3.5 
 A Darker Shade of Magic is a pretty bad title in my opinion. Everyone I spoke to said it sounds like some weird 50 Shades kind of thing, and I agree. I found myself pulling the book out of my bag front cover down so people wouldn't read the title in class or on the bus and wonder what the fuck I am reading. I would say that it is worth it, though. 
 It was good. There was just something that I can't quite put my finger on that I didn't like about it. I think it was a mixture of everything; the writing, setting, characters, plot. Everything was good, but nothing, in my opinion, was excellent. Before I finished this book, however, I still bought the next one when I saw it in Waterstones, so it is obviously not bad in my eyes. 
 The writing was interesting, but sometimes I felt like it did not quite achieve the effect that it was trying to achieve. I felt like in some places it stuttered a bit, trying to be elegant and beautiful prose but just falling a little bit short of that. I still enjoyed it, as it was not over the top and irritating, like quite a lot of classic literature is and I also found The Secret History to be the second time I tried to read it, after loving it so much the first time. I have to be in a certain mood to read prose like that, but I can read this kind of thing anytime, and to me that is better. 
 The concept of the different Londons is amazing. I think that it is one of the best ideas that I have seen, but I just wanted more. A lot of the time was, unfortunately, spent in Grey London, which is basically a reflection of our London in the 1800s. A lot of people, especially English people probably, will know enough about 19th Century London to not get excited about the concept of reading a fantasy book mostly set in our London, where there is very little magic. I wanted to see more of the different, magical Londons! Even just seeing Red London, where everything is perfect and nice to live at least on the surface. It would have been even better to spend more time in White London, which to me was the most intriguing London of the three. More description of the other Londons would have been eaten up by me and, I think, quite a few other readers. I hope that in the next book, there is more description of these two Londons, and also of Black London, which I am very intrigued about and excited for. 
 I am not sure about the characters, really. Kell was not particularly interesting. Cool, he is Anari and he is very individual, almost one of a kind, which is just like a lot of characters in literature. He's also very mysterious and beautiful except for his one flaw, his black eye. There is also Lila, who is unfortunately almost the definition of a strong female character, with what I see as an added childishness where she 'feels in her bones' that she is destined to be a pirate, which I found... odd. She is literally standing on some docks and trying to decide on which ship to take, in the end! I did like their relationship together. There is not the show of much romance, which means that there is no instant love going to happen, which is always a positive. Though I kind of hope they keep a brotherly-sisterly kind of friendship bond, I do think it is heading in the way of a romantic relationship and I don't mind that. 
 There were not so many other characters that I noted. I liked Astrid and Athos, and I wouldn't have minded a little bit more on them and how they rule in general. It sounds like they are quite active in their kingdom, and there wasn't much on them except sitting in their throne room with Athos torturing people. The boy that Athos took, I liked him, and I liked the barman who loved Lila like his kid(view spoiler)[ and although I was sad that he was killed I was also happy, and this goes as well as with Rhy's (humanised) guards, that not all the good guys were immune to death (hide spoiler)]. Rhy was also... not interesting, but good. Spoilt rich but also very human person is always nice to read I guess. He was sweet! I liked him. I would have liked a bit more on Holland, as he did not really seem developed much. (view spoiler)[I don't think he was evil, except he was bound to Athos' will, and I think that should have been explored more. (hide spoiler)] 
 I do feel like the plot was not as strong as it could have been. I found myself thinking some of the way through how not much seemed to have really happened. Even by the end, when admittedly a lot had happened, I felt like there could have been more. I feel like the book should have been a bit longer; it really started to pick up in the last third or so, but it felt like it became a bit rushed. I was feeling how much more there was to read and thinking how it was still in the middle of the action and yet there were not enough pages left for me to be properly satisfied with the result! 
 Overall, I thought it was pretty good, though I think that the other book will hopefully make it a lot stronger in all aspects. Maybe even more than just London will be explored in the next books?! I am looking forward to seeing with the next one and just hope I am not disappointed.