A very fun read. Music, mystery, intrigue and sexy aristocrats. You'll either love or hate this book, I think. It has a quirky style that I enjoy, but (judging from other reviews) just grates for some.

The author interview here on Goodreads is a fair preview of the weird-ity you might expect. If it makes you smile, then this book might be for you. https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/3526759-an-interview-with-magnus ( )

Just trying to fill time before third installment of discovery of....and this did not do it for me. It was a cross between Even Cowgirls get the Blues and hitchhiker guide with like a dose of academia. There was also a book I can't remember quite that reminds me of this...something about a book and an end and Y. Anywho...I did not finish this boom and hate to rate if I don't but I read very nearly to the end and I wouldn't recommend it past page 100. This is a great example of excellent world building and then not being able to follow through with the rest of the story. Now that I think about this novel in terms of Master and M...I might revisit and finish. ( )

Fantasy, adventure, music, political intrigue, a protagonist named Sarah, and Prague as the setting? I couldn’t read this book fast enough! Sarah is, by far, one of my favorite protagonists I’ve ever been introduced to, tied for the top spot with Celaena of Throne of Glass fame and Amy Haskel of Diana Peterfreund’s Ivy League series. She fears little and is unabashedly who she wants to be. Sarah doesn’t apologize for being herself, even when her brazen personality can offend even the most liberal contemporary, and that is what I love most about her.

Prague is my top travel wishlist destination and the more I read about it, in both fiction and nonfiction works, the more my desire to see the city of dark magic deepens. Sarah experiences the city in all its splendors, and it’s not so splendid features as well. Beethoven is her guide as she readies a music exhibit for the Lobkowicz Palace museum after the former curator, her mentor, is found dead outside the palace from an apparent suicide attempt. Before long, Sarah discovers there is so much more to the story when she retraces her mentor’s, and Beethoven’s, steps throughout the city upon discovering a time shifting drug one evening with the dashing prince Max.

A great deal happens in this book and there are about ten different stories being intertwined together but that made me enjoy it more. I cannot stand stories where it is all about the main character and written as if the rest of the world doesn’t exist. While City of Dark Magic may take it a little too far in the opposite direction, it meant that I never found a boring moment the entire time I was reading. Really, I cannot emphasize how much I love this book and all the magnificently entertaining intertwining stories. ( )

Good book. ( )

Prague is a great backdrop for a fantasy novel. Sarah Weston is recruited to help catalog the original works of Beethoven for the Lobkowicz family musuem when her thesis advisor dies under mysterious circumstances. Like many of today's musical geniuses, it is implied that Beethoven was a drug addict, which Sarah discovers while mentally time-traveling under the influence herself. Throw in a little espionage, a lot of sex and murder, cover-ups, and you have the makings of this novel. From the writing, I was able to discern that this book was written by two women, using a nom de plume. This should have been better. ( )