K.E. Mills - The Accidental Sorcerer
So, this was billed as comedic fantasy, and there was some funny stuff in it. The premise is a modern world (not our world, but there are cars and telephones and such) where magic works. The hero is a minimally magical civil servant who accidentally finds himself imbued with considerable magic power, and then becomes the royal magician for a small kingdom (somewhat analogous to Australia, perhaps). The prince seems feckless, but is actually power crazed, his sister projects a frumpy and ditzy facade, but is actually quite bright, and cleans up quite well. There is plenty of potential for a laugh riot here, but about 5/8 of the way into the book, it becomes quite dark - an exploration of evil and what it does to normal people.
I quite enjoyed the book - it was well written, and the characters were well developed - but I don't know that I would have started it if it were clear that it was as dark as it turned out to be. That being said, I will probably pick up the second book when I'm back home.