Cassie Clare on Tumblr

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  Woo! Charlie Bowater’s full portrait of James Herondale from The Last Hours. You’ll be seeing him and Cordelia at BookCon and I’ll be rolling out more gorgeous art as we approach the release of Chain of Gold in March!(If you look closely you can see the etchings on James’ pistol — runes and the words “Luke 12:49.” (“I have come to ignite a fire on the earth - and how I wish it were already kindled.”)
  https://www.instagram.com/p/BxnBaNwHIVx/?igshid=2gw4w6eippki

  05/18/19

• EW talks YA: You can't resist these swoony summertime romances

  Aw! A gorgeous review for Red Scrolls of Magic by me and @wes_chu from Entertainment Weekly.  Love the descriptions of Magnus and Alec and why they work so well together! And now back to plumbing morally gray areas of ideological dissent. ;)

  
  

  Cassandra Clare expands the storytelling of her Shadowhunters world with this love-story-meets-fantasy-adventure, focused on fan favorites Magnus Bane and Alec Lightwood. Set partially during the events of Mortal Instruments novel City of Fallen Angels, The Red Scrolls of Magic follows Magnus and Alec on a European vacation during the relatively early days of their relationship. Magnus wants to sweep Alec off his feet with a romantic trip, but things go haywire when they find themselves investigating a demon-worshipping cult called the Crimson Hand that Magnus purportedly started centuries ago as a joke.

  Clare explains in her author’s note that when originally beginning her series, she was eager to show LGBTQ+ representation and love in her YA stories — despite pushback from various parties. Red Scrolls was an opportunity for her to fulfill something she’d long wanted to do, in making Magnus and Alec primary romantic protagonists. She and co-author Wesley Chu succeed in spades. Magnus and Alec are winning heroes. Magnus’ bold and brazen personality combined with his innate kindness make him an endlessly compelling character — that person at the party we all wish we could be more like, or at least be with. In contrast, Alec’s quiet devotion and steely loyalty make him a perfect foil.

  The adventure at the book’s center is compelling, a race across Europe’s great cities to uncover the truth about a demonic cult and its ties to secrets in Magnus’ past. Though it’s a puzzle piece in a story fans of the Shadowhunters novels have already seen much of the end of, it also works as a standalone romp. The book deepens Clare’s rich world, filling out the lives of beloved characters for fans while also offering up a diverting adventure story that newcomers can dive into with little confusion. It marks the first in a planned trilogy, and since we know much of Magnus and Alec’s story, it will be interesting to see at which junctures it chooses to jump in further down the line.

  Clare is no stranger to weaving political themes into her work. Her previous series, The Dark Artifices, dealt heavily with an extremist faction that seized control of the government, plumbing morally gray areas of ideological dissent. This book is breezier by far than the heavier themes of that novel, while still willingly engaging with themes of acceptance, loneliness, sexual identity, and more. She hammers home the importance of representation simply by allowing Magnus and Alec’s love story to take center stage. More than anything, the novel is a rip-roaring adventure merged with a satisfying romance — one that feels like a serial adventure of yore, complete with lush European settings (and a dash of orgiastic magical Venetian parties with masks to shake things up). Clare and Chu raise the stakes for both Magnus and Alec, allowing readers to see what laid the foundation of their love, while never losing that breathless sense of adventure that makes their story so fun to read.
  
  

  05/06/19

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  The beautiful Cordelia Carstairs in Chain of Gold, by Charlie Bowater. We’ll have TLH character posters at Bookcon so stay tuned for more info. (Chain of Hold, starring Cordelia Carstairs and James Herondale, coming in March…

  05/02/19