Tag: Victoria Schwab

Review: This Savage Song (Victoria Schwab)

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Book Review: This Savage Song (Victoria Schwab)
book cover Book title This Savage Song
Series/standalone Monsters of Verity #1
Author Victoria Schwab
Pages 464
Year published 2016
Category | Genre Young Adult | Urban Fantasy, Dystopian
Rating 3.5 star

Official Summary

There’s no such thing as safe in a city at war, a city overrun with monsters. In this dark urban fantasy from author Victoria Schwab, a young woman and a young man must choose whether to become heroes or villains—and friends or enemies—with the future of their home at stake. The first of two books.

Kate Harker and August Flynn are the heirs to a divided city—a city where the violence has begun to breed actual monsters. All Kate wants is to be as ruthless as her father, who lets the monsters roam free and makes the humans pay for his protection. All August wants is to be human, as good-hearted as his own father, to play a bigger role in protecting the innocent—but he’s one of the monsters. One who can steal a soul with a simple strain of music. When the chance arises to keep an eye on Kate, who’s just been kicked out of her sixth boarding school and returned home, August jumps at it. But Kate discovers August’s secret, and after a failed assassination attempt the pair must flee for their lives.

Review

Hot on the heels of her adult fantasy book, A Gathering of Shadows, Victoria Schwab (V.E. Schwab) went back to YA with This Savage Song.

Schwab herself mentioned that this book is on the higher spectrum of YA (closer to adult than MG) and one could clearly see why from the summary.

Let’s talk about what works and what doesn’t work for me.

Things that worked for me:

  • The world-building. This Savage Song is technically an urban fantasy, although there was some changes to our modern world. It’s sort of dystopian in a sense that this book was set after terrible thing that caused real monsters to be born to this world. (ETA: I kept my original wording here, but Schwab mentioned on twitter that TSS is not a dystopia novel, it’s a book sets in an alternate world). Schwab painted you a picture of a city splits in two, the South is the part of the city led by Henry Flynn and the North is Callum Harker’s. Where in South, people are aware that they’re in danger from monsters, the North people live under the protection of Harker and they’re kept under the illusion that the city is safe. The three type of monsters, Corsai, Malchai, and Sunai are described as human-eating monster, but it was the song that creeps me the most.

    Malchai, Malchai
    sharp and sly
    smile and bite and drink you dry

    Corsai, Corsai
    tooth and claw
    shadow and bone will eat you raw.

    Sunai, Sunai
    eyes like coal
    sing a song and steal your soul.

     

  • The writing. This Savage Song opened with this sentence:

    “The Night Kate Harker decided to burn down the school chapter, she wasn’t angry or drunk. She was desperate.”

    This was how you begin a book, people!
    It gripped me immediately and didn’t let go until I finish. Although I feel the first half of the book is stronger than the second half, but the pace works well to keep me in the story. There was some sort of infodump that happened in the first one-third of the book, but Schwab flawlessly incorporated it into the story that I didn’t notice I was being infodumped until later.

Thing that didn’t work for me

  • The morally black and white characters. I’m not saying that the characters are not complex. Kate, for once, wanted so bad to please her father she lost herself trying to be worthy successor. Everyone else, however, felt either they’re good or bad, and it has nothing with what species (?) they are. August, for example, was a monster but you could totally say he’s the good guy (monster). I guess all I’m saying is that I came to this book expecting morally ambiguous characters and I just didn’t get that. But I suppose that was on me and my expectation.
  • Frankly speaking, it just didn’t elicit emotional response from me. Again, this probably showed that the problem was more on my expectation than the book itself. However, this is a book about human who wants to be monster and monster who wants to be human so I expected that it’ll break my heart in some way. And believe me, it’s totally possible to break my heart. Also, let’s talk about the inspiration behind the book. Schwab wrote this book to show that violence has consequences. In This Savage Song, that consequences come in the real form of monsters, but I think the whole thing was not given fair amount of time nor description.
    Another problem for me is that I don’t feel anything or anyone I care about is at real stake so I didn’t worry about them.

Verdict

This Savage Song has an interesting premise and is a good start to the Monsters of Verity duology. I expect that the second book will only get better, especially if we get more character development and the stakes are higher.

Final score

3.5 star
3.5 stars (out of 5 stars)

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Review: A Gathering of Shadows

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Book Review: A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab
A Gathering of Shadows cover Book title A Gathering of Shadows
Series Shades of Magic #2
Author V.E. Schwab
Pages 512
Year published 2016
Category | Genre Adult | High Fantasy, Parallel Universes
Rating 4.5 stars

SPOILER WARNING FOR A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC!

Official Summary

Four months have passed since the shadow stone fell into Kell’s possession. Four months since his path crossed with Delilah Bard. Four months since Rhy was wounded and the Dane twins fell, and the stone was cast with Holland’s dying body through the rift, and into Black London.

In many ways, things have almost returned to normal, though Rhy is more sober, and Kell is now plagued by his guilt. Restless, and having given up smuggling, Kell is visited by dreams of ominous magical events, waking only to think of Lila, who disappeared from the docks like she always meant to do. As Red London finalizes preparations for the Element Games—an extravagant international competition of magic, meant to entertain and keep healthy the ties between neighboring countries—a certain pirate ship draws closer, carrying old friends back into port.

But while Red London is caught up in the pageantry and thrills of the Games, another London is coming back to life, and those who were thought to be forever gone have returned. After all, a shadow that was gone in the night reappears in the morning, and so it seems Black London has risen again—meaning that another London must fall.

“A magical kick-ass sequel to A Darker Shade of Magic”

Frequent visitors of this blog would have noticed my slightly unhealthy obsession with A Darker Shade of Magic. It’s no wonder that A Gathering of Shadows was one of my most anticipated 2016 releases. I read it the moment my preorder was delivered to my ebook reader. Was AGOS the sequel I was hoping it to be? Nope, not at all. It completely went the other direction from what I thought I wanted. I had hoped for answers and explanation about what happened, but what AGOS is, it’s all about the future and consequences. And somehow I think I like it better this way.

Review

In A Gathering of Shadows, Red London is preparing to host a magic competition called Essen Tasch, with magicians from its neighboring countries, Faro and Vesk, also taking part. The result is what one would expect: even more magic, (slightly) more politics, and tons of fun(?) interactions.

Characters

Not gonna lie, I’ve grown attached to these characters. Kell and Lila still take the center stage in A Gathering of Shadows, but a myriad of new characters were introduced, most notably is a pirate captain named Alucard Emery. There are others too, mostly magicians came to compete in Essen Tasch and the ship crews captained by Emery. Character development is totally on point, especially when it came to the crown prince, Rhy Maresh. We get to see a lot more Rhy in A Gathering of Shadows, and I’m definitely not complaining. Where in A Darker Shade of Magic, we only saw Rhy’s charming exterior, in this sequel Schwab gave us a glimpse into his head, and that made him even more relatable. His banters with Kell are part of what A Gathering of Shadows so precious. (Yes, I just used the word precious to describe a book).
If there’s a downside of introducing so many characters is that it’s so hard to keep track of them all. I’ll be honest with you, I gave up trying to remember which ship crew did what halfway through the book. But then again, maybe it’s because I didn’t pay enough attention to them earlier?

Worldbuilding

In A Darker Shade of Magic, we learned about the four Londons and the travels were mostly done between worlds. In A Gathering of Shadows, Schwab showed us that her world was not limited to London by introducing Red London’s neighboring countries, Faro and Vesk. Due to the circumstances in the book, however, we didn’t learn much about the actual countries, rather Schwab brought us the people, royals and magicians, into Red London. This, unavoidably, led to party and political interaction between the royals. However, if you wish for more politics and court drama, you’re a little out of luck. There aren’t much court drama in A Gathering of Shadows, saved for a certain princess. Perhaps, we will see more of these Lords and Princes in book three since I cannot imagine Schwab introducing them without any agenda.
Overall, I did wish to learn a bit more about the Faroan and the Veskan magicians and royals, but I appreciate Schwab’s effort to expand her world.

On magical side, there’s also an expansion. Where A Darker Shade of Magic focused on blood magic, A Gathering of Shadows is all about elemental magic. Earth, air, water, fire, each magician could control at least one of them, and some even two or three. They fight by manipulating these elements. And boy wasn’t that fun?!

Plot and narrative

It’s easy to complain that the Essen Tasch felt a little rushed, especially at the end. And maybe that’s true. The way I see it, however, was that Schwab used the competition to advance her story and characters growth. The actual ‘winning the competition’ itself is not essential like in Hunger Games (or Red Rising, if you will). It was not about life and death, and in a way, I found it refreshing that Schwab didn’t succumb to the temptation of giving the magical one-on-one combat a larger proportion than it merits. Sure, I admitted before, it was a lot of fun seeing the magical tricks and scheming done by each magician, but I found the less magical interactions between the characters to be at least as interesting and somehow more essential to the plot. Feel free to disagree with me, though.

The book itself started out well-paced, balancing between friendly banters and actions. In the last third or so, however, it really took off, like REALLY running REALLY fast. If you’re like me, and I don’t wish the feeling I had to anyone, you’ll be flipping the last few pages super fast and then stared at the acknowledgements with disbelief look upon your face.

Do I like that ending? HAHAHAHA.

Verdict

A Gathering of Shadows offers a magical experience and it was highly enjoyable. I got a new book to obsess on for sure.
As for the ending, it is great if you enjoy the sensation of dangling in the air in a chairlift when the ride stops moving and you start to laugh hysterically because what else is there to do?

Final score

4.5 stars
4.5 stars (out of 5 stars)

Let me know, have you read A Gathering of Shadows or do you plan to read it? If you have read it, what do you think about the book? Do you like it better than A Darker Shade of Magic? Feel free to agree and disagree with my thoughts about it.

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A Darker Shade of Magic Re-read: Part XIII

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Welcome to my re-read of A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab. This is the 13th part of my weekly re-read posts. If you have read ADSOM, come re-read and discuss it with me. If you never read it, I highly recommend it especially if you like fantasy books, sarcastic protagonists, kick-ass heroine, and fabulous coat. Even though it’s a re-read, I will do my best to avoid spoiling future chapters in the post itself, which is quite easy because most of the time, I didn’t remember what happened. So even though this is the first time you read ADSOM, you could follow along. However, please note that although the post itself is spoiler-free from future chapters, the comments section are spoiler zone, where you can talk about anything including the plot twist and the book conclusion. Without further ado, let’s sail through A Darker Shade of Magic. All aboard!

This week, we’re going to cover Part XIII The Waiting King.

SPOILER WARNING FOR PART I – XII

And we’re back in Creepy London!

Athos has been waiting for us, I mean waiting for Kell and Lila, in his throne room. Her sister’s body propped up besides him. Apparently, Astrid was still up and wrecking havoc in Kell London. I wonder if she’s killed the all the royal family members minus Rhy. Athos, however, just wanted to kill Kell. For now.

Kell and Lila went into the castle through different doors. Kell was supposed to handle Athos and Lila the still-out-of-her-body Astrid. Kell vowed to himself not to use the stone’s power because he was so close to be consumed by it. Strangely, Athos—who owned the other half of the black stone—didn’t seem to be affected much by it. Or maybe he already gave in a long long time ago and now the stone has his body? I dunno. Kell’s vow proved to be short-lived when it became clear he wouldn’t win without the stone. He used the stone for protection and tried to trap Athos into doing something stupid. This turned out not to be a difficult feat. Athos, upon being compared to his evil genius sister, became angry and summoned a serpent from the stone. Uh oh, remember when Lila tried to create living thing (Kell’s doppelganger) from the stone? The same thing happened here. Eventually, the king was beaten by his own arrogance and shortsightedness.

What about the queen? I always consider Astrid as the smarter one, but her consciousness was still in Kell London. Will this be an easy kill for Lila? Of course not! As if Schwab will let her protagonist get away that easy. After being forced to kill the boy who was bound to Athos’ will, Lila went into the throne room to find the unconscious Astrid surrounded by a circle of protection (which existence she realized after her bullet richoceted back. Dear Delilah, you should’ve known better.). She broke the protection circle, but Astrid woke up right before Lila stabbed her. Unfortunately, the queen—with her magic was too powerful for our heroine. OHMYGODDONTKILLHERDONTKILLHERDONTKILLHER. Fortunately (or not), Astrid decided to kill Kell before finishing Lila.

The cunning queen took Lila’s shape after rendering her unconscious then went to see Kell. Kell, now the proud owner of two halves of the black stone, used his magic to fused back the stone. Lila-who-was-not-Lila asked Kell to give her the stone, and all he gave her was a knife… in the stomach. Oh the bastard, I thought he was going to fall to her trick. The real Lila wobbled in, and everything was right and good—at least as good as it could be considering the black stone was still there attaching itself to Kell’s hand. The calmness lasted one page, more or less, before the stone dragged Kell into its world and tried to force him to give in. He almost did, but then he realized that if he dies, so will Rhy. That sobered him a bit and gave him the idea to dispel the magic. And so he did.

And so back in Kell London, the bodies fell… And the prince shivered then fell still.

And… that’s the end of Part XIII!

Part XIII ended with a freaking cliffhanger, but I promised not to read more than one part each week. So please join me next week to read the LAST PART of A Darker Shade of Magic!

FYI, Victoria Schwab also announced #ADSOMReadalong on her twitter where the internet will read (or reread) ADSOM before AGOS comes out. It’ll start on 02/01/2016. Join in if you want! I might or might not reread ADSOM for the third time. :p

Favorite Scene

The calm before the storm (aka the strange calm before the stone tried to take Kell).

Favorite Quote

Because she said please.

INDEX

Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII | Part VIII | Part IX | Part X | Part XI | Part XII

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A Darker Shade of Magic Re-read: Part XII

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Welcome to my re-read of A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab. This is the 12th part of my weekly re-read posts. If you have read ADSOM, come re-read and discuss it with me. If you never read it, I highly recommend it especially if you like fantasy books, sarcastic protagonists, kick-ass heroine, and fabulous coat. Even though it’s a re-read, I will do my best to avoid spoiling future chapters in the post itself, which is quite easy because most of the time, I didn’t remember what happened. So even though this is the first time you read ADSOM, you could follow along. However, please note that although the post itself is spoiler-free from future chapters, the comments section are spoiler zone, where you can talk about anything including the plot twist and the book conclusion. Without further ado, let’s sail through A Darker Shade of Magic. All aboard!

This week, we’re going to cover Part XII Sanctuary & Sacrifice.

SPOILER WARNING FOR PART I – XI

Last week, we left Kell, Lila, and a very bloody Rhy at the palace. Kell was using his magic to lead them to a safe place. That safe place turned out to be London Sanctuary, a place for scholars and masters to learn and connect with magic. Here, Kell realized that Rhy has became awfully quiet and dying. His magic has failed somewhat. Lila thought that it’s already too late to save the prince. OH NO, YOU DON’T RHY! It seemed that Kell is with me on this one. He wouldn’t let Rhy go, no matter what. He asked Lila for the black stone. BAD IDEA KELL. Don’t do it. Whatever it is you think you’re doing, it’ll end up badly for both of you. 🙁

Kell, however, won’t listen to reasons. He bound his life to Rhy and brought his brother back using a soul seal and magic he deemed ‘impossible’. Well, nothing it’s impossible for the black stone… Okay, here’s a question. How does a soul seal work? Because it seems that the one Kell gave to Rhy is quite different from Athos’ seal on Holland. From what I understand, it’s unbreakable, unlike spells, but technically does it enable the creator to control the receiver (ala Athos and Holland)? Because I don’t think Kell would want to control Rhy.

Right, back to the book.

Rhy, still very much hurt and in pain, was left in the hand of Master Tieren, Kell’s mentor, while Lila finally convinced Kell to take her along to Creepy London. The two made their way to the spot where they could ‘safely’ travel to Creepy London. But when they travel, a force pulled Kell back to Kell London, ripping him from Lila’s hands.

Lila was forced to fend off several thugs all by herself with Kell MIA. Meanwhile, back in Kell London, Kell found out what has pulled him back. It was not a what, but rather who. Holland was there, trying to take the stone –which has now bound itself to Kell’s hand—and Kell because Astrid wanted him as her pet. Holland, obviously, didn’t listen to the second request and try resolutely to kill Kell. Kell, however, has learned his mistake and he didn’t hesitate at all. Using his own power as well as the stone’s magic, he incapacitated Holland (okay, incapacitated is probably not a correct word for ‘stabbing someone using a heavy metal pillar’) and set off to Creepy London using Holland’s token and dragging him along.

Kell arrived in time to save Lila. Actually, scratch that. I fully expected Kell to turn his Hulk mode on and show them who’s boss and warn them to not mess with his lady, but they were surrounded and had to save their energy for the Danes. So… they ran. Yeah, I settled for that. Much more practical. Kell, still carrying Holland, and Lila arrived at the castle to meet the Danes and the other half of the black stone.

Well then, next week should be fun! And by fun, I mean bloody!
Only two parts to go!

Favorite Quote

“… or perhaps I will go with you to the end of the world. After all, you’ve made me curious.”

Favorite Scene

Tieren saying to Lila that she has unawakened, unnurtured power. YAS to that.

INDEX

Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII | Part VIII | Part IX | Part X | Part XI

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A Darker Shade of Magic Re-read: Part XI

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Welcome to my re-read of A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab. This is the 11th part of my weekly re-read posts. If you have read ADSOM, come re-read and discuss it with me. If you never read it, I highly recommend it especially if you like fantasy books, sarcastic protagonists, kick-ass heroine, and fabulous coat. Even though it’s a re-read, I will do my best to avoid spoiling future chapters in the post itself, which is quite easy because most of the time, I didn’t remember what happened. So even though this is the first time you read ADSOM, you could follow along. However, please note that although the post itself is spoiler-free from future chapters, the comments section are spoiler zone, where you can talk about anything including the plot twist and the book conclusion. Without further ado, let’s sail through A Darker Shade of Magic. All aboard!

This week, we’re going to cover Part XI Masquerade.

SPOILER WARNING FOR PART I – X

We’re getting even closer to the end!
When we left them last week, Kell was captured by the palace guards and Lila was off to save him. Part XI began with Lila standing near the palace, figuring out how to get in. Soon enough, it became clear to her that the palace was holding a masquerade ball and all she needed to get in was an invitation. Such an easy job for our pickpocket! Lila procured her invitation and set off to find herself a costume. Fortunately, one of the market tenant recognized her as Master Kell’s friend and gave her a mask and a costume for free and told Lila to pay her back someway and to look after Kell. Lila assented and went in as Captain Bard of the Sea King. The guard let her in and as she paid her respect to the royals, she realized that they were under some sort of spell.

Kell, meanwhile, came to in Rhy’s bedroom with his brother besides him. It also took him a while to realize that he was bound using special cuff that can dampen magic. Crap, he was in trouble because he smuggled that stone, was the first thing on my mind. It turned out that Kell wasn’t bound because Rhy was mad at him. He was cuffed because Rhy wasn’t even Rhy. *GASP, that necklace from Holland.* Points for you if you managed to figure out this twist. Basically, Astrid sent a necklace imbibed with antari‘s blood (Holland’s I think) to possess Rhy. The antari‘s blood is the one that enable the spell to work in both worlds. So, Astrid was currently safe and sound in White London while possessing Rhy. This lady was an evil genius! ‘Rhy’ tried to get Kell to tell him the stone’s location and Kell told him that he didn’t know. ‘Rhy’ decided to use violence on Kell, but no dice. You should have listened though, Rhy, or Astrid, or whoever, he really didn’t know.

At that point, Lila, I mean Captain Bard, stepped in (more like flew in, actually) and interfered on their brotherly business. Cornered between the antari and the fearless girl equipped with magic stone, Astrid decided to use her last weapon, Rhy. She told them to give her the stone or she was going to kill Rhy. She took off the pendant from Rhy’s body and threw it, at the same time driving a knife into Rhy’s body. The pendant, apparently, was so powerful that Astrid could possess anyone that touch it. Therefore, losing Rhy wasn’t much of a hindrance now that Kell has found out that another person was wearing his brother’s skin. Rhy, meanwhile, was dying. Kell, desperate to save his brother, was forced to run with Lila to avoid being captured by Astrid and the guards under her possession. Kell took Rhy and Lila to his room and made a door to a place he deemed the only safe place for them to go.

But where did the door lead to? We’ll find out in the next part, next week!

Favorite Quote

You look more ready to storm a city than seduce a man.

Favorite Scene

Lila’s awkward exchange with Calla about being Kell’s friend.

INDEX

Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII | Part VIII | Part IX | Part X

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News Round-up #2

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book news round-up
Hey guys! I’m back with another news round-up post.
I wasn’t actually planning to make this a weekly thing, but there are some book-related news that excites me and I just need to share it to the world.

A Gathering of Shadows News

I know, you’re probably tired of me freaking out every single time V.E. Schwab announced A Gathering of Shadows news, but… YOU GUYS THIS IS REAL:

Of course, being the person with no self-control that I am, I went straight to Net Galley and downloaded it (it was auto-approved). And, to avoid posting spoiler here, I will just tell you that it was not what I expected, but I’m very much on board with where the story is heading.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them First Look

I am still in awe that we’re about to get another movie from the Harry Potter world. And that Eddie Redmayne will be Newt Scamander. Anyway, EW has the first look of the film, and it looks beautiful and amazing and I just want to cry. You can see the pictures here. Speaking of pictures, Pottermore revealed the official logo for the movie here and it gives me shivers because it reminds me so much of the HP movies.

Goodreads Choice Awards

Last, but not least, voting for the Goodreads Choice Awards has begun. Make sure to go to the voting page to support your favorite books. Opening round is until November 8. Semifinal on Nov 10 – 15 and Final Round on Nov 17 – 23.

Right, that’s it for this week. I’ll keep you posted whether you want it or not. 😉
Tomorrow, I’ll (hopefully) be back with a review.

A Darker Shade of Magic Re-read: Part I

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Welcome to my re-read of A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab. This is the first part of my weekly re-read posts. If you have read ADSOM, come re-read and discuss it with me. If you never read it, I highly recommend it especially if you like fantasy books, sarcastic protagonists, kick-ass heroine, and fabulous coat. Even though it’s a re-read, I will do my best to avoid spoiling future chapters in the post itself, which is quite easy because most of the time, I didn’t remember what happened. So even though this is the first time you read ADSOM, you could follow along. However, please note that although the post itself is spoiler-free from future chapters, the comments section are spoiler zone, where you can talk about anything including the plot twist and the book conclusion. Without further ado, let’s sail through A Darker Shade of Magic. All aboard!

This week I covered Part I The Traveler, which consists of three sub-parts (I refer to them as Chapters).

By the way, if you’re still on the fence whether you should buy A Darker Shade of Magic or not (well, you should), you can read the first two chapters for free here. Please do note that Part I has three chapters, instead of two.

Summary

The first part of ADSOM introduced us to Kell, a blood magician, or antari. As an antari, he is one of two people who can travel between worlds, the magic wealthy Red London, the magic hungry White London, and our Grey London. I imagined them as parallel universes. In the past, there was a fourth London, named Black London. Something terrible happened to Black London and now it’s no more than a fairy tale to scare your children. Kell himself is from Red London and acts as a messenger for the royal family in Red London.

In the first part, Kell paid a visit to our world, …well our world in 1819. First, he went to pay his courtesy to the current King of England, George III, then he went to see the Prince Regent, who will be known as George IV, and lastly he went to a tavern called The Stone Throw. In this tavern, we found out that besides being a messenger, Kell also has a more dangerous hobby, he smuggles things between worlds. He barters items to get tokens from the other worlds. At the end of Part I, he used his blood and a token to get home to his Red London.

My Rambling

I cannot remember when was the last time I fell in love with a book or a character this fast. It was basically love at the first sight. And now I’m falling in love all over again.

The book is written from third person POV. Schwab certainly knows how to pique people’s interest. She doesn’t do boring introduction, but jumps straight to magic (and coat!) She also did a very good job on introducing us to one of the main characters, Kell. Indeed, there are some scenes that are truly enjoyable such as when he made up the content of the letter supposedly written by his queen and flattered himself in the process. The knife, though, was a curious thing especially since it bore two letters, K L. What is K L? Is it his initial? What does the L stand for? AHH, so many questions already.

What really interests me about Chapter I was how Schwab smoothly blended fantasy with real history in the form of King George III. I’ve only known King George III for two things: a) he went mad (and blind apparently) b) he lost America. (Please don’t kill me. I’m neither British nor American and my main references were the musical Hamilton and Wikipedia).

I appreciate ADSOM for portraying him from another angle, as a king imprisoned in his own castle. In A Darker Shade of Magic, the king has gone mad and was in his final years (it was 1819 and he died-according to wikipedia-in January 1820). In the book, George III was described as magic-thirsty, but not in a murderous way. At the end of Chapter I, Kell left Windsor palace to meet the Prince Regent.

In Chapter II, Kell went to St. James to deliver a correspondence from his queen to the Prince Regent, whom I immediately dislike. Here, Schwab took her time to teach us history (if it’s history in a fantasy world, would it still be called history?) about Black London. We also get to understand a little more about Kell. Apparently, he has one blue eye and one black eye, which he usually cover with his hair. (and I was like, “THE HAIR SERVES A PURPOSE BESIDES MAKING PEOPLE SWOON”) The Prince Regent initially asked him to stay for dinner date, but finally let him and his black eye go after being subtly threatened by Kell.

So, this Kell, he likes to collect tokens from the worlds he visits. That’s basically like us buying souvenirs to take home during our trip, just slightly more dangerous because he basically commits treason by doing that.
Kell, darling, you could face prison! (I suppose he could just use his magic to get out from our jail, but hey)

In Chapter III, he barters a child’s game from his world with a music box with a Collector. (Okay, so he’s also a bit sentimental. And smells like flowers. Have I mentioned he smells like flowers?) He also met a guy named Ned that he identified as an Enthusiast. So, what did Kell do? Why, flexed his magic of course. The Enthusiast left empty-handed at the end of their conversation. However, why do I have a feeling that his encounter with the Enthusiast is going to bring trouble for him? Also, he is a blood magician, and apparently there are only two of them left. What happened to the antari? Who are Kell’s parents? Who is Kell and how did he inherit such a powerful magic? Why does he smell like flowers? Who is Rhy? What actually happened to Black London?

No matter. He’s off to Red London now, where hopefully we’ll get some answers.

Favorite Scene

He occupied himself by drumming his fingers on the edge of the gilded table. Each time he made it from pinky to forefinger, one of the room’s many candles went out. “Must be a draft,” he said absently

Favorite Quotes

“Check the park.”

“Prince Rhy, on the other hand, continues to impress and infuriate in equal measure, but has at least gone the month without breaking his neck or taking an unsuitable bride. Thanks be to Kell alone for keeping him from doing either, or both.”

That’s it for this week.
Next week, I’ll continue with the second part, Red Royal. Until next time!

INDEX

Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV

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News round-up

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book news round-up
Hello people! I hope you’re all well.
This week, I found out about some book news/updates that I’m excited about and I just have to post them here! I also got some news regarding my blog so stay tuned for that too.

Book News & Updates

First of all, The Stormlight Archive update. It’s not exactly news, but an excerpt has appeared in the wild. During his Shadows of Self tour, Brandon Sanderson has graciously read a part of an ongoing Dalinar chapter in Book #3 of The Stormlight Archive. It offered us a view of younger, more bolsterous Dalinar, hungered for the Thrill, and very very good at battle. Read it or hear Brandon read it to you here. Anyhow, Book #3-currently titled “Oathbringer”-should be released some time in 2016 even though I need to read it now.

Another thing I’ve learned about this week was “A Gathering of Shadows” Fanart Contest. You can send in fanart in form of painting, drawing, sculpture, or even cosplaying. What’s the prize you ask? Why, it’s only a SIGNED ARC of A Gathering of Shadows, among other wonderful things. Unfortunately for me, it’s only open to US and Canada residents (not like I’m going to win anyway). Learn more about the contest here. A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab will be out on February 23, 2016.

Speaking of wonderful things, the lovely Cassie Clare has announced that the first book in The Dark Artifices, Lady Midnight, will have special first edition. These first edition books will have stamped rune on the first page and an exclusive short story about the characters from TMI and TFTSA. Lady Midnight’s release date is currently set for March 8, 2016.

Blog Updates

Because of I am so excited for A Gathering of Shadows, I have decided to re-read A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab. It is one of my favorite books in 2015 and since I never gave it proper review, I will instead do a weekly re-read post on my blog. I am thinking to do it by part and there are 14 parts in ADSOM which means I will have finished it on the first week of February (just in time for the second book!). I am going to post a short summary and a short (or long) commentary rambling about each part starting next week.

You are very welcome if you want to join me reading A Darker Shade of Magic. I promise not to post spoiler for future chapters so you can join in even if it’s your first time reading the book.

I will be posting my pick for November releases and TBR tomorrow. See you!

A Gathering of Shadows: read the first two chapters

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No idea how I missed this when it was announced, but the first two chapters of A Gathering of Shadows is now up on tor.com. The first two chapters were told from Lila’s perspective. I adore her so this excerpt is a major treat for me.

If you never heard of A Gathering of Shadows, it’s the second book in A Darker Shade of Magic series, by V.E. Schwab who also goes by the name Victoria Schwab for her young adults and children book.

Let me tell you a bit about ADSOM since I never actually reviewed it here.

A Darker Shade of Magic is a high fantasy book set in Londons. Yes, you read it correctly, there are more than 1 London in this book. There’s the prosperous Red London where magic is plentiful and brought to (mostly) good use, the White London where magic controls people that led to fights for magic, our very own Grey London where magic is no more, and the long-lost Black London where magic was once so powerful it destroyed the people and the city.

Our hero, Kell, is from Red London, and our heroine, Lila, came from Grey London. Kell is a Traveler, one of the few remaining people who can travel between these parallel worlds using blood magic. Lila, on the other hand, is a bold thief always looking for trouble. Long story short, Kell smuggles things and once, he smuggled something dangerous that made him a wanted person and set him on an adventure to fix his mistake while escaping for his life. He met Lila, although met is not the proper word, ‘robbed by’ is more appropriate. He saved her life, she saved his, then they embark on a dangerous journey to bring the item back where it belongs.

Okay, that is a long summary, I apologize.

I think Victoria could sum it up better than me.

A short list of things in ADSOM:

–Magic
–Cross-dressing thieves
–(Aspiring) pirates
–Londons (plural)
–Sadistic kings (and queens)
–A royal who is equal parts Prince Harry and Jack Harkness
–More magic (blood magic, elemental magic, bad magic, etc. etc.)
–Epic magicky fights scenes
–Angst!
–And coats with more than two sides.

via Victoria Schwab blog

So, yes, you should read it, and then you can sit here with me impatiently waiting for the second book.