The MCs and side characters were great. Dom has to be one of my new favourite leads now. He was so likeable, sweet at the right times and fierce at others. I'm still unsure who's meant to be his love interest - between Kempthorne and Hollywood, they are so vastly different (and neither deserve him, but they're growing on me). Some of the novel is told from Cat's point of view and then it switches to Marwood. However, there isn't much of a gap, so at times I got confused as to who was narrating. Not all of it is set in London, with the story moving up to Euston (not the London one based on the distance) and the Newmarket area.

At least he doesn’t have to time travel anymore. That’s what he thinks until one William P Brown turns up at Bridgeman Antiques, knowing way more about him and Amy than anyone should, offering to train him, to hone his time-travelling and psychometry skills. No thank you!! Andrew Taylor offers us a completely convincing portrait of life in the city and at court in Restoration London. An absolute delight in a series that goes from strength to strength.” - S.G. McLean, prize-winning author of the Seeker series Latent are humans with special/magical abilities. Artifacts are objects that hold a kind of magical charge (psychic burn) due to traumatic events linked to them: a knife used to kill someone could become a powerful artifact, a doll belonging to an abused child, etc. The more horrific the event, the more powerful and dangerous the artifact is. If a latent gets his hands on an artifact, they can use it to amplify their own power, and they can also use it as a weapon. The strongest artifacts are like beacons for latents, it’s calling them and it is very hard for a latent to resist the call of a strong artifact. If a latent gets its hands on one of the strongest artifacts, the pull is often too strong, the latent loses control and it results in an explosion of power, killing the latent and destroying everything in the direct vicinity. All the book is from Dom’s perspective. Not gonna lie, I’m intrigued by Hollywood and Kempthorne’s POV. Especially the latter. But, due to Dom’s obliviousness I get why we can only see what he’s thinking. The world-building and the plot is amazing. Like it's Ariana Nash, what do you expect? ;) As is the narration style.Yeah—I should have hated him. For multiple reasons. One of those being he was as hot as sin and had shown no signs of being interested in men, or women. Anything with a heartbeat hardly registered on Kempthorne’s radar, but give him an artifact to riddle out and he was in love. He was so far out of my league, we were on different continents. But none of that mattered anyway because posh guys weren’t my type. For the first quarter of the Shadows of London I was adrift, not really enjoying all the people and gruesome events. It all seemed to chop and change. The thread, if it was there, was tangled but not in an enticing way like most thrillers. Then it improved, the stakes became clearer, the confusion dwindled, and a really exciting historical tale unfolded. Twisted Pretty Things is a magical, urban fantasy mystery, set on the streets and in the shadows of London.

The whole dynamic between the latent and the rest of the population reminded me of the X-men movies a little bit. Latents are supposed to get registered and tested every year to make sure that they are still stable and pose no threats, but the general population is afraid of them and even despises them. As with the other books in the series, Andrew Taylor does an absoutely superb job of weaving together fact and fiction, skilfully incorporating a number of actual historical figures and events into his original story. Here, he adds a third narrator to the mix; in addition to Cat and Marwood, we also hear from a young Frenchwoman named Louise de Kéroualle, who has been brought to England by the French Ambassador, with the specific intention of making her the mistress of King Charles II. Louise is widely regarded these days as a gold-digger, but as the author points out in his note at the end, while that may have been the case, that doesn’t preclude her having been a victim; she was young and vulnerable and basically manouevered into her ‘position’ by the French, who want her to act as their spy, “ a pliant girl who will do what they tell her in the interestes of France. Someone to whisper in his [Charles’] ear whatever they want to say”. In a London that's littered with dangerous, magical artifacts, and latents who can use them to boost their own magical powers, tensions run high, and someone is pulling the strings behind the scenes. Someone or some thing is lurking in the shadows... and has Dom in their sights. What intrigued me the most was Olivia's ramble about the lurking shadow, the coin Kempthrone seems to horde like that was what made him Midas and Alexander Kempthorne, the man, himself. I would love to see more of this guy's past. The things he seems to derive joy from are... well questionable for a ruch guy with too many houses and toys to play with. Also I'm hoping something goes down between Dom and Alex because their chemistry?🤯 I couldn't carve it out with a knife if I tried. :3 It’s a little disconcerting living in this version of his future, stepping into what he calls “Other Joe’s life”, where he’s having to fake amnesia to cover for the fact that he knows virtually nothing about himself. He is almost suffering a form of survivor guilt. The worst thing is that his budding relationship with hypnotherapist Alexia Finch isn’t. He is dismayed to learn what Other Joe has been up to…This is a brilliant, absorbing series which entertains and informs and is highly successful with a growing readership. His little sister is now an adult, (about 30 years old) and the Other Joe she grew up with no longer exists. This other version of Joe lived a life of privilege, had plenty of girlfriends, was in the commercial properties business with his father, owned an upscale antique shop and lived in a fancy apartment above the shop, equipped with all the amenities, a terrace, Jacuzzi and all. Gone are the life time of memories Other Joe had made between the summer of 1997 and January 2020. In a thrilling twist, Joe discovers that the victim is critically important to the future and what starts out as a straightforward mission soon becomes a race to unravel a mystery—one that threatens the very timeline he fought so hard to protect. Joe must dig deeper than ever, master his newfound skills, and save the woman before the past catches up with him for good. As always after the main text, Andrew Taylor provides details about the historical figures and events that informed the novel. I was somewhat familiar with Louise de Keroualle from Anthony Capella’s ‘The Empress of Ice Cream’ and it was interesting to see her story told from a different perspective. Travels to the past drive the plot, but it's the complexity of the present that makes this book worth spending time with.

The first part of this didn't go smoothly for me *for reasons* but also because it just felt chaotic. The world building by AN is normally outstanding but here there was a lot I didn't understand, and it had me questioning instead of settling into the story. Honestly, that might have just been because I was so damn cranky but I genuinely stayed distracted by the things I didn't get. This was possibly because Dom himself was confused by a lot for much of the story. This is one story with rapidly recurring bouts of violence where the victim actually feels the violence and has to recover before he can carry on. It's difficult to explain to your noble employer that you didn't make it in to the office because you were beaten unconscious in the street the night before. Somehow they don't seem to want to hear about it and when you do make it in there are inevitable raised eyebrows over the bruises, scars, and torn garments. I guess he wasn't done traveling yet. But, who is W.P. Brown and why does he need Joe to solve the mystery of 1962? This was so GOOD!! I had no idea what to expect when I started reading this, I don't think I've read a book with a similar setting. But wow, this book dELIVERD! The magic is so interesting and the mystery around the latents and their origin is so well done, you just want more more more. The characters are amazing, I love them all. Dom is lovely, his relationship with everyone at Kempthorne & Co is nice which makes it fun to read. I can't wait to learn more about Hollywood and Kempthorne! Those two were my favourite. I loved Dom's dynamic with Hollywood! I'm so excited to see what Nash has in store for them in the second book! ☆The murder mystery is complicated first of all because the victim had no face, and nothing by which he could be identified. Both the characters and the settings are well described and the mixture of fact and fiction works well. It is fast paced, full of action and intrigue. The narrative is told from both Cat’s and James’s viewpoints switching from one to the other throughout the book. Their relationship continues to develop as they work together to find the culprit and it reaches a turning point in this book. I hope that there will be a 7th book as I really want to know what happens next … Anything with a heartbeat hardly registered on Kempthorne's radar, but give him an artifact to riddle out and he was in love". Late 16th century London was one of the literary peaks in the capital's history; an era which saw Shakespeare and many of the greatest English Renaissance writers at the height of their fame and accomplishment. But some of these authors were said to have an additional form of connection than just their profession. Many notable figures, including Christopher Marlowe and Walter Raleigh, were rumoured to be members of The School of Night, an underground society whose work allegedly included explorations of alchemy, as well as the discussion of atheism. At the time, the expression of atheist beliefs was not only illegal; people were burned at the stake for it. Mr. Jones' characters are well developed and we learn more about the delightful Vinnie in this book. The book seemed faster paced than the first one and the setting of the time travel was the 1960's. Since I was in high school and college in the '60's I really enjoyed that. Balancing the changes in Joseph's life due to his time travel in the first book with the urgency of his mission in the '60's brought a good tension to the flow of the book and really kept my interest. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and the resolution to the task Joseph needed to do was quite satisfying. I look forward to the next book in this marvelous series. Later, when W.P. Brown pops in again, he explains the radio was a stolen focus object planted by parties unknown. The mission to 1960s London had already been assigned to a professional time traveler, but someone left the radio where Joe-the-amateur would touch it and become unalterably connected to the change event of saving Lucy. Why, because Joe was more likely to fail? These change events are opportunities to put things right when they've gone wrong. Joe has to save Lucy, so she can raise and influence her son Gus, who'll go on to accomplish things of critical importance to the future.