Title: A Darker Shade of Magic
By: V.E. Schwab
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 400
Release Date: February 24th, 2015
Rating: ★★★★★
Summary from Goodreads:
Kell is one of the last travelers—magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel universes, connected by one magical city.
There's Grey London, dirty and boring, without any magic, and with one mad king—George III. Red London, where life and magic are revered—and where Kell was raised alongside Rhys Maresh, the rougish heir to a flourishing empire. White London—a place where people fight to control magic and the magic fights back, draining the city to its very bones. And once upon a time, there was Black London. But no one speaks of that now.
Officially, Kell is the Red Traveler, ambassador of the Maresh empire, carrying the monthly correspondences between the royals of each London. 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.
Fleeing into Grey London, Kell runs into Delilah Bard, a cutpurse 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.
Review:
I absolutely loved this book. It was just pure, immersive fun from start to finish. Schwab’s multiverse of parallel Londons is as clever as it is captivating, and the magic system is both elegant and wildly entertaining. Kell’s quiet power, Lila’s chaotic charm, and the fast-paced, high stakes adventure made this an effortless page turner. Every chapter felt like stepping through a different door into a richer world, and I never wanted to step back out. An absolute delight of a fantasy read.
