I received this through as a First Reads winner through Goodreads.

This took me too long to read. It started out strong-Saira is a sassy, smart, independent 17-year-old teenager, fond of tagging and parkour. One day she inadvertently discovers that she can travel through time. It gets a little heavy-handed from there on out. There are vampires and werewolves (natch), war mongers (this part reminded me of Percy Jackson, in a really strange way. There is absolutely no similarity in writing style), other shapeshifters, people who can see into the future. And Jack the Ripper. Perhaps the book is overly rich in confusing characters (and so many different layers of mythology and history!) simply because it's the first in a series. Frankly, I hope so, as wading through all those people and their different skills became tedious at times. Hence, the length of time it took me to finish the book.

However, I did enjoy the vast majority of the book. Though it seemed like 80% of it was exposition, I'm not sure it was handled that poorly. Saira herself was an especially interesting character (would it have been worse in 3rd person narrative? Not sure about that), even though there was a little bit of that worn out teen fiction trope of "The Chosen One."

Overall, I'd say the book is entertaining, though it could have used some heavier editing. I will probably continue with the series, with hopes that some of those extraneous details get cut.