Book 1 of the Shades of Magic series
Summary
Kell is a magician. He was born and raised in a magical place known to him as Red London. Why does he call it Red London, you may ask? Because it is one of four different Londons that Kell can travel to. There is Grey London, White London, Red London, and the mythical Black London that Kell has only heard stories about. Kell is one of the last magicians that travel between the Londons and he's known his whole life that no one goes to Black London anymore. Ever.
While on an assignment, Kell comes across a forbidden token from Black London that, for all anybody knows, should be nonexistent. After discovering the token, Kell goes through Grey London and stumbles upon one of the inhabitants, a pickpocket that's known as Delilah Bard.
Delilah Bard has dreams. Dreams to get out of London and explore the world. When she steals from a mysterious, apparently magical, man named Kell, her fate is intertwined with his whether he likes it or not. Kell takes her to the magical Red London and they face many challenges in their quest to get the Black London token back to its rightful place, Black London itself.
Will the two travelers be able to make it all the way to Black London while getting past the cold-hearted, power-hungry rulers of White London? Will they even be able to make it back even if they succeed?
Opinion
Scale of 1-10:
8
When I started reading this I was just really drawn into the world. The way the author made the whole story flow in a way that was smooth and easy to read was so amazing! I also loved the dialogue between the two main characters and the way they interacted. They definitely had such chemistry as characters.
The reason I didn't give this a higher score is because it didn't just give me that "wow" feeling as I was reading it. I feel like that's a huge aspect needed for me in a book. Don't get me wrong, it definitely had my attention throughout the whole thing but I wasn't just absolutely starstruck by the events of the books. I have a huge feeling that, given this is only the first book, the next two books will probably be filled with those "wow" moments. I feel like the author was setting up some pretty awesome twists in this book for the later books...
Despite all that, I actually felt really just relaxed reading this book. I don't know what it was about the world that V.E. Schwab created, but I just really loved it. I loved the people that you met in the story, even if they weren't the main characters. Kell's relationship with his brother Rhy was probably my favorite out of everything because Rhy is just so amazing in the parts of the book he was in.
I think that this book is the start of something amazing in a series and I'm definitely excited to read the rest!
Age Rating
13+
The only things in this book are the occasional language and a couple of sexual references.
Language:
Language isn't a huge thing in this book and is only said here and there but the only reason it's bad is because of the variety of words used. The words used are "piss", "hell", "damn", "f**k", "bastard", and "s**t". Again the cursing isn't a constant thing but it's still present throughout the whole story.
Sexual Content:
There isn't actually a lot of sexual content. There's one scene with heavy petting but it stops after a while, making it obvious that nothing else happened after that. There's also a situation at the beginning where a man attempts to rape the main character, Delilah Bard but she ends up killing him in self-defense. This scene isn't mentioned at all for the rest of the book. Then there are a couple of brief kisses and that's it.
Violence:
There's quite a bit of violence in this. People get stabbed and impaled with things like poles and swords. There's some description but it wasn't insanely graphic. There's a lot of fighting where the things previously mentioned take place and it's a major part of the book. It's about as much violence as you'd expect in your average fantasy adventure book.
Here's the link to the book on Goodreads:
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