i really enjoyed reading this book, the characters were great and I really enjoyed the previous book. I hope there is more from the author and the series.

Dr. Zhivago meets the X-Men. A Company Of Monsters is both historical fiction and magical fantasy. It’s not an alternate history as it takes a real timeline and adds in a new element, sorcery. It’s World War I, specifically 1917, and on the Eastern Front, it’s the last stand of the Romanovs. Deprivation suffered by a war-weary populace who sustained heavy losses has turned them against the Tsar and into the hands of Lenin and Trotsky. As the world bleeds in seemingly endless war, Russia is devolving into revolution.

But, this war is not merely fought with bullets and poison ☠️ gases. Each side has noble houses of sorcerers, each with their own unique powers. And they do battle, magic power against magic power. The Ethereal Squadron is the Allies’ group of superheroes sent behind enemy lines to complete desperate missions. Here, they are sent into Russia to rescue the Houses of sorcerers there before the Axis Powers can reach them.

Even with the element of sorcery, the writing creates a believable world and consistently maintains the sorcerers in character. A rather unusual read, but quite fascinating nonetheless.

I didn't realize this was the second book in a series when I requested it, but I was able to pick up the thread of the story quite easily. I would probably recommend going back to start with the first book because while the story makes sense and the author provides enough background that everything makes sense, I think I probably missed out on some of the character development from the first to second books.
It's World War I before the US has entered the conflict in an alternate reality where sorcery is real and wielded by a small group of people with specialized magic bloodlines. The Germans and Austro-Hungarians have figured out how to steal magics from other bloodlines using nerve gas and draining the victims' blood and have set out to harvest the bloodlines of the Russian sorcerous families. Enter the Etheral Squadron, a group of sorcerous soldiers working for the Allied powers. They are tasked with entering Russia and repatriating some of the more obscure bloodlines to prevent the powers from falling into the Germans' hands.
The leader of the company sent to Russia is Geist, a German woman who fled Germany for America and came back to fight the evils that the Kaiser was bringing to bear. Her ragtag group of operatives use their powers together to fight the crack squad of the Eyes of the Kaiser as they have a showdown in Russia. With the backdrop of the Russian Revolution to make things interesting, the story involves meetings between the two teams, betrayals and spies that show up at the worst times.
I liked it, but didn't love it. I think if I had read the first book I would have been more invested in the characters, but it didn't detract from the story as a whole. I would recommend it for anyone into alt history and WWI.

DNF at 31%. I tried but I just couldn't get into it. If things change in the future, I'll write the review. For now, I call it quits.