Review: The Magpie Lord

The Magpie Lord by K.J. Charles
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A bit of a surprise this one, not at all what I was expecting the story to be but found myself being absorbed by an interesting lot and intriguing characters. My only criticism is that is was too short! I loved the dynamics between our main characters, the reluctant Lord Crane, his manservant Merrick and the justicar Stephen Day brought in to help protect Crane. The dialogue was witty and sharp, characters likeable and the story flew by so quickly I have had to invest in the rest of the series to keep up my new found addiction.

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Review: A Darker Shade of Magic

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I found this to be an engaging and fun read with some interesting ideas and fun characters. Basically there are 4 versions of London which exist in different dimensions (for the lack of a better word) on the same location - Red London where magic is strong, Grey London where magic has more or less died out and London is more industrialised, White London which is controlled by evil twins who have taken the throne by force and Black London which became too unstable and greedy with its magic and fell, which resulted in the other 3 Londons sealing themselves off from the Black to protect themselves. Within these very different cities however there are certain key structures that remain constant, which is an idea that I loved. Character-wise we have the spunky street urchin and wannabe pirate Lila who I adored, Rhy the prince to the Throne of Red London and Kell, who lives in Red London but is one of the rare few who can use blood magic to travel between the different Londons and so is used by the various royal families as a messenger. Kell was also an intriguing character and I am sure that there is more than meets the eye with him too.

Whilst this was a good stand alone story, the second in the series has just come out but I have heard rumours that this ends on a cliffhanger so I might just have to wait until the third comes out so I can binge read!

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