Only a Monster was one of my favorite reads of 2022 and such a pleasant surprise. The sequel, Never a Hero was a favorite in 2023 and this August we finally get the final book in the Monsters series; Once a Villain. I was lucky enough to get an eARC and I obviously read it as soon as I could. Today I wanted to share my thoughts with you all, so let’s jump in!
Since this is book 3 in a series, there will be some minor spoilers for book 1 & 2.
The finale in the contemporary fantasy Only a Monster trilogy from Vanessa Len—which New York Times bestselling authors Holly Black, Chloe Gong, and Stephanie Garber called “delightful,” “captivating,” and “unputdownable”—will take Joan into the darkest timeline in the monster world, as she fights to restore the world she remembers.
Joan has failed to stop Eleanor.
Now, Eleanor rules over a cruel new timeline where monsters live openly among humans, preying on them and subjugating them.
Nick – once a hero to humans, and Joan’s first love – is tormented by the choice he made to save her over the timeline itself. And Aaron – the ruthless heir to a powerful monster family – now finds himself a world where monsters have power beyond imagining, while his feelings for Joan grow.
But, wrenched between love and rivalry, the three of them must negotiate their fractured pasts to survive the new world and restore what was lost. Because only they remember that there was once a better timeline.
To save the world they love, they’ll have to outmaneuver an all-seeing queen who controls time itself. Lethal consequences await any failure in this final breathless race against time.
The unstoppable love and high stakes of Divine Rivals meets the intricate worldbuilding and propulsive thrills of This Savage Song in this high-octane, cross-genre finale to the Only a Monster trilogy—where a breathless race against time and an all-knowing enemy is the only chance for Joan, Aaron, and Nick to restore the world they love.
As I said before, I really love this series and I was looking forward to this release for the last 2 years. I was so happy to get an eARC and I dived in as soon as I was able to! After the second book I was hoping for a couple of things in this finale. As a big Aaron lover I was really hoping for Joan and Aaron to end up together. Obviously I wanted the timeline to be restored, but I also hoped for a form of time travel that wouldn’t hurt humans. And I needed all of my favorite characters to make it out alive haha.
I won’t spoil which of these did or didn’t happen, but I will say I’m a bit conflicted about my feelings on this book haha. This for sure isn’t an easy review for me to write. I was hoping to love the book as much as I did the first two, but that wasn’t completely the case. While I did still really enjoy the book, it had some elements I didn’t like. There are a couple tropes used that I actually hate haha. But I did love reading about these characters and this world and I did like the overall story. In the end I balanced it all out to a 4 star read.
Like I said, I loved reading about these characters again. Aaron is my favorite by far, but the rest was pretty great too. The book also had some twists I didn’t see coming and I really appreciate that in a story. I’m okay with the ending, I didn’t fully love it and it had one element I hate, but I also don’t know what the ending could be like for me to fully love it to be honest haha. Maybe this story was just too complicated to get a perfect ending haha. Overall I still really like this series and I’m excited to see what Vanessa Len writes next!
