A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic #1) by V. E. Schwab

A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic #1) by V. E. Schwab

Goodreads Blurb: Kell is one of the last Antari—magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black.

Kell was raised in Arnes—Red London—and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see.

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.

After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse 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.

My thoughts: I keep seeing this trilogy in book tubers videos and on their bookshelves in the background that I thought I would give book one a try. So far this book is one of my favorites for the year. The story keeps you on your toes, the universe in the book keeps you begging for more and I can’t wait to read the next two. The universe to me has some similarities with the Firebird Trilogy. Each have one special person who travel between dimensions and each need a special object to use as a “key” to travel and the biggest similarities are the dimensions they travel two. The dimensions are all the same but slightly different to give each “world” its own environment and character. If you liked the Firebird Trilogy I would recommend this series to read in the future.