Mizuki's Reviews > A Darker Shade of Magic
A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic, #1)
by
by
Mizuki's review
bookshelves: disappointment, lost-interest, mary-sue-warning, no-hell-no, nothing-special, only-when-it-is-for-free, read-only-when-running-out-of-book, supernatural-stuff, that-is-just-ridiculous, unable-to-suppress-my-disbelief, unrealistic-main-characters, what-the-hell
May 27, 2018
bookshelves: disappointment, lost-interest, mary-sue-warning, no-hell-no, nothing-special, only-when-it-is-for-free, read-only-when-running-out-of-book, supernatural-stuff, that-is-just-ridiculous, unable-to-suppress-my-disbelief, unrealistic-main-characters, what-the-hell
Rating: 2.75 stars to 3 stars.
Honestly, A Darker Shade of Magic is a well written novelamong the Young Adult bunch, but...*sighs*...why on earth a well written novel like this can be such a chore to read!?
Edited@31/05/2018: Okay...I had just noticed this book is supposed to be a fantasy for adult audience instead of a YA, but no matter, the MCs are as juvenile as those we can find in YA novels (to be fair, these characters look like they are in a New Adult novel, at best). The only thing I found to be 'adult' about the story is the violence scenes and the F bombs. If you were looking for mature characters and complicated, fully developed fantasy world building, please look somewhere else.
I think most of the problem begins with the main characters:
Kell Maresh: he is the male lead and goodness! I don't care about him. He seems to be kind and with good intentions which is fine with me, but his angst issue really doesn't endear him to me. I mean...poor Kell it is so bad he is different from other people! Plus he got adapted by the royal family of the Red London and the king and queen are, you know, actually nice to him and Prince Rhy actually looks on him as a brother!
Plus when the city is under attack, Kell does nothing to warn the royal family, OMG what is he doing?
Delilah "Lila" Bard: Lila is a thief surviving on the streets of Grey London (which doesn't have magic) and she has a reward on her head! But guess what? She tells her full name to two complete strangers within the same day, plus for most of the time she sounds like an annoying poser who is trying too damn hard to sound tough and badass which she isn't.
Prince Rhy: he seems to be a nice and loving enough fellow but OMG what is he doing accepting a 'gift' from a foreign 'ambassador' who he should have no particular reason to trust!? Hey! Just because the guy is handsome and he is flirting with you isn't an excuse!
Holland Vosijk: the bad guy, and he is actually more interesting than the two MCs.
Astrid Dane and Athos Dane: the evil twin who rule White London, and it is a shame that they only show up for a few chapters because they are so damn cooooooool....(view spoiler)
Natalie actually wrote an awesome 'fake blurb' for the twin and Holland and it's totally mind-blowing!
Aside from the characters, the problem also rests on how a lot of things just...conveniently happen in the story:
I mean...Lila, an untrained and uninformed girl from the 'magicless' Grey London, who had only heard about the existence of magic and the other Londons just yesterday, can manage to conveniently travel between different worlds with ease, when supposedly only Kell and Holland (the only two surviving blood magicians) can travel between worlds whilst everyone else simply can't.
Plus...supposedly the magical stone from Black London is deadly and dangerous to people (we witness someone getting possessed and eventually killed just because he came near the stone), but......Lila, as untrained and uninformed as she is, still manages to hold the stone for a long time and wield its magic without once getting affected. *sighs*
Thirdly, Kell, as someone who is chosen to be the Red London's ambassador to travel between worlds under the order of his king and queen, still has it in him to ignore and break the rule of NOT taking anything from the other worlds from time to time. Actually, Kell has made it his past-time job to smuggle items from one world to another.
Why would he do it when he is a member of the royal family and wants for nothing? Well...because angst , get it?
Furthermore, after a while even the excitement of four different Londons starts to fade:
Come on, although four Londons and four different magical worlds is highly attractive in theory, but after a while when we only gets to see Red London for most of the time, and some tiny bits and pieces of the other Londons here and there with no further information being added, the excitement fades away quite fast.
Thankfully, the ending is nice, that is why this book gets a 3 stars rating and I'm going to read the next book.
Review for book 2: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Honestly, A Darker Shade of Magic is a well written novel
Edited@31/05/2018: Okay...I had just noticed this book is supposed to be a fantasy for adult audience instead of a YA, but no matter, the MCs are as juvenile as those we can find in YA novels (to be fair, these characters look like they are in a New Adult novel, at best). The only thing I found to be 'adult' about the story is the violence scenes and the F bombs. If you were looking for mature characters and complicated, fully developed fantasy world building, please look somewhere else.
I think most of the problem begins with the main characters:
Kell Maresh: he is the male lead and goodness! I don't care about him. He seems to be kind and with good intentions which is fine with me, but his angst issue really doesn't endear him to me. I mean...poor Kell it is so bad he is different from other people! Plus he got adapted by the royal family of the Red London and the king and queen are, you know, actually nice to him and Prince Rhy actually looks on him as a brother!
Plus when the city is under attack, Kell does nothing to warn the royal family, OMG what is he doing?
Delilah "Lila" Bard: Lila is a thief surviving on the streets of Grey London (which doesn't have magic) and she has a reward on her head! But guess what? She tells her full name to two complete strangers within the same day, plus for most of the time she sounds like an annoying poser who is trying too damn hard to sound tough and badass which she isn't.
Prince Rhy: he seems to be a nice and loving enough fellow but OMG what is he doing accepting a 'gift' from a foreign 'ambassador' who he should have no particular reason to trust!? Hey! Just because the guy is handsome and he is flirting with you isn't an excuse!
Holland Vosijk: the bad guy, and he is actually more interesting than the two MCs.
Astrid Dane and Athos Dane: the evil twin who rule White London, and it is a shame that they only show up for a few chapters because they are so damn cooooooool....(view spoiler)
Natalie actually wrote an awesome 'fake blurb' for the twin and Holland and it's totally mind-blowing!
Aside from the characters, the problem also rests on how a lot of things just...conveniently happen in the story:
I mean...Lila, an untrained and uninformed girl from the 'magicless' Grey London, who had only heard about the existence of magic and the other Londons just yesterday, can manage to conveniently travel between different worlds with ease, when supposedly only Kell and Holland (the only two surviving blood magicians) can travel between worlds whilst everyone else simply can't.
Plus...supposedly the magical stone from Black London is deadly and dangerous to people (we witness someone getting possessed and eventually killed just because he came near the stone), but......Lila, as untrained and uninformed as she is, still manages to hold the stone for a long time and wield its magic without once getting affected. *sighs*
Thirdly, Kell, as someone who is chosen to be the Red London's ambassador to travel between worlds under the order of his king and queen, still has it in him to ignore and break the rule of NOT taking anything from the other worlds from time to time. Actually, Kell has made it his past-time job to smuggle items from one world to another.
Why would he do it when he is a member of the royal family and wants for nothing? Well...because angst , get it?
Furthermore, after a while even the excitement of four different Londons starts to fade:
Come on, although four Londons and four different magical worlds is highly attractive in theory, but after a while when we only gets to see Red London for most of the time, and some tiny bits and pieces of the other Londons here and there with no further information being added, the excitement fades away quite fast.
Thankfully, the ending is nice, that is why this book gets a 3 stars rating and I'm going to read the next book.
Review for book 2: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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Reading Progress
May 29, 2015
– Shelved as:
to-read
May 29, 2015
– Shelved
April 12, 2018
–
Started Reading
May 20, 2018
–
23.75%
"Holy cow! Can we have Astrid Dane and Athos Dane as the main characters instead!?"
page
95
May 20, 2018
–
31.75%
"So far Lila looks like a poser who is trying very hard to look cool and badass and it's just sad."
page
127
May 21, 2018
–
34.0%
"Very well, the MC just has to smuggle objects between worlds when there already are rules again smuggling objects between worlds. *rolls eyes*"
page
136
May 26, 2018
–
36.0%
"what the actual fuck? this MC is telling his captor he is from another world and the existence of magic ASAP?!"
page
144
May 26, 2018
–
40.5%
"a thief just goes around telling complete strangers her full name. how clever."
page
162
May 26, 2018
–
41.0%
"Oh cool, so you are gonna risk your neck for a girl whom you only met twice?"
page
164
May 26, 2018
–
43.5%
"why would you pause and talk tough instead of making sure your foe is really unconscious for good?!!!!"
page
174
May 26, 2018
–
46.0%
"oh cool, just bring this totally untrained and uninformed girl to travel between worlds, no big deal."
page
184
May 27, 2018
–
51.5%
"and she just left Barron, the only guy who cared enough to watch her back, behind without saying a word!!!!"
page
206
May 27, 2018
–
58.5%
"wow, being adapted by the king and queen is such a bad thing, really."
page
234
May 27, 2018
–
62.0%
"And Kell doesn't even warn the royal family about the danger of Holland, oh cool."
page
248
May 27, 2018
–
66.0%
"Why can a well written novel like this can be such a killjoy to read!?"
page
264
May 28, 2018
–
73.0%
"isn't this Stone supposed to be DANGEROUS or something! but why can Lila keep using its power without being affected?!"
page
292
May 28, 2018
–
74.5%
"Let me guess...would the Sword possessed person find a way to travel from Grey London to Red London and then somehow kill the bad guys when they got their hands on the Stone?"
page
298
May 29, 2018
–
83.0%
"and it's totally okay to bring an untrained girl to the dangerous White London to face its murderous rulers!"
page
332
May 31, 2018
–
100.0%
"I had just also noticed this book is supposed to be a fantasy for adult audience, but no matter, the MCs are as juvenile as those we can find in YA novels. The only thing I found to be 'adult' about the story is the violence scenes and the F bombs."
page
400
June 1, 2018
– Shelved as:
disappointment
June 1, 2018
– Shelved as:
lost-interest
June 1, 2018
– Shelved as:
mary-sue-warning
June 1, 2018
– Shelved as:
no-hell-no
June 1, 2018
– Shelved as:
nothing-special
June 1, 2018
– Shelved as:
only-when-it-is-for-free
June 1, 2018
– Shelved as:
read-only-when-running-out-of-book
June 1, 2018
– Shelved as:
supernatural-stuff
June 1, 2018
– Shelved as:
that-is-just-ridiculous
June 1, 2018
– Shelved as:
unable-to-suppress-my-disbelief
June 1, 2018
– Shelved as:
unrealistic-main-characters
June 1, 2018
– Shelved as:
what-the-hell
June 1, 2018
–
Finished Reading
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Maria
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rated it 1 star
Feb 03, 2018 03:21PM
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I read up to page 260 and I don't have any good feeling toward Lila.
They aren't the worst characters out there but they are pretty much bland.
I want a book about Holland, Astrid and Athos!
She’s just too much. But then when I thought bad about her, then people said I did that just because she’s female and if it’s a male then her arrogance is fine. And I was like, no, it’s not about the gender. It’s about how irritating she was 😩
No you are not the only one and yes it is kind of boring.
To think about it more carefully, Lila's attitude would have been understandable if she were a 12 years old girl...
Having to love or like any of these characters would request quite a amount of emotion and energy which I just refuse to invest any into this book. But on the other hand...Holland and the evil twin aren't so bad...
Here I repeat myself: I would have tolerated Lila if she were a 10 to 13 years old kid.
I love Holland so much and he only gets better as the series goes on!!
It really brings me hope that Holland will show up in the next book.
Kelly is a goody-two-shoes with an angst issues and Lila is...........she is a 12 years old girl pretending to be sixteen.
I read up to 300+ pages but Holland hasn't showed up often enough, not at all!
I don't think this book actually worth the time I'd spent on it, it only leaves me slightly annoyed.
I had just also noticed this book is supposed to be a fantasy for adult audience, but no matter, the MCs are as juvenile as those we can find in YA novels. The only thing I found to be 'adult' about the story is the violence scenes and the F bombs.
Omg I didn’t notice this many problems when I read it! Honestly I didn’t really care for it. At the time I did enjoy it. The Dane twins and Holland certainly made it interesting.
Aside from that the world building was something I couldn’t wrap my head around. Yeah I agree with the adult point. God Kell was so annoying! And utterly ungrateful. I didn’t enjoy reading his point of view.
By the time I got to reading the second book I completely lost interest. I think I read about 50 pages realized it was supremely bland. I kept on thinking that I owned and had read much better books. I do hope you enjoy it more than I did.
The stuff you mentioned about Lila does get brought up in the later instalments. It’s a spoiler though. If you want to know just tell me. I don’t mind giving spoilers. I’m looking forward to you’re review for A Gathering of shadows.
I hope you enjoy the rest of the series more! Great review ☺️
No, in the first book he is 17, if my memory still serves me right.
Plus if he really is supposed to be a young man in his early twenties, his ranting about 'himself don't belong with the royal family' and 'no one really understands me' sounds even more unforgivable.
I'd borrowed book 2, wish me luck Fafa!
The stuff you mentioned about Lila does get brought up in the later instalments. "
I can understand a girl trying to surviving alone on the street does in fact need a lot of bravado to get her through hard situations, but to a point that even the 14 years old Dani from the Fever series (who is full of bravado and won't shut up about herself being a superhero) sounds more tolerable than Lila? That's too much.