Lord of Shadows Synopsis
“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 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.”
Note: This review is spoiler-free!
Why did I pick it?
I LOVE Cassandra Clare books, it’s a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. I know I might be in the minority here, especially since her books tend to be a bit like marmite in the YA community, but I’m very much in the LOVE camp. I wasn’t a massive fan of the first book in the series, Lady Midnight. I felt a little let down by it, but I think maybe I built it up so much, the reality was never going to meet my expectations.
What I loved about it
Firstly it has to be the locations. I was delighted when Polperro appeared in the story. I spend every summer from the age of 2-16 there on holiday and it was great to have somewhere so familiar mentioned in a book. I have to give Cassandra Clare lots of credit for this as well as she pretty much nailed the descriptions of the place and the people here, it’s clear she spent time here. Unlike previous books, the story really moves around and changes location many times. This was a welcome addition as it added further depth to the book, something which I know has been a common complaint with some Cassandra Clare novels.
Although the story is rather dark there were plenty of comedy elements, within the dialogue in particular, that I absolutely loved. I think this is an area I’ve really seen Cassandra Clare’s writing develop throughout her books and it just makes them all the more enjoyable and entertaining.
One of my issues with the first book was the lack of story progression. I ended up putting it down halfway through as I got a little bored. Lord of Shadows certainly didn’t suffer from this. Yes there were elements that the book didn’t need… it’s a big one after all but I couldn’t put it down and it certainly didn’t have any lulls, I enjoyed every minute of it!
What I loathed about it
I think it’s probably my age, in fact, I KNOW it’s my age, and it’s one of the reasons I don’t read much contemporary YA fiction. But I really find some of the more modern/teenager interactions intensely annoying. It didn’t affect my enjoyment of the book particularly, but I found myself rolls my eyes on more than one occasion!
Thoughts
A great second book that ended with such a shocking twist it took me a few weeks and a severe reading slump to get over it. I cannot wait to see how the story progresses in Queen of Air and Darkness.
When and where can you get it
You can purchase Lord of Shadows on Amazon today
