If I'd had this series as a teen, I would have been OBSESSED. And I'm honestly really thankful for this series for giving me a similar experience now, because I feel like it's really hard to recreate that feeling as an adult.

Right away this book really pulled me in emotionally. I just have such a soft spot for books where someone forgets the other person... the ANGST. Between the time travel, the morally grey characters, and the angst of forgetting each other, this book, and this series as a whole, just hits all the right spots for me. I'm firmly Team Aaron, by the way, and this book cemented that for me even more.

And I love that Joan actually struggles with what happened, because a lot of the time in fantasy, they gloss over trauma, and characters go through the worst things and are always just fine. Which makes them feel more like a pawn to move the plot along than an actual human.

This book definitely did not have second book syndrome, and I could absolutely not put it down. I already can't wait for book 3!

SHE'S DONE IT AGAIN!!!

Only a Monster was one of my favourite reads of 2022, and ever since I finished I have been eagerly awaiting the sequel, so you can imagine my delight when I was approved for a Netgalley arc of Never a Hero.

This sequel matches the energy of the first book perfectly. Once again, Vanessa Len has written a perfectly paced, intriguing and original story and I finished almost the whole book in a day.

I am just so obsessed with these characters and this world, and I cannot wait to see where Joan and Co's stories go in the next book!!!!!!!!!!!

4.25*

This was an anticipated read for me this year and I was so privileged to be able to read an ARC for this book. Thank you Netgalley and Hodder and Stoughton for the opportunity.

As it has been awhile since I read Only a Monster, but once I started reading I was once again immersed into the world that was created. The world is so intricate and with such a unique take on time travel.

This story follows on from Only a Monster, with Joan needing to deal with the intricacies of the new timeline. I've always loved Joan and this book shows her coming into herself and she has a real strength of character. There is a real sense of struggle with what's right and wrong and Joan having to come to terms with her 'monster' side. There is that moral dilemma of what being a monster means and being human.

I loved seeing the cast of characters again even if they were slightly different versions of themselves. I would've liked to have seen more Aaron because I love a morally grey character. I look forward to book 3 because the twists and turns make this such a fantastic read.

Favorite character: Aaron / Nick
Three words: fast / entertaining / complex

This book is the second one in the trilogy so be aware of spoilers for the first one, Only a Monster!

Joan unmade the hero so her family could live and reset the timeline. Now she is the only one who knows what happened and is trying to stay away from the Hunts, her monster family, and Nick, who unfortunately goes to the same school as Joan but doesn't remember her
Joan quickly discovers that the new timeline is far from save for her, and when her former friend and ally Aaron attacks her and starts hunting her due to her forbidden powers, Nick gets entangled in the situation and he and Joan are forced to flee. The longer Nick and Joan stay together and the deeper they dive into the monster world, the more Nick realizes that Joan withholds something from him. As rumors about unusual fluctuations in the timeline begin to circulate, Joan's secrets slowly begin to unravel.

I really liked Only a Monster and Never a Hero too! It's one of the few YA Fantasy series I've enjoyed lately.
In Never a Hero, Joan mainly has to deal with the aftermath of the choices she made in the first book. While she managed to save her family, the world is a different as the hero, who saved humans, never existed. Of course, that has consequences that Joan never considered. I really liked how this leads to Joan's inner conflict. She's half human, half monster. Which side is she on? Does she have to choose? Are humans good and monsters bad? Is the world black and white? The plot twist at the end of the book took me by surprise and I'm sure it'll only lead to more questions and uncertainty for Joan.
Not surprising, I still like the worldbuilding and the concept of monsters being able to time travel by taking years of human lives. My favorite part of the story is when the characters travel into different times and the monster meeting points and markets.
I gave this book four stars because some parts of the story felt a bit too convenient for me. Of course Ruth finds her quite early in another time and helps her like last time. A masquerade ball is held a few days later after they decide they need to go undercover ... and little things like that. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed reading this book and would have picked up the second one right away! Definitely recommend!

This book was kindly provided to me as a reviewers copy by Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for allowing me to read the eARC of Never A Hero by Vanessa Len.

After reading Only A Monster and falling in love with the story I have been waiting with anticipation for Never A Hero and boy, my anticipation was not misplaced.

I absolutely loved Never A Hero, the story started where Only A Monster left off and it was so easy to get into swept into the storyline. This novel is written so well that I loved every minute of it.
Never A Hero set its own rhythm and the plotline unravelled with a pace of ease. I didn't know what was coming next but I was so eager to find out.
I love Joan, Nick and Aaron no matter what timelines they're in! The characters though well built in the first novel, seemed more defined and aged in this offering. The world building as always is awe inspiring and the different time eras are so richly described I could imagine being there.

Like I said I absolutely loved this novel and I couldn't find any fault with it. It gave me mixed emotions, an adventure and plenty of twists and turns along the way. This series will be one of my favourites to read. I loved it immensely.

Thank you so much Hodderscape for sending me this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Rating: 5/5⭐️

This is definitely one of my most anticipated reads of 2023 and it didn’t left me disappointed at all! Never a Hero follows a few months after Inly a Monster and just like book one, Joan is once again thrown into the time-travel monstrous world!

Nick is still my favourite character, I just love how good he is, how despise everything he always finds his way to what’s righteous and if I could say so, he’s like a Captain UK version of Captain America! I love how Joan and Nick are soulmates and that the timeline always bring them together. Through everything, their love is stronger.

Never a Hero is filled with action, adventure, friendship and found family! Vanessa Len’s writing is still very much captivating and magical! It’s quite amazing how everything came together and how entangled all the plots were! It’s a masterpiece and I cannot wait for the next book to find out how the story ends!


Keep an eye out for my bookstagram (@maria_bookshelf), where I’ll be sharing this review closer to its release day!

Having read Only A Monster well over a year ago now, it took me a while to remember everything that had happened, but once I got going I was completely hooked. The world building is very well done as VL navigates a very complex and layered timeline, reintroducing characters we met in the first book at different times in their own stories. Joan really comes into herself in this book as she grapples to deal with the horrors of the previous timeline and attempts to navigate this new one, all while struggling to protect Nick and accept this new version or Aaron. The last few chapters were insane and that ending has me reeling, desperate to read the next book now!

After waiting in anticipation for over a year to read Never a Hero, I can confirm the wait was definitely worth it!
With unique elements of time travel and family powers, the book follows on from Joan’s adventures in Only a Monster as she navigates the reset timeline. With new enemies and returning, lovable friends, the book is full of exciting travels as Joan and the gang travel through different places and time periods. The book has such intricate world building, as well as gripping twists and turns that will have you on the edge of your seat until the the very end!

A great sequel to Only a Monster. This episode sees Joan on her new timeline, with a new mission to undertake. It was fun watching characters we already knew appearing in this new context. Joan herself remains very engaging and the story took some interesting directions. An original YA fantasy series.

3 ☆

**mild spoilers ahead**

Well, this was disappointing. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t BAD; the writing was fine and the plot was stronger than in the previous book—both more engaging and better-paced. What made it so terribly hard to enjoy is how everything in this book is about Nick, EVERYTHING. I never liked him much, but even if I had before I don’t think I would anymore now, because literally every other page we are hit with the same old song of how good he is, how handsome he is, how he reminds Joan of a True Hero™… I think I reached my limit three chapters in, but it kept going and going, to the point that I started finding even Joan unbearable. That was not MY Joan! Everything she thought and did, every decision she made was driven exclusively by what she thought Nick would have done, it was like she wasn’t even her own person anymore but just a prop to hype Nick up. (Mind you, that's the person who killed her whole family in the previous timeline.) I also found her indecisiveness quite frustrating. The way she won’t choose between monsters and humans doesn’t even feel like a moral struggle, which I would understand if it was, but more like she can’t make up her mind about who she loves more—her family or (yes, you guessed it!) Nick. Their romance keeps getting shoved down our throats, but I just don’t get it. Not only I don’t see the chemistry, but if we really think about it, in all three of the timelines we know of, everything went wrong because of them. Like, literally! Every single problem they’ve ever faced is a result of them trying to be together. How am I supposed to root for that? What I WAS rooting for was more of Joan and Aaron… I should’ve known better than to hope. Aaron Oliver, I am sorry I wasn’t your mother. Completely disregarded as a character AND a possible love interest, I understood why he wasn’t much in the first half of the novel, but I genuinely thought that once he came back there would be more of a level playing field between him and Nick, right? No, wrong. Joan had a 0.2 second realization that maybe she liked him, it took him 0.3 seconds to trust her even though he didn’t remember her, and then there was a mention of him maybe being in Joan’s life in the original timeline that was never brought up again. What was that? Just a mess.

I have, maybe unfortunately, not lost all hope about this story yet, I think it’s still salvageable. I just think that so much damage was done in this second installment character development-wise that it will take a lot of work on many aspects of it.

Thank you to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

AMAZING book 2 for this trilogy!!! I do think the world building here is a bit too complicated for my mind to wrap around (which is always the case with time travel) but apart from that I adored the book! So many exciting twists and jaw dropping revelations. Also I'll forever ship Aaron + (clueless) Joan 😭💗

Thank you to the author for the eARC on Netgalley! Can't wait for book 3 already!!!

Did I drop everything to read this book? You bet I did.

Joan starts from scratch in this new timeline but echoes of her past life keep coming up to haunt her. I adored the longing and the angst that Vanessa Len created in this second installment and I kept having to stop reading to get over my excitement every time a character that we know appeared.

I usually love time travel stories, but there’s just something about this series that makes it even better for me.
The hidden depths of the characters got me invested from the first line and the plot twists kept me going right until the ending. The world-building is absolutely amazing and I felt like I was right there with the characters, travelling in time, visiting secret markets, and learning new secrets about the monsters’ history.

Now the reason I’m not giving it a full five stars is because I wish we had seen more of Aaron. I had missed him and his relationship with Joan and felt a little disappointed that he was not more present. I want him to have all the happiness in the world and I’m a little worried about where this is going for him, especially concerning the ongoing question of a possible love triangle..

I literally can’t wait for the last book because that ending left me on the edge of my seat.