Lord of Shadows - Cassandra Clare - Spoiler Free Review

Title - Lord of Shadows
Author - Cassandra Clare
Series - The Dark Artifices #2
ISBN - 9781471116650
Genre - YA > Fantasy
My Copy - Purchased
Format - Trade Paperback
Where You Can Find It - Goodreads - Waterstones - Barnes & Noble - Indigo - Book Depository - Amazon UK - Amazon US

Would you trade your soul mate for your soul?

A Shadowhunter’s life is bound by duty. Constrained by honour. 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.

I finished this book about an hour ago, and i am still trying to put my thoughts straight and actually regretting reading the book so quickly purely because we will not be getting another for quite some time.

I have been in a reading slump since reading Lady Midnight last year and i didn't even know if i was going to be able to read this book but once i started i couldn't stop and i read far into the night. 

Going to the start of this book, i was worried i wouldn't remember what had happened previously but it all came flooding back when i opened the book. 

I may mention spoilers from Lady Midnight or any of the other previous books in the shadow hunter world. So if you haven't read them i don't suggest you should read this.

Now onto the review, I am still not sure what to think of this book, my initial reaction is to give it 5 stars but i am so confused about things and all of those things cannot be discussed here but it will be in my spoiler review. 

The relationships in this book were everywhere and we finally know why Clary refused to marry Jase but then it was never mentioned again, that is one of the things that confused me, why didn't Emma question it when Clary told her. The Relationships going on, well you need a map to remember them all. I don't remember any other Shadow hunter series being like that. 

The story flowed to an extent but i felt like it could have been shorter, there were so many parts that were really unnecessary. It felt like the book wrapped up about halfway through then there was something else that they had to deal with. 

I could see the set up for the Last Hours series with the picture of Lucie, Tessa, Cordelia and James. Then we have all of the Herondale brilliance with Kit even calling Will and Idiot. I really wanted a bit more though but that is just because the Infernal Devices is my favourite in the chronicles, and i have a feeling the Last Hours will be just as loved. 

I don't believe this is as good as Lady Midnight or any of their predecessors so for that reason my rating changed from 5 to 4 as i still loved it and it made me smile, laugh and cry. I think that is the problem when you love a series that has so many books, every new book has a very high standard and sometimes it cannot live up to it. 

Until Next Time

Happy Reading

Like A Memory - Abbi Glines SPOILER REVIEW

If You Haven't Read This book Check out my Spoiler Free Review HERE

Going into this book i had quite a few ideas of what was going to happen and i was wrong on so many counts and i love when that happens so first lets go through my theories....

So lets start with what i called the biggest theory ....

My biggest theory is that Nate either isn't really engaged and its just a publicity thing for the opening of Octavia's shop or he is being forced into it, but i cannot think of anyone doing that so i am going with the first one and my biggest reasoning is a quote from one of the excerpts above and that is...
" It was before I realised that women weren’t as soft and pretty on the inside as they were on the outside. My mother was perfect, inside and out, but my little sister Ophelia had a definite evil streak."
If he was so in love, wouldn't Octavia be on that list..... 

I was right on one account, he wasn't really in love with her but he was engaged. So i am going to count that as wrong

Secondly i think that we are going to either love or hate Octavia, like she will either be the nicest person on  the planet or she will be the Nan of this series. 

This was certainly true, she will not be the Nan of the series but she was a definite bitch and i definitely hated her by the end but then i also felt sorry for her when her past came out. 

    Bliss is going to end up telling Nate about the illness in an argument or he will find out from a third party. 

This is true, Nate found out from his grandfather, i personally thought it was going to be Eli. But i loved the way this was done.

 After Bliss' illness i have a feeling that Cage and the men are going to be even more protective than before and this will lead to a heated confrontation between Nate and Cage

This again was partly true, the men in her life are particularly protective of her, especially her brothers the Song Cleaning This Gun came into my head when Cruz walked out meeting Nate for the first time. I am actually glad i was wrong about Nate and Cage having a confrontation and i was so happy with the way Cage handled it.

There needs to be a father/son moment in this book between Nate and Rush and we can also add some Dean into that, i am almost a 100% convinced that Dean owns Live Bay, we only really know of one bar in Sea Breeze and what Rocker wouldn't want to own Live Bay where they have live rock acts. 

There were quite a few father/son moments and a few with Abe as well but i was completely off about what grandfather was in sea-breeze. Considering the last time we saw Abe he was on a boat loving life in Florida Keys the fact that he would move to Alabama away from his family seemed odd to me where as Dean really has no ties and he opened a restaurant and Dean is the one who loved to cook. But i am glad i was wrong about who owned Live Bay, Krit definitely deserves that bar.

This needs to be a Bliss/Nate HEA because it has promised so much and for people like myself who have been waiting since 2014 for this book and these characters i am more than a little terrified that they wont get a HEA.

We did get a HEA, and it was honestly the best, i loved the way it was handled with her telling him she was infertile and Nate meeting the York's. It was done tastefully and it gave them the ending they deserved. Even if the heartbreak was a bit much and i didn't see what happened with Octavia coming. But i should have because it is kind of normal for books like this to throw a spanner in the works. 

This is probably going to be the most emotionally charged book in the entire series because of the topic and the fact that we have literally read them as they were born and then they grew up and it is going to be one hell of an emotional roller coaster and one i am really hoping lives up to the high expectations i have for it.

I was right about the emotionally charged, and it killed me at times seeing a family who i love in so much pain and then you have the fun moments i literally cannot wait to read the rest of this series. i have high expectations for all of them now and that worries me a little but they will be OK. 


So that is it for my theories, but there are some things i want to mention. 

Normally the next book is set up, and i don't know if its because Glines hasn't decided yet but we have absolutely no idea who the next book is going to be about, i have a feeling it will either be Eli or Lila Kate but i am not sure. It could even be Cruz York. 

Then you have the fact that we don't really see much of the Adults, the Rosemary Adults were around more that the Sea Breeze but that is because Nate needed them. And WOW Nan and Grant in the same room without killing each other i'm shocked.

Poor Eli, he was never going to stand a chance and it was kind of sad because that situation is very common and most people have felt it from either side of the coin. 

Bliss being infertile was a shock, i actually didn't know chemotherapy could cause infertility and it was kind of a learning curve and it was bittersweet because yes it saved your life but in return it takes a piece of you, It was sad to watch her war with her decision to tell Nate but the way he reacted was perfect and shows how he was raised. 

So that is all i wanted to say on the subject of this book that really couldn't be put in a review for people who haven't read it. 

Until Next Time

Happy Reading 

I AM BACK!!!!!

Hi so as you can see from the title i am back, i said i would be back at the beginning of May and it is the 6th today so a little bit behind. I honestly haven't read that much a few review books and i am thinking of revamping this blog a little but i am sticking to the schedule that i started with at the beginning of the year posting on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays but if there is a release i am exited about i will differ from these days. 

So Until Next Time

Happy Reading