*DNF 330 PAGES* (I had less than 100 pages left. That's right.)

Honestly, were it not for the ire I had for the maligning of a historical figure, I would have probably enjoyed this quite a bit. Not because it was that good, but the writing was engaging and it was pretty fun, with a kinda Timeline (movie) vibe going for it. However...

My biggest issue was what the author decided to do with Thomas a Beckett. She made him out to be the most vile slimy, greedy, Jew-hating, nun-slapping monster. That was really bad and made me quite upset, but the final straw that made me not only a little bit sick but wanting to throw the book out the window ala Pat in Silver Linings Playbook leading to a rage-quit is when he hands over a Jewish girl to some lecherous creep and condones him raping her.

What.

The.

*blaring horn covers loud swearing*

No. Like, what un-Godly version of history is this??? Maybe, maybe, if there was an author note saying "hey, I totally changed a bunch of historical figures and here's why I decided to go that direction in my alternate history" but THERE ISN'T THAT HERE.

To add insult to injury, Eleanor is practically worshiped as this bad-ass wonderful queen who went shirtless at a battle and wow, that's so amazing and she is the golden role model for girls and guys and everyone.

Ugh.

Beyond that, Hope is a super special snowflake, but while I didn't overly care for her, that actually didn't bother me a whole lot until she lost any likability once they went to back to the past and her inner Eleanor fan-girl came out. The two characters I actually liked the most were Phoebe and her techie boyfriend Doug. They were both cute as a couple and likable on their own. Didn't care much at all for "Crayola eyes" (I am not even kidding) Raisin Bran,

The time travel aspect was kinda fun to read about, and at least tried to be buy-able, what with ley lines and Tesla's inventions and whatnot. However, I had to disappointed with how our characters acted in the past. They try (though not really) to avoid using modern language, and while I understand why the author did not actually have their dialogue in Old English, what I found frustrating is how often they A. slipped up and B. (infinitely more frustrating) it was treated like it was still normal for the time period.

Exhibit A.

"No way," I whispered incredulously, forgetting my medieval speech for a moment."

Okay, fine. Except that she has been using contractions left, right, up, and down this WHOLE time.

Uggggggh. This could have been so much more, or the very least, a passably fun ride, but the issues were too big to ignore. Actually, it was decent until they went back to the past, and then everything pretty much went to heck.

**A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

Nothing amazing or anything, but I did enjoy reading it.

**An ARC of this book was provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

This was a extremely trippy comic. Like, straight-up "what the heck is going on" trippy. To me, it kinda felt like a generic sci-fi story, but slightly more ambitious than most. You all know the ones, the ones that don't really make sense and you know it's sci-fi cause of words like "dimension", "continuum", "(universe) reset", and a whole slew of others. So while I didn't understand it, at all, it wasn't a terrible ride down Confusion Rollercoaster. But I'm not even going to bother to attempt to explain the plot. Nope.

The worst bit, to be honest, was the Professor Night story slides, just thrown in there randomly. They were jarring, and distracted me from what I thought was the main story. I still don't have any clue as to what was going on with him.

To be entirely honest, the cover is the only reason I requested this. And for that, I was not disappointed. The art was pretty dang good. I even stopped reading to stare at a few panels and take the artsy glory in; a rare occurrence with me and graphic novels. The use of color here was superb. The pop-art look was definitely in there, but mixed with something else, and the result was either exceptionally tolerable or rather pretty in places.

I did go into this with no previous knowledge of the source material, which was apparently a comic in the '90s?? (This explains so much.)

And this is rated mature?? I mean, teens, for sure, but I'm not sure it warranted a mature rating.

**An ARC of this book was provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

Full review to come in a few days...

Actually probably the best comic I've read in a long time. (Not that I've read that many.)

*DNF AT APPROXIMATELY 140 PAGES*

Maybe Christine Brodien-Jones's writing and stories just aren't my thing. I read The Owl Keeper a few years ago and was not impressed. I felt the same thing with this book. I thought the plot was better in this book than in The Owl Keeper, though this is probably due to my love of time-travel and alternate dimensions. But I did have a lot of questions concerning it. Sure, there were some explanations for things, but you know how sometimes you're left there thinking, "That doesn't actually make sense to me."? Yeah.
Our main characters, Zoe and Ian, are pretty unbelievable little buggers. Actually, most of the characters were. They sort of read like fake automatons to me.This mostly had to do with their absurd reactions to things; the exact opposite reaction of what any normal human being would do in the same situation.

Zoe & Ian: We're 11, and the owner of this tea shop has a third eye and looks suitably scary through this piece of blue glass and also we narrowly avoided her attack on us. We'll be visiting this tea shop again, I think.

Me: GAH NO WHAT ARE YOU DOING

Hands down, my favorite part of the book was the atmosphere and the setting; Tenby, a small village in Wales. And honestly, the descriptions of the village were the best written part of the book too. Oh, and I really did appreciate the friendship between the cousins. But even with that bright spot, I really don't hold out much hope for The Scorpions of Zahir.