A Darker Shade of Magic
Shades of Magic #1
Fantasy
Tor Books
February 24, 2015
Paperback
398 pages
Kell is one of the last Antari—magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black.
Kell was raised in Arnes—Red London—and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see.
Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they'll never see. It's a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand.
After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.
Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they'll first need to stay alive.
Magic, adventures, friendship – this is to sum up my journey while reading A darker shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab. At first, I am the person who sometimes doesn’t read the synopsis of the book. I read a book sometimes because of the cover (Oh don’t blame me), if my friends like it, and sometimes from my trusted reviewers and my instincts sometimes. I dived into this book without knowing what this would be all about. It’s exciting and terrifying at the same time.
At first, my mind thinks these thoughts while reading the first percentage of the book:
“I don’t know what it would be all about?”
“I don’t get it.”
“Is this worth it?”
Until, I slowly begin to love Kell and Lila in the story, the two characters that were unique in their own ways.
The story seems like you wouldn’t know why or what was the purpose of it, to be honest. But I can’t believe that I liked it in the end because the story finally finds its purpose. To be honest, a second book or a sequel doesn’t really need. It was better for them to have a separate way even though I loved them together.
Their characters were more lovable than the story itself, and I became curious about the king and queen of White London, and I want to have a separate story for them. Why I love the characters more? Because it feels like they have their own story inside a story. Addicting characters and likable story. And I am excited about their next adventure.
