Oh my gosh. It’s been waaayy too long since I’ve done this post. Not to mention how MIA I ended up being last week, to boot. Ah well, it’s in the past now.
For anyone unfamiliar, Majestic Mondays are when I highlight an awesome looking book cover and talk about what I like about it.
This week, in honor of a spinoff and sequel releasing next week, I’m gonna gush about one of my favorite books. Again. That’s right – A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab!
A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
SERIES: Shades of Magic (Book #1)
LENGTH: 400 pages
GENRES: Fantasy, Fiction
PUBLISHER: Tor Books
RELEASE DATE: 24 February 2015
BOOK DESCRIPTION:
A Darker Shade of Magic, from #1 New York Times bestselling author V.E. Schwab
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.
Cover Rating: ❤️🩶🤍🖤❤️ • 5 colorful hearts
The Fragile Threads of Power is releasing next week, and the new covers for the first trilogy have already come out, so I thought it was past time to gush about the original ones. Especially since I much prefer them to the new ones, even if they now match the one for the new book.
This cover (and the covers for the rest of the Shades of Magic trilogy) incorporate the “colors” of the four Londons featured in the series. It’s also a unique art style, and it conveys the main mechanic of the novel.
I love the way the colors are used here – to Kell’s red coat, to differentiate the two Londons Kell is traveling between, and even in the letters of the title. I even like the way that the negative space looks, despite the emptiness. It makes the universe of A Darker Shade of Magic feel very vast.
Do you like the cover art of the Shades of Magic trilogy? What are your favorite book covers?
As always, thank you so much for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful day/night!
See ya ~Mar