About the Book
Title: Lord of Shadows
Author: Cassandra Clare
Series: Dark Artifices #2
Genre: YA Fantasy
Pages: 699
Edition Read: Hardcover
Dates Read: September 20 – 25, 2022
Blurb: Would you trade your soul mate for your soul?
A Shadowhunter’s life is bound by duty. Constrained by honor. The word of a Shadowhunter is a solemn pledge, and no vow is more sacred than the vow that binds parabatai, warrior partners—sworn to fight together, die together, but never to fall in love.
Emma Carstairs has learned that the love she shares with her parabatai, Julian Blackthorn, isn’t just forbidden—it could destroy them both. She knows she should run from Julian. But how can she when the Blackthorns are threatened by enemies on all sides?
Their only hope is the Black Volume of the Dead, a spell book of terrible power. Everyone wants it. Only the Blackthorns can find it. Spurred on by a dark bargain with the Seelie Queen, Emma; her best friend, Cristina; and Mark and Julian Blackthorn journey into the Courts of Faerie, where glittering revels hide bloody danger and no promise can be trusted. Meanwhile, rising tension between Shadowhunters and Downworlders has produced the Cohort, an extremist group of Shadowhunters dedicated to registering Downworlders and “unsuitable” Nephilim. They’ll do anything in their power to expose Julian’s secrets and take the Los Angeles Institute for their own.
When Downworlders turn against the Clave, a new threat rises in the form of the Lord of Shadows—the Unseelie King, who sends his greatest warriors to slaughter those with Blackthorn blood and seize the Black Volume. As dangers close in, Julian devises a risky scheme that depends on the cooperation of an unpredictable enemy. But success may come with a price he and Emma cannot even imagine, one that will bring with it a reckoning of blood that could have repercussions for everyone and everything they hold dear.
Review
You know a book is good when I read an almost 700-pager in six days. Holy hell, this was amazing! There was so much going on and all of it was so captivating and cliffhangery that I could not stop reading.
Have I mentioned how much I love Cassie’s writing? Because I really, really do. She writes wonderful characters that you can’t help adoring (while sometimes simultaneously wanting to give them a good slap across the face). This book was a perfect example of how she can entertain you while also ripping your heart out and stepping on it.
I love any time we get to spend time either in Faerie or with the fae and we got a bunch of that in this book, including a new addition to the group in Kieran. This is a problem since he had a romantic history with Mark, who is starting to have feelings for Cristina. We also find out just how horrible the Unseelie King is (which we kind of already knew, but this just solidifies it) and how conniving the Seelie Queen is (again, we knew this already, but wow).
And then there is the Cohort. Speaking of people I want to give a good slap. Zara and her cronies are everything bad about Shadowhunters all rolled into a tight, overprivileged, prejudiced package. It’s basically Valentine’s Circle all over again, only much more insidious and further involved in Shadowhunter politics. They are going to be a huge problem later, even more than they already are.
We also finally meet Annabelle, if you can call it a meeting. She is sympathetic, but also super scary, especially once the events at the end of the book play out. I’m not going to spoil it here (although the blurb for book #3 spoils it anyway) but I was absolutely shocked and completely heartbroken.
Cassie Clare enjoys taking her readers on an emotional rollercoaster, that’s for sure. It’s what I love most about her books and this one was no exception.
GoodReads rating: 5 stars
Categories: Books I've Read
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