Book 2 of the Shades of Magic series
Note: It may contain spoilers to previous books in the series
Summary
It's been four months since Kell and Lila saved London. Four months since they save Kell's brother, Prince Rhy. It's been four months since Lila left Kell in London to adventure this magical version of London she was so unfamiliar with but desperate to learn about. He did, of course, let her go. Just because he brought her to this world didn't mean that he had to keep her with him... no matter how much he wanted her to stay.
So Delilah Bard set off on the sea with a certain Captain Alucard Emery, privateer for the kingdom that Lila had just departed from. For months, Lila trained in magic with the captain, and in return, she was the best thief he had. It wasn't until the Assen Tasch or the Elemental Games, commenced in the kingdom, that they came home.
Meanwhile, Kell deals with being treated as an outsider in his own family after the events that transpired months prior. He may have saved Rhy's life, but he also put it in danger in the first place. At least that's what the king and queen felt like. Now he must deal with not only that but the magical connection between him and Rhy. This means that one of them feels everything (pain, emotional stress, etc.) the other feels.
As everyone gathers for the Games, more troubles arise. Lila starts trouble, Kell disobeys, and Rhy creates reckless plans. So in the last four months, nothing whatsoever has changed for them! Now there are more secrets to uncover... and more enemies...
Opinion
Scale of 1-10:
8
I don't feel that I summarized that book well above so if you want a better summary, make sure to check out the link to the book below! Anyway, I'm going to start off by saying that this was an enjoyable book, minus a few complaints that I have, and I'm REALLY wanting to see what happens. All I'm going to say is that V.E. Schwab ended this in a MAJOR cliffhanger!!!
I think I'll start off with the things I didn't enjoy about this book. I feel that it was unnecessarily slow-moving. While I really appreciate some of the character development with Rhy's character and Alucard Emery's character, I just kind of got a little bored. It wasn't until the middle of the book that I feel things started picking up and I was starting to get invested in the stories. Other than that, I did enjoy the book as a whole.
One thing I think the author just did phenomenally, made me feel the emotions that the characters were feeling. When they were excited, I was excited. When they were scared, I started feeling nervous and scared. The way she wrote it was just so amazing and I was shocked by how much I felt when reading it. Especially the moments that Kell was thinking about Lila. There were times he saw her or thought he saw her and there was this excitement that Schwab just illustrated so well that I started getting excited for Kell and Lila. It's hard to describe how much emotion I felt during those moments.
There were some humorous aspects of the book that made me chuckle a few times. I really like Lila and Kell's sense of humor. They have a darker sense of humor so when they make comments, it's enjoyable. I also enjoy the things that Rhy brings to the story. He's the person that you know will always be there for Kell and Lila. He's just overall a good and lovable character. He's also super funny and there are a couple of parts where I was laughing at some of the stuff he said because it was a kind of stupid humor that I enjoy.
Finally, this book did an amazing job of setting up the third and final book and I hope that it starts off a little better than this book. Schwab has brought in characters that I have a big feeling will be a major part of this last book and I'm really excited to see what that part is! Ugh... I just want to start reading it right now... but no I need to show patience... I don't like patience!
Age Rating
13+
Language:
The words "damn", "hell", "ass", "bastard", "bi***", "f**k", and "sh*t" are repeated a few times in the book. The mild swear words are repeated multiple times and the bigger ones are only said a few times at most.
Sexual Content:
There are a couple of intense kissing scenes, both homosexual and heterosexual. While it's described, there's nothing that goes past making out. There are also references to men talking about "stuff" they wanted to do to Lila. It was just illustrating how disgusting pirates could be towards women. This really only gets referenced once and then it's over... Lila beat them up :-)
Violence:
There is a moderate amount of violence. There is a lot of fighting with weapons like knives and magically created weapons. People are stabbed and cut multiple times. There are talks of blood after injury but it's never really graphic. There aren't moments that make me feel queasy, at least.
Here's the link to the book on Goodreads:
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