Some stars aren’t meant to be followed.
For seventeen years, Ezra Newport and his parents were habitual immigrants, traveling from their Ottoman Empire home across 20th century Europe. As the Newports migrate to Belfast, Ireland, Ezra wants nothing more to settle into a consistent life and lay the foundation of his architectural dreams. But after a strange, mechanical bounty hunter murders his mother and prompts the disappearance of his father, Ezra discovers that his parents had actually been on the run. Now, their enemies are targeting him, and they won’t stop until he is dead.
In a moment of desperation, Ezra’s fate collides with the Third Order of the Magi, a secret society dedicated to using their supernatural powers to protect their communities. With increasing violence around the world, the Magi are fairly certain they know who’s behind the attacks on Ezra and his family since the same group could also be threatening their own existence.
Both Ezra and the Magi’s survival hinges on knowledge only Ezra’s father has and the key to saving them could be buried within history itself. In a race across continents and time, both Ezra and the Magi must secure an ancient Babylonian artifact before hell is unleashed on the world. And, against all odds, Ezra must decide where his allegiances truly lie, despite what is written in the stars.
Genres: Fantasy, Historical, New Adult, Young Adult
MY THOUGHTS!
Ezra Newport is on a train bound for Belfast with his parents when his life is turned upside-down. The arrival of a mechanical person, telling him to ‘follow and obey’ by the Order of Babylon, takes his mother’s life, and Ezra only barely survives when the train goes up in smoke. With his mother dead, and his father missing, he is sent to a boarding school in Belfast, where he has to work to pay his way keep.
When Jonas van Der Campe wakes up, having had a dream he was Ezra, and seeing Ezra's mother die on the train through Ezra's eyes, he knows that Ezra must need his help – why else would he have such a clear insight into Ezra’s mind? And yet, the Magi Administration of Third Order of the Magi tells him that he must not intervene, that they have people looking after him already. When Ezra is attacked again, Jonas cannot simply sit by and let him die, and he takes those under his supervision as head of the Ireland branch of the Magi to save Ezra.
Ezra’s fate may lie in the stars, but learning that he may be a part of the Magi community, that he might hold magical powers within him, is something he cannot quite accept. If that is so, it would mean his parents had been lying to him his entire life. Besides, as much as Jonas might want to keep him as protected as possible, the Third Order of the Magi specifically told him not to interfere, and he is already walking on thin ice with them as it is.
There is a wide variety of characters in this novel, most of which you cannot help but fall in love with. In particular, I loved Jonas and Diego, two members of the Ireland branch. Ezra may be the main character, but I found myself wanting to spend more time with Jonas and Diego than I did with him. It is nothing against him as a character, but the other two tended to know more about what was happening, and Ezra was simply trying to come to terms with all that had happened to him in recent events.
Diego has an interesting Gift, the ability to travel through time and view events of the past as if he lived them, and his using his powers to help the police solve cases was something I found incredibly interesting. His relationship with Jonas is something I read about with rapt attention, wanting to know more about why Diego is now with a secretary, rather than with Jonas. Jonas’ responsibilities as head of the branch keep him tied up in work, and he spends a lot of his time hindered by the Magi Administration, trying to push how far he can go to do the right thing before they get involved and he gets into more trouble than he already is in.
This book is not without its bad guys – the Order of Babylon has always been against the Third Order of the Magi. A case that Diego is working on brings up the idea that they might be coming back, and indeed Ezra’s run-ins with the Order’s mechanical soldiers prove that he is someone the Order wants. There are mysteries behind certain events that unfold, things that make you start to wonder just what is going on, and what the relevance of some information is – that is until the relevance is revealed and things start to slot themselves together.
The era this book is set in, the early 20th century, is not completely at the forefront of this novel, but some aspects are there to remind you that this book is not set in the modern-day, apart from simply the lack of modern technology. Some relationships are more than frowned upon, and people are treated differently because of their nationalities. There are aspects of ancient history mixed in, as well, as the characters try to figure out what is happening, and it was interesting to read these scenes, as the characters recounted legends.
This is the kind of book that, once you pick it up and get stuck in, it is difficult to put it down again. I wasn’t aware, on reading this book, that it was the beginning of a series, and the ending completely threw me. There is a twist so big, and so unexpected, only foresight would be able to see it coming. I missed the world as soon as I had finished reading and immediately wanted to read on. If you want a mixture of magic, history, finding a family among new friends, and complicated relationship troubles, this is certainly the book for you!
Since the early age of 6, Kale Lawrence knew she either wanted to be an astronaut or an author.
Obviously, the astronaut gig didn’t work out, so instead, Kale turned to fantastic fictional worlds. When Kale is not writing creatively, she works as a Marketing Manager at a pet product company, and pretends she’s an Olympic swimmer at the gym. She has also served as a board member for the South Dakota Writes organization.
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