This was terrific! A Darker Shade of Magic slightly reminded me of The Night Circus in its lovely, elegant world building as well as the delicately explained magic that infused each page. I loved the concept of four London's stacked on top of each other like pages in a book, and the magician Kell who can walk between them (but not without a price). The deliciously evil twin rulers of White London made my skin crawl (with sick delight) and don't even get me started on how awesome Lila Bard is. What an ending!

My only, slight, quibble was this wasn't long enough for me. I wanted MORE. I think Schwab kept it tight as this is apparently being marketing as a YA novel according to the back flap, but I know we are keeping this in the Adult SciFi/Fantasy section at my library. Anyway, At just under 400 pages and with a completed story arc, I was quite sad when it was over. I'm hoping Schwab will re-visit this world again.