Sunny Los Angeles can be a dark place indeed in Cassandra Clare’s Lord of Shadows, the sequel to the #1 New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling Lady Midnight. Lord of Shadows is a Shadowhunters novel. Emma Carstairs has finally avenged her parents. She thought she’d be at peace. But she is anything but calm. Torn between her desire for her parabatai Julian and her desire to protect him from the … parabatai Julian and her desire to protect him from the brutal consequences of parabatai relationships, she has begun dating his brother, Mark. But Mark has spent the past five years trapped in Faerie; can he ever truly be a Shadowhunter again?
And the faerie courts are not silent. The Unseelie King is tired of the Cold Peace, and will no longer concede to the Shadowhunters’ demands. Caught between the demands of faerie and the laws of the Clave, Emma, Julian, and Mark must find a way to come together to defend everything they hold dear–before it’s too late.more
I love all the books she writes, her way of writing is easy to follow and I have a hard time putting them down. I read her books faster than a lot to f the other books I’ve read.
So it has taken me a little time to get back into this new series by Cassandra Clare set in the familiar Shadowhunter World. The action hasn’t been as immediate as it was in The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices, however by the end of Lord of Shadows I feel the stage is finally set, the pieces unveiled and that book three is going to be unbelievable! As with all Cassandra Clare’s work this book was wonderfully written with vivid scenery, and plenty of emotion. The ending (and I won’t spoil it) literally left my mouth hanging open furiously turning pages to make sure I was really on the last page! The only thing I didn’t like….SPOILER ALERT!!
is that Diana Wrayburn is revealed to be transgender. I know Cassandra Clare is a big proponent of LGBTQ rights and has introduced many gay characters and relationships throughout her work which I have never had a problem with and it’s not that I have a problem with Diana either, just that I didn’t feel that it fit the story/ Her confession to Gwynn seemed shoved into the story rather than a natural part of it. I found myself rolling my eyes through her explanation, especially the part about going to Thailand to have her surgery. Again I have no problem with LGBTQ characters or plot points or any of that, my only issue is that it just didn’t feel like it fit. Alec and Magnus getting together felt right, this felt like a soapbox and completely immaterial to the story. I mean it get the fact that this is why she can’t head the institute because of the questions they’ll ask but still I don’t know. Anyway…
Overall, loved the book, love the author, and am really looking forward to the next installment!
Love this book! Cannot wait for the next one.
When an opportunity arose to rate Clare’s new book, I was only halfway through reading. However, I had very much enjoyed it to that point, just as I thoroughly enjoyed all her previous books. I am a big fan. Now, having finished with the book, I really regret having assigned it 5 stars. The reason for this is simple. I was simply disgusted at the end of the book. I read a lot of first time digital authors and can usually separate the ones who are not only fun to read but clearly have a future in writing successfully. The major way I divide them is based on how well the author wraps up the story. The not so good authors will leave a cliffhanger with no resolution of any central issue. I was totally disappointed at the end of this book. Clare has always been so good at wrapping up the end but still leaving you knowing there will be more. She NEVER stops the book in the middle of the final major scene with absolutely nothing resolved. This time she did exactly that! Nothing resolved in any way at all. I turned the last page to discover there was no more book. It was a cheap lazy trick. Her fans will always want to read the next book. It felt as if she didn’t know how to tie any of it together or she deliberately ended it that way. Makes you wonder if the next book will be the same. I won’t be buying any of her books new now.
The whole romance-that-can-never-be plot of this book is tiring. Hope it resolves in the next one.