We all know what we're getting with a Cassandra Clare book at this point, right? We'll get questionable romance, a boring main character, yet endearing fantasy and a somewhat addictive plot.

I bought this book with those expectations, and they were fully met. I liked the book a lot, but as always, there were weird bits.

QUESTIONABLE ROMANCE

I fully felt that Lucie and the ghost lad (can't remember his name) would be set up as some kind of weird couple. It didn't happen in this book, but who knows, maybe it will happen at some point as this is to be another trilogy.

The James/Cordelia romance was fully expected, fully unwelcome and fully unnecessary. I can't speak for other fans, but I completely skip over the boring straight main couple in Clare's works now. Just cba with her bullshit of yearning glances and fairie tricks that make them realise they love each other etc etc.

I was a little disappointed with the James/Grace situation. It's kind of like Romeo and Juliet in that at the beginning of the book, James is obsessed with an entirely different girl - Grace Blackthorn. I would have liked if they just broke up normally, like you know, real teenagers. It would have made James a lot more relatable and realistic as a seventeen year old to have his heart truly broken by the girl he thought he loved.

But instead we find out that Grace is manipulative and used some kind of magic bracelet to make James fall in love with her. When the bracelet comes off, James is all like "lol who tf is Grace" and realises that his ❤️❤️one true love❤️❤️ is his sister's best friend Cordelia, and has been in front of him the whole time. And she just so happens to have had an intense crush on him all the way through their childhoods, uwu how sweet.

While we're on the subject, I'm sick of this trope Cassie has of her couples being in love with each other since childhood. It's weird and unrealistic. Seriously, what real teenager has only ever had one crush all the way through their lives on the one person and ever noticed anybody else?

Final thing to say is that there's a weird focus on Tessa and Will's relationship. At this point they're the parents pf the main characters and Will is about forty or something. Nobody wants to see a smut scene for the parents of the main characters. Stop.

BORING MAIN CHARACTER

There didn't really seem to be one specific main character. As always with Clare's books, we see a lot of characters' perspectives, but it's difficult to pin any one person down as a main character. It kind of skips between James/Lucie/Cordelia as the three main characters, and of these, they aren't particularly boring or irritating, but I would definitely like their personalities expanded on.

Cordelia is fine. I liked that she started off quite meek and became a total badass by the end. Would definitely like her more if her main character trait wasn't that she's been in love with James for years but he's never looked at me as anything more than as some kind of sister sob.

James is eh. He's sort of like a weaker version of his dad, Will. I can take or leave him, and would prefer if his character veered away from his father. As aforementioned, I would feel more for him if the Grace thing wasn't so badly done.

Lucie is the worst of the three. She's just sort of there. She likes writing and wants to be an author, but it's sort of a dull and predictable trait in a character. She doesn't get much drama or plot in this book, other than the fact that she's the only one who can see the ghost boy. I would absolutely like her to get more of a story in the next book.

James' friends come and go and have their own dramas, and I like them a lot. They need to be expanded on a little more but overall they're funny and provide some light entertainment.

So yeah, I liked this book overall.