Book Review :: Better in Black by Cassandra Clare

Better in Black by Cassandra Clare
Also in this series: Lord of Shadows, Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy, Queen of Air and Darkness, The Red Scrolls of Magic, Ghosts of the Shadow Market, Chain of Gold, The Lost Book of the White, Chain of Iron, A Sea Change
Published by Walker Books
Genres: Paranormal, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 426
Goodreads

Ten couples. United by love. Divided by danger.

Jace and Clary, seeking out an exiled Shadowhunter and learning that love can save the world—or destroy it. Will and Tessa, honeymooning in Paris when a séance sends them down an unexpected path. Simon and Izzy, observing increased demonic activity around New York, on a hilarious urban romp.

These are just a few of the beloved couples whose romantic escapades will have you on the edge of your seat across time and storylines from Cassandra Clare’s expansive Shadowhunters series.

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What is Better in Black by Cassandra Clare about?

Better in Black by Cassandra Clare is a collection of 10 stories of romance, about 10 couples from the Shadowhunter world.

Jace and Clary are looking for an exiled Shadowhunter, Will and Tessa are on their honeymoon in Paris, Thomas and Alistair have to look after a baby sibling for a day, Julian and Emma have the alternative universe coming back to haunt them, and we get Luke’s perspective when Jocelyn is in a coma waaaaay back in the original book trilogy days.

I won’t go through all the stories, but they’re all based around a particular couple.

“She had created a universe—every book is a universe, you know—and that is a sort of magic. Perhaps the most powerful magic that exists.”

My thoughts on Better in Black

I’m gonna be honest and say I didn’t know that this book was coming out until I saw it already published and on the shelf in the bookstore.

Oops.

As someone who has read literally all the Shadowhunter series and eats up every book like she’s still 16 years old and City of Bones has just dropped … that’s pretty bad that I didn’t know it was out.

“At four o’clock all fighting is paused for half an hour for tea and biscuits.”

However! I soon discovered, when I opened up the book, that perhaps one of the reasons I didn’t know it was a) coming out and b) was already out was that it was actually originally a Kickstarter project. I don’t know the ins and outs of it, but it looks like it was then published traditionally later in 2025, and hence why it suddenly appeared on the shelves, I guess.

But back to the story/ies! This book was of a similar ilk to that of Tales of the Shadowhunter Academy, Ghosts of the Shadow Market and also The Bane Chronicles, where they are 10 stories around a certain plot or topic rather than one story.

Tales of the Shadowhunter Academy are stories set around the academy, Shadow Market stories are all about Shadow Market, and surprise surprise, The Bane Chronicles are 10 stories from Magnus Bane’s adventures of the years (this one is probably my fave!).

What I love about these books is that you get more stories from characters across the entire series.

And Better in Black was no different.

There are 10 couples in this book, and each tale revolves around them. I wouldn’t say they’re all romance stories, but they do centre around the couple.

The couples in the book:

• Anna and Ari
• Emma and Julian
• Kieran, Mark, and Cristina
• James and Cordelia
• Thomas and Alastair
• Sebastian and the Seelie Queen
• Jocelyn and Luke
• Will and Tessa
• Simon and Izzy
• Jace and Clary

I think I was expecting more of a romance angle from each story, and there was a little bit of that throughout, but it was more that the characters found themselves in certain circumstances or places, wrapped in a plot line rather than in a tale where the relationship itself was the main thing.

Which was totally fine, just a little different from what I was expecting.

While I did love revisiting some characters that I haven’t read about in a while, and always love revisiting my faves like Will and Tessa, and some newer-to-the-world characters like Thomas and Alistair … most of the storylines were just meh.

I did enjoy some of them more than others, but it almost feels like Clare put out the book with a ‘romance’ spin because romantasy is so big at the moment … so I do think some of the stories fell flat.

However, I did enjoy it over all and I’m glad I read it.

Do you need to read this book in the mass of Shadowhunter books? No. Not at all. Just like you don’t need to read the other story compilation … but if you’re a fan and you want to go back to some of those characters from across the years, then it’s a fun read.

Have you read Better in Black? What did you think? Was it a good addition to the Shadowhunter world or not needed?