REVIEW| Lord of Shadows

Lord of Shadows (The Dark Artifices #2)
Cassandra Clare
⭐⭐⭐ 1/2

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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. 

Review

The Cover:

This doesn't work as well as Lady Midnight, does it? I don't understand the spacing used by Cliff Nielsen; my only question is why is Julian so small and pushed to the top corner? 

There is too much negative space. The colours are a bit murky. It wouldn't have catched my eye if I wasn't looking for it or if it weren't on a Waterstones table.

The Content:

I liked this more than I liked Lady Midnight, even though I gave it a lower rating. Interesting.

Unlike LM, there are multiple settings, some we have seen before like London and Alicante, and some we haven't seen. 

I think the one thing I thought Cassandra Clare handled better was already existing character, like Jace and Clary. They felt like they had purpose in the world and story rather than Cassandra Clare just waving around the page for the sake of having characters that we've grown attached too, for no real reason at all.  

However, where I felt like I knew the characters that we have spent another entire series with, and there was some great character development with Kit, Ty and Livia, other characters lacked the complexity that Cassandra often gives her characters. Like Mark and Kieran. I adored Mark in Lady Midnight, understanding his mind and his journey back into the Shadowhunter world, and his relationship with Kieran. And both seemed really out of character and distant. They didn't know quite where they were in the grand scheme of thing and how they needed to react.

The middle plot felt a little bit lost. I knew we would finally get to be exploring the faerie world outside of the Seelie Court, but I thought more of the conflict and resolution would take place there, rather than a couple of chapters of their journey. I felt like I was reading for the sake of reading and not hitting those key plot points. 

Until, we get to THAT ending. Be prepared, this book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger and will leave you waiting. Just thank your lucky stars that the release date for Queen of Air and Darkness has been pushed up to Fall 2018.