From Goodreads:

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.

I ran a Twitter poll, asking what I should read next with a few options that people had recently recommended to me. ADSOM won, so here I am, writing this after spending about 4 hours of my life reading it. To be honest, I wasn’t as awe-struck as I thought I was going to be.

The Plot

To be honest, I nearly abandoned this about 20% of the way through. I was that far in and nothing was happening. Kell went from this London to that London and there wasn’t really anything keeping me invested besides my interest in his jacket. I was determined not to DNF such a beloved book, so I stuck with it. At 26% something interesting happened and I did a little happy dance for my sanity. It shouldn’t have taken that long for me to get interested. If everyone wasn’t in love with this book, I’d have probably DNF’ed if earlier. When this book did finally get started, it got started! Once Kell gets that stone, the story really takes off and I enjoyed it from then on. The ending was solid, tying up most of the threads but still leaving a few key ones for the next book. Lila lost an eye. Was that eye perhaps black like Kell’s? Hmmm.

The Characters

Kell

Kell is our main character. One of only 2 people who can freely open doors and travel between the various London’s. He seems to have a pretty decent life, living like a prince, with the occasional jaunt to other places to deliver letters. His lack of appreciation for what he had annoyed me a little, but this was addressed, as it seemed to annoy Lila too. His life was pretty great, but he had to go annoyingly putting everything at risk for some bloody worthless trinkets. The most interesting thing about Kell is his coat. It’s some sort of magical object that, with a flick of the wrist, can change into a completely different coat. I’d like to know more about it than I would about Kell. That doesn’t say much for our main character.

Lila

Lila is the orphan thief that seems to be a theme in books I’ve read recently. She’s definitely going to be even more important in future books as she discovers whatever power she has because I’m sure she has some. Beyond her glass eye and undiscovered powers, I wouldn’t say there was anything overly memorable about Lila either.

Both Kell and her have a backstory that’s explained, or at least hinted at, and yet I feel no connection or love for them. No absolute desire that the characters are protected from all harm like I do with characters I truly love.

The Danes

Our bad-guys, and the characters I found the most interesting. Admittedly, they’re not the most fleshed out bad guys. Their motives don’t expand past the point of revenge or because they want to, but as bad-guys, they’re suitably creepy. They each have their own talent, and both talents are nightmare inducing for some people. Works for me!

The World

So, we’ve got Red London, Grey London, White London and Black London. We don’t see anything of Black London, but it’s an important plot point throughout, and I’m curious if Kell and co end up there in the future, because whilst I wasn’t necessarily a fan of the characters, I was fascinated by the magic and the parallel but not identical worlds. I’d love to know more about this history of the world, how Black London became what it is and even more detail about the magic that Antari can wield. I’m not sure the world itself is good enough to make me carry on reading about characters I didn’t really care for.

Would I read it again? No, not without a very good reason.

Will I be picking up the next in the series? Maybe? I’m not 100% sure. It is on Kindle Unlimited, so I wouldn’t really have to pay for it. That way, maybe I will read it.

Would I recommend it? I feel like I’m the last person in the world to read this based on all the people who encouraged me to read it, so is there anyone left to recommend it to? If you haven’t read this, then I’d say it’s definitely one to read the synopsis of and make your own mind up. I thought I’d love this and didn’t. Might be one of those you just have to read to find out!

Is it going on my favourites shelf? No.

Honestly, I feel like I’ve been quite harsh here. It was a decent read, and there were good parts. I think it was just this was hyped so much for me, that I was let down a little when I read it.

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Created Mar 13, 2019 at 3:36pm • Submit your own review...