Review Detail

Better in Black is an anthology that spans all of Cassandra Clare’s Shadowhunter books to give fans a satisfying visit back with their favorite characters. After reading this anthology, I had to resist the urge to reread ALL of the books again. If, like me, you don’t have time to do that, the short stories do a decent job of setting up where the story fits in the timeline.

The Good Storm: Tessa and Will Herondale are on their honeymoon in Paris when a wish spell they received as a wedding present makes life very difficult for them when Will wishes away his pain. Through this experience, we see that happiness and pain create the person we are. There are several deliciously sensual scenes between the newly married couple as well that captivate the reader’s attention.

The Beautiful Ajatara: The Demoness Ajatara was trapped for eons in her own world by Beliel. Now that he is dead, she realizes the only chance she has of ever being free is to use the bloodline of Beliel to break her curse. She tricks Lucy Herondale into thinking her book, The Beautiful Cordelia, will be published. Ajatara, Cordelia, and James Herondale are trapped in her unfinished manuscript, and the only way to free them is to write the perfect ending. Cordelia learns that the ever after has value and excitement just as the falling in love portion of their story does.
This is a flippantly fun commentary on the nature of writing and how fans who have never written all have opinions to indicate they know best. You can practically feel Cassandra Clare’s real-life desire to say a few things shine through in this tongue-in-cheek story.

Who the Wolf Loves is a love letter from Luke to Jocelyn while she lies in a coma. It chronicles the start of his insecurities and the beginning of the rift in their friendship that made him unable to tell her how much he loved her before she started dating Valentine. This story fills in their backstory to a satisfying degree.

Zachary’s Day Out is the funny misadventure of Thomas Lightwood and Alastair Carstairs, who agree to watch Alastair’s 18-month-old baby brother, Zachary. Alastair pompously doesn’t think it will be very hard, considering all the demons he has killed. Still, when Zachary is more interested in eating the tin soldiers than learning military strategy from the great battles of history, it is the first inkling that he has no idea what to do with a baby. Then they are distracted for just a minute, and Zachary looks into a magical mirror that transforms him into a man with a toddler’s maturity. The fun really begins when he escapes into the big world. The narrator’s use of a sniveling upper-class accent really emphasizes how put upon the whole ordeal is for Alastair.

The Judgement of King Kieran features Faery King Kieran and his Shadowhunter consorts, Mark and Cristina, in choosing the next Lord of Storms and discovering who is using demonic magic. The story was interesting. However, the story didn’t spend as much time on the romantic partnerships as I would have liked, and I did not like the narrator’s choice of Cristina’s accent.

A Surfeit of Annas features Anna and Ari a year after Anna’s brother’s death. Anna has become a homebody, so Ari encourages her to go to Hell Rouelle, where she announces she is off the market to many disappointed ladies. The couple is barraged in the coming days with letters of entreaty and disbelief that Anna won’t dump Ari and go out with them. Then Ari starts seeing Anna out flirting and kissing other women, but when she gets home, there is no evidence that Anna has left. Only through trust and deep love can they solve the mystery and be free to continue their relationship.

Bred in the Bone features Emma and Julian, who must deal with an endarkened Emma from the alternate timeline of Thul. She wants to watch Julian suffer as he watches his Emma die for the revenge of his killing her version of Julian. However, Earth is poison to her, and her revenge means she will never be reunited in death with her version of Julian, which is quite a sad thought.

City of Broken Hearts features Simon and Izzy and the return of Ajatara. Ajatara is experiencing heartbreak, which is leaking magic all over the city and causing couples to argue. Simon and Izzy must work through their issues and help Ajatara communicate with her love to save the city. I really liked the link between stories to create this one.

The Time of Two features Jace Herondale and Clary Fray as they try to help Marise Lightwood. Her brother, Max, was stripped of his marks to marry a mundane, and Marise never talked to him again. Jace and Clary track him down and get to know him to try and repair the relationship so he will come to their wedding. In the process, they learn of a prophecy of the end of Shadowhunters that starts when Shadowhunters are divided into 2 factions, like they currently are. This feels like a precursor to a new companion series that sounds exciting and may end in a double wedding.

Too Wise to Love features a fairy who vows never to love after seeing her 6 sisters’ downfall from love. She is a healer, so she is there as a witness as the Seelie Queen falls in love with Sebastian Morganstern and is there for the birth of the baby from that union. The Seelie Queen loses all interest in the baby after Sebastian’s death, and the cold peace is forced upon them. While raising baby Ash, the healer learns that she loves deeply, and even though it will hurt deeply, she will do everything to raise Ash in love so that he can withstand his demon parentage from Sebastian.

Overall, this was an excellent audiobook with fantastic narrators to bring heart and intrigue to these stories. It seems to fill out many characters' stories with a happily ever after and to set the stage for more fun in the Shadowhunter realm for others. I do wish there had been a story with Magnus and Alec, which seems like a fun relationship left out.