I really love romance & Len writes tension/yearning/slow burn incredibly well, but I am just not a huge fan of will they/won’t they, soulmates, multiple love interests etc etc., but I reckon all that will be resolved in book 3 & I trust Vanessa to get even my cold cyclical heart on side!

Thank you to Hodder & Stoughton and Netgalley for the opportunity to review this ARC.

Thank you so much, NetGalley, Hodder & Stoughton, Hodderscape for the chance to read the amazing sequel of Only a monster by Vanessa Len!

Joan was able to achieve the impossible: restart the timeline and save her family by unmaking the hero, Nick. Now, though, she's the only one who remembers everything that happened and Nick is only the new boy at her school, while Aaron is the enemy. When Joan and Nick got caught by monsters and they are wrenched into the future, they have to deal with impossible choices and difficult explanations. How to trust someone who wanted to kill you in the past timeline, but also was your greatest love? How to trust Aaron again? And how to understand what's really happening to them all and why Joan has an impossible and dangerous power? Between secrets and truths, Nick, Joan and Aaron are forced to deal with dangerous powers, kidnappings, hidden truths and lost families, while trying to save themselves and everyone they love.

I absolutely loved coming back to the monsters world created by Vanessa Len. This book is unputdownable, brilliant and so filled with actions, plot twists that will leave you breathless until the very end. And after that. With Never a Hero, Joan and Nick are gripped again by dangers, monsters and horrible truths, while Joan tries to hide what she did to Nick to save her family and she's conflicted between her two halves, the monster and the human one. The reader will find again wonderful characters like Jamie and Tom, Ruth, while encountering others and changed one. In this book the stakes are even higher than the previous one, because Joan and her allies have to face a more deadly enemy, who threatens to remake the whole timeline for their own gains and it was so incredible being able to witness new powers and families, with their tattoos and necklaces or braceles, their symbols, new allies and new enemies, while Joan tries to understand her power and what it means for her and everyone else.
It's romantic and brilliant, funny and dangerous and this adventure left me breathless. I can't wait to read the next book!

Only A Monster ended so conclusively, I was surprised to find it was a trilogy at first, but also, thank goodness it was not because I had some serious questions. I needed more and Len answered. Not only has Never A Hero explained many questions and created many more (I need the final book right now please) but it felt like a prime example of how to write a stunning sequel.

🗡️Some Only A Monster spoilers ahead. 🗡️

We start Never A Hero with Joan, plodding through the next school year. Her family, Aaron (her enemy turned close friend) and Nick (it's complicated), have all forgotten the battles they faced together, the lives lost and saved. My heart ached for her. Yet, we soon discover that messing with the timeline had an impact that continues to ripple and whoever made the hero, hasn’t finished puppeteering their story yet.

Like, Only A Monster the writing is fast-paced and easy to consume, we immediately jump into the action. Joan finds herself in a strange parallel reality when she must escape danger with Nick from none other than Aaron and other unknown forces closing in. Jumping around time, I continued to be impressed with all the little contextual details that inferred the setting and added depth to the characters and histories. The barges and markets for example! Also, the way they play detective to understand the new time they’ve landed in and how they react to a new area of history (or the future). It all builds on the idea of the ‘monsters’.

In Only A Monster the book was brought down slightly but it lacked an exploration into the use of the term ‘monster’ but Never A Hero took it everywhere I hoped it would go. Helped by an already established background on the characters set up in book one, we see a Nick that’s new to this hidden world once again and challenges Joan’s (whose still relatively new herself) initial assumptions while they both discover what it means to be a ‘monster’ and a ‘hero’ together. Cue lots and lots of grey areas.

If you loved the first, you’ll love the sequel. Plus, there were tons of little details that weaved the two books together and I can’t wait to see how it all ties in with the third. Please make 2024 come faster, it's uncomfortable having to sit at the edge of my seat for so long!

ARC sent by the publisher -Hodder & Stoughton- for review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the opportunity.

Well. That certainly was something.

I'll start with the good parts: I love that we got more Aaron and Nick character development in Never A Hero. The backstory and the world building and all the twists and turns, while some not surprising, were brilliantly set up and pulled off and in general that ending left me reeling. Also, Miss Len's writing has remarkably improved and keeps you engrossed until that very last page.

The more eh parts: little to no further development of Tom, Jamie, and Ruth, which is really sad because I loved them in the first book and desperately would have liked more. It's understandable- there's only so much you can squeeze into one book- but it's still disappointing. Also, Joan "did" a lot less and "found out" a lot more in Never A Hero, which I mostly just object to because it's filling in exposition in one of the laziest ways possible, but I mean clearly Vanessa Len pulled it off because I still felt that the book was actually moving along.

All in all, easy five stars at the moment. I'm waiting on preorders to be available in my country so I can snag those extremely cool incentives. Anddd Vanessa Len has officially joined my list of best YA fantasy writers.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the early access to this book.

I absolutely loved the first book, and couldn't put it down. Unfortunately this one was a disappointment in comparison.

I didn't enjoy the character or plot development, I found it a bit long-winded and boring, and like most of this could have been told together with whatever will be in the third book, and we would still know everything we needed to.

I really wanted to love this book, and very much looked forward to it coming out, so I'm quite sad I didn't enjoy it.

I am absolutely in awe of Vanessa Len's writing skills and the amount of foresight that went into building this world. This was one of my most anticipated books of the year and guys, this did not disappoint.
In fact, this was one of the most enjoyable books I've read in this year.

At the start of the story, Joan is trying to deal with the aftermath of what happened in book 1. After saving the monster side of her family with no one being the wiser, she's trying to keep a safe distance from them as she tries to cope with the fact that one side of her family is in fact, very monstrous. Nick is also back in her life, but this is not the psychopathic version we saw in the first book. This is Nick version 3.0, much closer to the original Nick from the original timeline, and he doesn't remember anything about their past. but soon he gets dragged into her world, again. Because soul mates and all.

I think I explained in my review of the first book that I am absolutely fascinated with the world building and how time travel works here. But I'll be honest, the element that kept me going here was mostly the emotional pull of the story. There is something about the Joan-Nick-Aaron entanglement that just is so compelling.

If that wasn't enough, this book has one of my favourite female villains. It's not rare to find male villains who are kinda sympathetic. but female villains? you almost never find a female villain written with complexity and nuance and a bit of compassion. Well, I really liked the way Len handled the villain here. she's terrifyingly clever and outsmarts every one here, but you can also see where she's coming from.

Anyway, I really enjoyed this. I love the world building, love the emotional pull of the story, and
love how well-constructed the overall plot of the story, totally recommend it

A brilliant follow-up to one of my favourite YA novels from last year. The premise behind this series is so cool. Once again, I loved all of the time travel and period details. The dynamics between the characters were even better than before, and I can't wait to find out what happens next! Joan is such a strong protagonist, and I loved seeing how she dealt with the repercussions of her decision at the end of Only a Monster. This series is a must-read for YA fantasy readers.

i feel much the same about this as i did the first book. didn’t hate it, didn’t love it either. i’m tired of joan and nick and i need more aaron!!!! his scenes were the only ones i genuinely loved.

First of all I would like to thank hodder and sloughton (hodderscape) for a fantastic read.
.I'm going to try keep this spoiler free

I read only a monster maybe just over a year ago and thought it was totally enchanting and I can say I felt the same if not more sucked back in to this Vanessa amazing world , the book definitely took my breath away at times it definitely will pull on your heart out of you chest and make you beg for more .

We go on another pretty dangerous adventure with Joan and Aaron to save everyone from being destroyed .

This book will definitely have you mind spinning out of control at times but in the best way .

I really love Joan as a character she not only brave but also enpowering .every character to me has such incredible grit to them .

I thought over all the book was pretty fast paced , kept me on my toes for sure ,Vanessa writing is a piece of art , she clever with how she keeps you captivated in the story .I can not wait for this book to come out for all to enjoy .

I've given this heart stopping book 5 stars

Thank you to Hodder and Stoughton and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The sequel is finally here! Never a Hero by Vanessa Len is an absolutely amazing YA fantasy that you should add to your TBR list immediately! The story revolves around Joan, who discovered in the first book that she is actually a monster. Descended from a family of monsters who time-travel by stealing time from humans, Joan is still dealing with the effects of this discovery from the first book and the horrifying decision that she made. Can Joan save her family from those who want to harm them? Who is the real enemy here?

Here is an exciting excerpt from Chapter 1:

"Joan had had a strange encounter with Gran's neighbor. He'd pushed her into a wall one morning, and then night had abruptly fallen.
Joan had run back to Gran's place, terrified. He did something to me, she'd told Gran.
Gran's green eyes had been luminous in the low kitchen light. He didn't do something to you, she'd told Joan. You did something to him. She'd leaned close. You're a monster, Joan."

Overall, Never a Hero is a thrilling sequel that is everything I was expecting and more! This series will appeal to fans of St. Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children or Harry Potter. The first time I read Only a Monster, I was shocked by the climax and ending. I couldn't believe that a YA book was going so far. In preparation for reading the sequel, I read the first book a second time, and it was even better than I remembered!

One highlight of this book is how action-packed it was. I could not put this book down! Another highlight of this book is how much fun it was. There is a lot of lore and world-building, similar to the first book, and since I felt situated in the universe already, I was here for it. I actually appreciated how complicated the plot was. I can tell the author put a lot of thought into it. If you're intrigued by the excerpt above, or if you're a fan of YA fantasy in general, you won't regret checking out this book when it comes out in August!

Book Review 📚

Never A Hero by Vanessa Len - 4.5/5 ⭐

Ok truth time - I started this book and come to realise very quickly it's the 2nd book in the series! That's a big mistake on my part. So, I went and purchased the first book (read it in 3 days) and then came back to this book. Whether it can be read as a standalone, I don't know. But that's not something I can do, so I had to wait till I had read the first.

Let me just say, Len is such a skilled writer! Wow oh wow, she has such a way with words. The first book was phenomenal and this book isn't far behind. It could of been a lot worse, but she pulled it off. There's tension throughout the book and we revist some of the characters from the first book. It hooked me in and didn't let go until I was done. But be warned, ending = CLIFFHANGER! Not a small cliffhanger either, a HUGE one.

I honestly feel like it's possible to write a review with no spoilers, so that's as good as it's gonna get. Bottom line - 1st book is amazing, 2nd book is amazing and 3rd book will be on preorder VERY soon.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for allowing me to read this ARC - this is an HONEST review from my own personal opinion.

For some reason I thought this was a duology but no, it's a trilogy and I have another book in the series to look forward to! And I will be looking forward to it because Vanessa Len is such a skilled writer. Middle books can often be a disappointment, especially if it's the first middle book from a new writer, but none of the usual problems appeared and I raced through.

I'll admit that I didn't remember the first book very well, other than that I enjoyed it. This means I spent over 50% of the book recalling bits and pieces of Joan's first adventure and thinking the boy by her side was Nick, when in fact it was Aaron. I really, really wish authors would provide a recap before sequels because I'm sure this book would have been even better if I could remember the time previously spent with Nick.

I'm still a little confused about *SPOILER**SPOILER**SPOILER* how Eleanor and Joan were raised together - I thought their mother was with Joan's dad in the true timeline, so why would Eleanor have been born? And then in the divergent timeline, the mother was on the run when she met Joan's dad, so how would Joan have ended up back with Eleanor? However, I must have missed this explanation during Eleanor's very long villain monologue (I did think to myself "why is she spending so much time explaining and why is the King letting her go on at this length?") because nobody else seems confused. *END OF SPOILER*

I didn't love how many of the problems were caused by characters simply not communicating. It wasn't clear at times why a character would have told half the truth *SPOILER* - Joan doesn't mention that Nick killed her family, or that Eleanor tortured him, which obviously means he's going to feel differently than if he knew the truth. I didn't really understand why, when the bad stuff was revealed, she didn't mention the extenuating circumstances. Feels like the first thing someone would do in that situation! *END OF SPOILER*

But I still enjoyed reading it despite this and - as long as Frankie survives the trilogy - I'm sure I'll love the next book too.

Source of book: NetGalley (thank you)
Relevant disclaimers: None
Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author.

Miraculously, I have managed to keep this almost entirely spoiler free.

Look … I … I just cannot be coherent about this.

Put it this way, okay. I’ve read a fair second-books-of-trilogies recently, stories I have enjoyed and allowed myself to be swept up in, and which have left me eager for the finale. But I’ve always begun my reviews with kind of a … second book in a trilogy disclaimer? You know, happy to be with these characters again, some development of the overall plot but lacking the impetus/stakes/tension of the first book, felt a little bit like treading water/setting up for the bit climax.

WELL, ABSOLUTELY NONE OF THAT APPLIES HERE.

Never A Hero is some kind of fucking masterclass in how to write the second book of a trilogy—

(wait, I am allowed to say this thing that is blatantly a trilogy is a trilogy, right? Sorry I’m apparently still a bit sore over being told a completely different YA author had declared such non-revelations verboten).

Anyway.

Assuming it is okay to say trilogies that are blatantly trilogies are, in fact, trilogies: Never A Hero is some kind of fucking masterclass in how to write the second book of a trilogy. Tension is maintained throughout. Stakes are established (and sky high) almost immediately. We get to visit old friends in new contexts. We get to see more of the setting than we saw in the first book. And—mostly importantly of all—information comes to light that completely re-shapes your understanding the world so the book never feels like filler or loses its forward momentum. I mean, honestly. How is this Vanessa Len’s debut series? HOW? It’s just so expertly put together in every conceivable way. The rest of us might as well just pack up and go home.

In any case, before I go on there are two things I need to get out of the way.

1. The book ends on the mother of all cliff-hangers.
Except I think you should read it anyway. I mean, no, you should do what works for you. On this occasion, however, I think there’s a pretty strong case to be made that it’s worth reading the book when it comes out rather than waiting for 3. I can definitely understand wanting to see a story through to its ultimate conclusion in one fell swoop but—having thought about why I was okay with Never A Hero when I’ve been less okay with other on-going book series—my sense is that cliff-hangers are only emotionally unsatisfying if they feel like they’re the *only* point of the book. Like if you all you got from reading it was big “what next.” With Never A Hero there is plenty to keep you going in terms of character development and new revelations. I finished the book in a welter of excitement for the next final instalment, but also completely satisfied. Yes, this book is, to some unavoidable degree, set it up for the next one but it also feels fully integrated into the broader arc of the series.

2. You will feel Aaron Oliver is not in this book “enough”.
And I think this is going to be complicated? I mean, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it’s not going to be complicated at all. But I’ve seen a few comments there and there and it kind of got of me thinking about … not shipping wars exactly, but the expectations we bring to authors when we fall in love with a particular character or characters. Let me just say first, though, it’s totally okay to have faves and it’s totally okay to want to, um, consume as much of them as possible. It’s also okay to have deep emotions about the quantity of Aaron Oliver in this book (although, let me make very clear, I challenge anyone to feel anything other than ecstatic over the *quality* of Aaron Oliver in this book). But I do lowkey get concerned when “I personally wanted more of [x] or less of [y]” doesn’t just become “so I didn’t like the book as much as I thought I was going to” but instead morphs into “so the book is bad” with a strong implication of or indeed explicitly stated, “ergo the author made an incorrect creative choice.”

I think where I’m going with this is that relationships between authors and readers are complex. Obviously it’s a breach of trust for author to deliberately (or ignorantly) make choices aimed at hurting or disappointing readers e.g. I will market this (or allow this to be marketed) as a genre romance but one of them dies in the end. But, at the same time, I don’t feel readers are baby birds into whose open mouths authors are required to disgorge their story in the most digestible format. Like, I don’t want to be fucked around by an author, but at the same time, it’s not an author’s job to give me exactly what I want exactly when and how I want it. To put it another way, I’m cool with how Never A Hero handled Aaron Oliver. Would I, in pure goblin mode, have wanted more of him? Yes, he’s my fucking favourite. I would take as much of him as I can reasonably (or unreasonably) get.

BUT: I also respect the author’s creative choices here. And I don’t even mean in that in a mindless acceptance way. I mean, the emotional journey of “oh no, it’s exactly like he said it would be, he’s a villain now, help my feelings” was more satisfying than any faster burn “get him on page as quick as possible” type outcome. More to the point, these are books about time travel: context is always significant. The “when” and the “how” of when you revisit something. The ways it may be different and the ways it isn’t. We spent Only A Monster mostly with Aaron and then got some revelations about Nick at the end. Never A Hero we spend initially with Nick and then we learn more about Aaron. Structurally, this really *really* works. And, finally, something I really appreciate about Vanessa Len as an author, and about how she’s put this series together, is there are always consequences to what happens. I personally find it kind of frustration when books or TV shows or other media set up twists or climaxes for the sake of being twists or climaxes, and then basically undo in the next book/episode etc. When Aaron warns Joan that he’ll be different in another timeline—that she can’t trust him—he’s partially speaking of, y’know, sexy self-loathing but also he’s correct. And treating that seriously—for Aaron to be a credible threat—is important and, frankly, a huge source of tension and anxious feels across the book as a whole.

Basically: it’s always okay to want what we want or for what we want to run contrary to the author’s own vison for the work or even for the author to fail to deliver on their own vision. But, at the same time, I think it’s important not to treat deviation from our personal preferences as authorial failure. Vanessa Len earned my trust as reader in Only A Monster and continues to maintain that trust in Never A Hero. I couldn’t particularly tell you what I *expected* from this book. But it’s a breathtakingly ambitious and satisfying sequel, and I wouldn’t want it to be anything other than what it is.

It's also kind of impossible to talk about without spoiling shit and I don’t want to do that. So I’m going to navigate that as best as I can with vagueness and enthusiasm. The book opens with Joan stranded in her new timeline, the only person who can remember that once things were different. Except this also isn’t wholly the same timeline as it was before: yes, her family are still, but there are subtle and persistent differences. People who have disappeared. Nick—who is, of course, no longer the hero, no longer the Nick she knew—joining her school. Then Joan (and coincidentally Nick) are attacked at the bakery where she works, putting them both on the run again, and drawing them back into the very conspiracy Joan originally un-made Nick to destroy.

What’s remarkable about Never A Hero’s build to its absolutely explosive climax is the way it circles the events of the first book, re-contextualising them, but never quite repeating them. There’s a getting the gang back together vibe for at least the middle third and ye Gods does it feel good to see those people again, especially after the intense loneliness of the opening where Joan is essentially stranded in a timeline only she understands is different. There is a lot of ground to cover here, especially in terms of just how much new information we get about the world and what was actually going on last book. This is, occasionally, to the detriment of character. Ruth, in particular, is less vivid than she was in Only A Monster, and I missed her. Plus, while I was happy to see Tom and Jamie together on page, they are often reduced to sharing looks in which magic couple communication takes place—I can understand not wanting to slow the pace with too much dialogue, but I personally could have taken more of the queer couple directly interacting with each other. Mostly, though, I was awed by the number of plates Vanessa Len has kept spinning here.

Joan remains an absolute hero to me, determined, yet vulnerable, and far from perfect. Also can I please just take a moment to celebrate a book that recognises that fucking with someone’s brain is an absolute violation, even if it’s happening to a person with relative privilege compared to those around them. I seem to have brushed up against too many things recently that have sort of cheerfully elided how messed up and consent-erasing it is to alter someone’s perceptions or behaviour (or allow them to act on the basis of incomplete information) if the someone in question happens to be a straight white man. Like, I’m not the biggest fan of straight white men myself but that doesn’t mean I think it’s okay to treat their brains like silly putty.

ANYWAY. I loved all the new insights Never A Hero provides, as well as all its superbly handled twists, turns, and revelations. I really love how Len handles her world-building. Magicians, time travellers, families, a sinister court: these are not, on their own terms, especially original elements but Len brings both a freshness and a darkness to them, as well as a stark awareness of privilege that is quite transformative. While this book is as much as a breathless adventure story as its predecessor, its explicit themes of memory, knowledge, perspective—and how those things might be controlled, changed or erased—foreground its on-going preoccupation with identity. Specifically what shapes identity and how power can be used to re-shape it, much as Nick was re-shaped into the hero in Only A Monster. I’m also beyond fascinated by glimpses of time itself we get throughout the book. The heroine’s sense of its curtailed will, the way it is essentially presented as a colonised being. I genuinely can’t wait to see how this is further explored in the third book.

I will, however, say that, despite my heartfelt defence of Nick’s presence and Aaron’s absence, Nick is a little bit the weakest link here. I admire what Len is trying to achieve with him—writing a genuinely good/heroic person is fucking difficult—but he’s just not as interesting as literally anyone else around him. Like, I’m sorry to say this but maybe being horribly tortured was what made him interesting? Because without that edge, he’s just a nice guy who is nice and whose flaws are all job interview flaws, along the lines of “well, maybe I’m just a little bit too loyal, understanding and amazing.” Obviously I want Joan to have all the good things—and there is no escaping the fact that Nick is a good thing—but I do find Nick hard to like (and/or fancy) on in any terms beyond any abstract recognition of his role in the book and what he represents. I don’t think that necessarily means I want Joan to end up with Aaron either. But I like Joan’s relationship with Nick only because Joan herself seems to like it, not because I myself like it, if that distinction makes sense. This setup of this book offers the reader (and indeed Joan) an opportunity to get to know Nick as something beyond the hero he was forced to be.

Unfortunately, all I really got from him was football, muscles, and a generalised sense of decency. And I’m afraid that just doesn’t feel like … enough. Especially because Aaron Oliver is a haughty, vulnerable, self-loathing charisma bomb and we all want to do him and/or heal him (although he’s a teenager, so not really, and also fictional, so not really). On top of which Nick and Joan are brushing perilously close to my least favourite romance trope which I won’t dig into because it’s a spoiler and also because I am reserving judgement until the third book. I just can’t believe that a series so embedded in ideas about agency and self-determination could, you know, be going down that route romantically speaking.

Back to Aaron, though. I need to take a moment to reiterate just how much I appreciate him as a character, and not just for inappropriate (he’s a fictional teenager) thirst-based reasons. We first meet him in book 1, non-heroically and humiliatingly begging for his life, and his personal horror of violence continues to this book. I mean, I honestly think all sensible people have a horror of violence, but it still feels rare to me for characters (especially male characters) who we are otherwise supposed to like/admire to be presented as physically cowardly. For that to be … okay? I think the only other piece of media I’ve seen that does this is, err, the Deep Space Nine episode ‘Nor To Battle The Strong’ where Jake Sisko singularly fails to discover his inner machismo/heroism when cast into a dangerous situation (this is extra fascinating in the context of Star Trek where particular kinds of strength are just taken for granted). Anyway, I think all Vanessa Len’s choices around Aaron—his fearfulness, his brittleness, his own core of goodness—are bold, and kind of unique. Which might be why Nick suffers quite so much in comparison, at least in this book.

Of course, having written that and thinking again about the way this series approaches identity, I think it we do have to recognise that Nick is someone who has had his identity stripped from him—or otherwise altered—multiple times. In that context, his slight blankness, and his lack of depth, are probably reasonable. But it still doesn’t necessarily make him super fun to read about.

In any case, I hope it’s coming across that pontificating is very much my love language. And my love for these books is through the fucking roof. I tried to keep my expectations in check, but Never A Hero is a more than worthy successor to Only A Monster. At this point, I honestly feel the third book is basically a victory lap for the author. I can’t wait to see her bring this phenomenal series home.

I struggled with this book at first, I had forgotten when has happened in the previous book and had to search the internet for details I couldn’t remember until I had my copy on hand. Never A Hero unfortunately did not blow my mind. It was entertaining and, on a base level, I enjoyed it, however there were parts that felt messy. The first quarter had consistent grammar errors with missing quotation/speech marks and times when a name was spelt incorrectly.

Much of the communication in this book felt like a message being passed down the line, people repeating what they had been told in a loop of “they said this” and “he said that”. Other times it felt like characters just failed to communicate at all, causing issues not just in character relationships but as a reader it because frustrating.

I did enjoy Aaron in this book and the journey he went on with his attitude towards Joan, but Nick felt foggy and not solid enough to pinpoint what was going on. I would have really enjoyed if he and Joan managed to have a proper conversation somewhere in the last 100 pages or so because they feel like they’re going in circles.

While I would read another book in this series, I’m not yearning for it like I did with this.

Wow. I need the next book , like right now. That ending 🥹 With this being the middle book in the series I was expecting some action and the rest to be more “calm” .. but oh boy, how wrong was I. This was action packed. So many plot twists. The story evolved in a way I definitely wasn’t expecting. So I can attest that this book doesn’t suffer the middle book syndrome.

The book picks up months after the events of Only a monster. Joan is the only one that remembers what happened and she is still recovering , especially mentally. We meet some familiar faces again but they are different from before due to the new timeline. We meet some new faces too and we discover a lot more about the monster families and the power dynamics between them. We discover who is allied to who and why and there is a focus on the different powers they have.

There is a lot of time travel this time too ( not saying to which eras because it’s a very important plot point) and there are a lot of revelations, most of them I didn’t see coming. I had a theory and I was super wrong lol

There is a very cute “hurt her and I’ll unalive you “ scene

The more secrets were unveiled the more the bigger storyline started to make sense and my mind was blown. A lot of our characters are tied by fate and the true storyline definitely plays into that.

One of the things that I loved the most in the book is Joan. Joan is different from your typical YA heroine and she is still learning and discovering a lot about her self. She is clearly in a bad place but she is very resilient and she wants to protect the people she loves. She still struggles with her identity and with her morals as well. She definitely learned from her past mistakes. I felt for her a lot, being in her head was painful at times because she was feeling so much ( kudos to Vanessa Len’s writing, ps I feel like her writing has improved a lot , even if it was a bit confusing at times ) .

The last 10% of the book was pure chaos and heartbreak and I loved it. I’m excited to see what will happen next! Thank you so much to @netgalley and @hodderscape for giving me the chance to read this early!

Now…

It’s not really a spoiler but could maybe considered one so I’ll just put a warning. If you don’t want to know .. don’t read further ( I mean we knew they would make an appereance)

We see both Nick and Aaron again , but this time the story is more focused on Nick. I liked seeing different versions of them. And I still love Aaron with all my heart 🥹

Vanessa Len never misses! This book was everything I wanted and more! A masquerade ball? Witty banter? Found family? the TENSION OMG AND THE PLOT TWISTS I NEVER SAW COMING. I’m in love with nick but MR AARON OLIVERS CHARM 😩😭

Never a Hero is a continuation of Only a Monster and I loved that book. The second instalment did not disappoint at all. It was good to read about Joane and Nick and Aaron again. Can't wait for the third one!

I loved Only a Monster and I actually enjoyed Never a Hero more.
I love the time travel element, I haven't read enough books with that element.
These books, I've found, are very quick to read, and not overly complicated.
The only thing I'd have liked more of is the "Monster" element.