Publication:February 24th 2015 by Tor Books
Goodreads description:
Kell is one of the last Antari, a rare magician who can travel between parallel worlds: hopping from Grey London — dirty, boring, lacking magic, and ruled by mad King George — to Red London — where life and magic are revered, and the Maresh Dynasty presides over a flourishing empire — to White London — ruled by whoever has murdered their way to the throne, where people fight to control magic, and the magic fights back — and back, but never Black London, because traveling to Black London is forbidden and no one speaks of it now.
Officially, Kell is the personal ambassador and adopted Prince of Red London, carrying the monthly correspondences between the royals of each London. Unofficially, Kell smuggles for those willing to pay for even a glimpse of a world they’ll never see, and it is this dangerous hobby that sets him up for accidental treason. Fleeing into Grey London, Kell runs afoul of Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She robs him, saves him from a dangerous enemy, then forces him to take her with him for her proper adventure.
But perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save both his London and the others, Kell and Lila will first need to stay alive — a feat trickier than they hoped.
My thoughts:
I loved A Darker Shade of Magic. It's a fantastic start to what I can tell is going to be an epic fantasy trilogy!
I loved both of the main characters Lila and Kell. I think Lila is my favourite though. She's so smart and snarky. She's definitely a force to be reckoned with. She was so much fun to read about. I really liked Kelly too though. He's just as smart and he's also very caring (I loved getting to see his relationship with his brother).
Lila and Kell's relationship is so much fun to read they have this awesome balance of bickering and bantering. I loved it!
I would like to applaud V.E. Schwab for the amazing job she did with the world building. We are given enough information to have a good understanding of the world but it was done in such a subtle way- no info dumping here!! I thought I'd be confused with all the Londons but I wasn't, Schwab did an excellent job making each one distinct and easy to tell apart for each other.
I absolutely loved learning about all the magic in this world. it was so interesting. So the magic-it's alive, almost like another character in the story. And there's blood magic- which is so interesting- elemental magic as well as Kell's Antari powers. It was just so cool. And everything was clearly thought out there's no loopholes or anything that I could think of. It all made sense!
I found the first 70 pages or so to be a but slow but I think the slow pace is good because it gives the reader a chance to learn a lot about the world and magic system before diving into the real action. Personally I didn't mind it because I found it all so fascinating.
After the slower start the plot really pick up and the story is jam packed with chase scenes and fights and travelling between parallel worlds and dark magic and its just a good time. There was so much going on I couldn't put the book down! As soon as I finished it I picked up the next book.
I'm so excited to continue on with the Shades of Magic series; I've heard the second book is even better than the first and if that's true it's going to be amazing!!
My rating: 4.5 stars
Thanks for reading,
A :)
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