🍂My review!
Unfortunately I wasn’t a big fan of this book! I was expecting a book filled with monsters, as the title would suggest, however that’s not what I got!
The characters in this I felt were very one dimensional with Joan, who was a really aggravating MC, as she is supposed to have no knowledge of her families hidden life and powers but yet she acts like she knows best.
The story itself was weak with plot holes and convenient resolutions. It also had a tell don’t show approach to any world building which was quite lacking in the end. The romantic subplot was also too rushed and not very believable.
The writing style was ok and I could definitely see potential.
I liked the magic system in which to travel through time you had to take time from others but I think it would have been better if we had some characters that were more brutal with it. I felt like the majority of the ‘monsters’ were not so bad and the Hunters were actually the real monsters in the end 🤷🏻‍♀️.
So yeah this just wasn’t for me at all and I unfortunately had to give this one 2⭐️.

Book Review: ****/5

I have had this book sitting on my NetGalley TBR list for months now and finally decided to pick it up when one of my online book clubs decided to read it for their April book. I went in completely blind thinking this was just another monster fiction book. I was surprised when it had time travel in it as well.

Sixteen year old Joan has a crush on her coworker and is excited to go on a date with him finally. However, things don't go as planned when an elderly neighbor with dementia has an episode she wakes up to find that her day is completely gone. She soon learns that her life is not as simple as she believes. She is a monster and her family has special powers. When she goes to find Nick to explain why she missed their date she discovers that he is not who she thought he was and he will do anything to kill all monsters. In order to save her family she has to team with an unlikely ally.

I liked the unique magic system in this book. I did find that the world building was slightly lacking. I was looking for there to be a little more romance in this book because that's what I felt was advertised. I found the ending to tie things up well with no cliff hangers but I'm interested to see what the next two books will contain because I felt like the story was complete.

Only a Monster is a thrilling YA read full
of adventure and romance! I cannot get
over the ending!!! An absolute epic
conclusion! I am dying to get my hands
on the next book!! A symphony played
in my head as I read the ending and I
loved it!! I absolutely adored the
fantasy world that Vanessa has created
and the imagery connected to it!! The
character arc is top notch and I have
nothing but praises!! One of my
favourite reads of 2022 so far!!

I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!! 5 ⭐️ All the way!

What I loved
-The twists and turns! This book wasted no time getting to the plot and the stakes were high from the first few chapters.
-The characters! Joan was a delight, you feel for everything she is going through. Aaron was a great enemy to friend. Tom was an unlikely favorite of mine 🏳️‍🌈
-Time travel and very cool powers. The family systems and history were compelling—always wanted to hear more!
-Setting was wonderful—could picture all the places perfectly as they were described.
-The twist on hero vs monster was so clever.

I’m so glad this book will be a trilogy! There’s so many places this could go—looking forward to reading more ❤️

Thank you to the publisher & NetGalley for the ARC!

This story drew me in quickly and held my attention throughout. The story has a unique concept featuring star-crossed lovers which I really like. Only A Monster is the first book in a new trilogy - and I am already waiting for the next in the series! The characters are great and I look forward to reading more about their adventures.

This book was interesting, the concept of telling the story from the monsters' point of view really drew me in and felt unique and different. However, I felt like this book missed the mark a little for me.

The book follows Joan, a biracial teen spending the summer with her family in London. The summer starts off promising with family fun, a cool job, and a sweet romance with a cute coworker. Unfortunately, all that is short-lived when Joan discovers her family members are monsters, and the cute coworker is a famed monster hunter. Uh-oh. Joan is immediately forced to go on the run with the son of a rival monster family trying to fix her future mistakes because monsters aren't monsters in the traditional sense. Instead, they're time travelers who are only able to move through time by stealing time from humans' lifespans. Also, each monster family has its own separate gift to go along with the time-traveling ability.

I did enjoy this book and it was definitely a quick read because I wanted to know what was going to happen with Joan and her friends/family. I felt like the ending was a little abrupt and while I know this is the first book in a planned trilogy it felt like there needed a little bit more explanation or more from the characters before the book ended. I don't want to spoil anything but there were definitely some questions that I felt needed to be answered in this book even knowing there will be two more books in the series. I also didn't fully believe in the romance aspect but am willing to see where it goes in the next book. I will definitely pick up the next book in the series because I'm invested now I just hope we get some more info on the monster world and Joan herself.

I was provided a free copy of this book through NetGalley.

I’m not sure why I this was historical fantasy! The contemporary gothic twist was very fun and I’ve been recommending to everyone!

Absolutely floored by this book! Let me tell you this, Vanessa Len can spin a yarn and build a world like the best of them. I'm in awe at this exciting, well told book. Cannot wait for the next one!!!

While I was interested in the premise of this books (and who doesn't love a good enemies-to-lovers story with a badass heroine), Only a Monster was...a little too much for me. Too psychologically dark for me.

This was just okay for me! Nothing really stood out to make this something special for my tastes. I also don’t personally love time travel, so maybe that’s just me. I do not think I’ll be reading the next two in the series.

Thank you for the arc in exchange for a review!

“You’re a hero and I’m a monster,” she whispered. “There’s only one way that story ever ends.”
Joan Chang-Hunt wants nothing more than an enjoyable summer in London with her mother’s slightly peculiar family. However, her vacation takes a remarkable turn when she discovers that a dangerous magic is passed down through her family: a family of monsters. Suddenly her summer has become a whirlwind of danger and adventure because her closest relatives are not who she thought they were. And her adorable crush from work? He’s a famous monster hunter. Joan must team with the devastatingly handsome and shockingly ruthless Aaron Oliver, a member of a rival monster family. If she wants to save the people she loves, Joan will have to learn to use her powers and come to terms with who she is, while trying to discover if she’s the hero or the villain of her own story.

Vanessa Len has created a book of ill-fated romance, captivating characters, and thrilling time travel adventures. Only A Monster is a novel that I can’t stop thinking about, even long after reading it. Vanessa Len’s debut is a sparkling addition to the YA genre. She has brought to life a magical underground world that coexists within London. Only A Monster follows a group of characters that are objectively villains, and Len does not try to erase that truth. She does an amazing job of humanizing those characters without excusing their destructive behavior. The main character is an absorbing and complicated heroine; her characterization as a monster protagonist makes Joan someone that I was fascinated by. Joan struggles with who she wants to be and who she must be in order to save the people she loves. The moral complexities and questions of good vs. evil that Vanessa Len weaves through her debut make this novel one that will be enjoyed by teens and adult readers.

(Pine Reads Review would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing us with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Any quotes are taken from an advanced copy and may be subject to change upon final publication.)

PRR Editor and Writer Frances Drye

I did not want to put this book down. I loved that the time travel was easy to follow but also contained its own twists. The story of monsters to heroes turned on its head kept me guessing throughout the book. I also loved the hint of romance and can't wait to see where it goes in the rest of the books. I loved this book so much and can't wait for the rest of the series.

I'm only giving up that forth star because I can't come up with a good reason not to. The reading experience was above average and, while there were a couple of offputtingly juvenile references, she managed to deal with moving in time in a novel, if not particularly sophisticated, way.

Joan is a monster. Her family is monsters. They can travel through time, by stealing it from humans. She has a crush on her cute coworker Nick, who, turns out is actually a ruthless monster hunter.
This novel is honestly so much fun (?). That word doesn't feel quite right because it's dark, it's cold, it's bloody.
My favorite thing about this books is how quickly the action starts, we are learning right along with the characters all the nuances of the world, but not in a 'you're a wizard Harry, here's all the information you'll need about this world in the first 4 chapters' kind of way. We are fighting, learning who to trust, and unraveling the information as we go through each time jump.
This romance aspect added an extra element to the story overall and I'm so excited to continue on with this series!

Thank you, NetGalley for the opportunity to read this one as an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Vanessa Len did a fantastic job on her debut novel "Only a Monster". This story was rich in uniqueness and originality and provided a wonderful reading experience. I loved the structure of the time travel concept, which had the possibility to be very confusing but wasn't at all. Len took careful steps to ensure smooth transitions from conceptualization to written content. (sorry for the heavy explanation-- I'm a tech writer. lol!) The thing that I truly appreciated was that the intrigue of the story was not lost in trying to explain how time travel works. I enjoyed these characters and would recommend this book to others.

The only thing that I (personally) would have liked more of is romance ;) But I know this is purely a personal preference. :)

ONLY A MONSTER has a nostalgic but also completely refreshing vibe! The love of history and the exciting new world blend in a way that ushers in a new and exciting contemporary fantasy world. With all the twists of time travel, I can tell that ONLY A MONSTER is just the beginning of what's sure to be a series as exciting as Shadowhunters and other books about teens navigating a magical secret side of to their city.

The writing is pretty good, and the premise is fantastic. It just didn’t feel fully fleshed out.

There was no character development, though and I am a character driven reader, and so this bothered me to no end.

WOW WOW WOW. How is this book so good?? ONLY A MONSTER is a fabulous ride of a story—I devoured it in a matter of hours and was woozy after, but it was sooo worth it. Monster stories rank pretty high on my list, and this book tops the charts. The novel is fast-paced, with a time travel element (!!!), a mysterious horror-esque twist on our world, and features whole families of monsters with secret abilities. The MC, sixteen-year-old Joan, learns she is one of those monsters when she accidently blacks out after touching a man, waking up many hours later not knowing what happened. It is revealed that her family is one of the monster families, each with a unique monster-attribute of their own. In Joan’s family’s case, their ability allows them to steal slivers of life from people in order to time-travel to other eras. Joan, understandably, freaks out. Oh, and did I mention there are also MONSTER HUNTERS? And, naturally, Joan’s love interest happens to be one. Monsters falling in love with their hunters and vice versa—what could be more challenging, tense, and fun, while also heartbreaking and doomed to fail? There was so much to love about this book and I cannot WAIT to read the next one in the series. I will be hyping it up to friends, family, and strangers on the street, and will (not-so-patiently) wait for the next installment!

Ok, so I liked the story. I liked the banter - I liked that it wasn't exactly a romance. I thought Joan was annoying though tbh. Idk what it was about her - but a lot of the time I couldn't stand her. Definitely interested to see if she grows as a character and what the next part holds.

Review posted on Goodreads (March 26, 2022)
Review linked.

4/5 stars!

A huge thank you to HarperTeen and NetGalley for sending me an E-ARC of this book for an honest review.

I was genuinely surprised by this book. I don’t usually love books that are centered around time travel, so even though this book did have amazing reviews, I was still a bit hesitant. But oh my gosh, I loved this book. This was such a fun, fast paced, enjoyable read for me. I have been in a bit of a YA Fantasy reading slump, and this book helped me get out of it! The world building and character building in this book was amazing and I cannot wait to read more from this author.

Even though I did love this book, I did have some things that I didn’t love—primarily being the romance plot that was in this book. I was genuinely confused by who the main character was interested in. The romance between Joan and Nick felt very forced (I am not sure if it was meant to feel forced? To be honest, I thought that most of the book we were supposed to be against Nick and that Joan was not in love with him, and then all of a sudden she was saying she was in love with him and I got very confused…) as well as feeling way too insta-lovey for my liking. I much preferred her romance with Aaron and I genuinely hope that is the direction that the author decides to go with in the next book in the series. We shall see!

I will be picking up the next book in this series! I really cannot wait!

Thanks for reading!
Caden