The Red Scrolls of Magic (The Eldest Curses #1) (Hardcover) ~ Cassandra Clare and Wesley Chu

Genre: Young Adult/ Fantasy

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books

ISBN: 9781481495080

368 pages

Source: Barnes and Noble

It’s been about six months since I dove into a piece of Shadowhunter magic.

It was an intentional break after the massacre that was my emotional state at the end of Lord of Shadows. God, y’all, I know this review isn’t for that book but good heavens, it ripped me apart.

I swore I’d take a feelings break before running headlong into Queen of Air and Darkness. And I totally did but then, right at the end of the semester, I stumbled on The Red Scrolls of Magic.

The novella is set way before The Dark Artifices, back when Alec and Magnus were just starting out as, well, Alec and Magnus.

Through the bulk of the actual series, their trips and adventures are referenced but they’re seen more in postcards than in actual stories.

Getting on with it, the lovely thing about Scrolls, is that it is devoted precisely to the action we missed, as readers, focused back in Brooklyn with Clary and Jace and the whole world burning down.

I love Magnus and I love Alec because he makes Magnus happy. He also tempers Magnus a great deal and even though I think Alec is terribly boring, he is often the voice of reason when the rest of the Shadowhunters and the Downworld are loosing their collective minds.

I think it’s safe to say that I am officially an actual Alec fan, now. And I am so grateful for this book for giving me that. The couple’s first trip is filled with vulnerability and longing, intermingled with the normal Cassie flair for drama and action.

I don’t want to say too much but just know that being an immortal warlock with a penchant for mischief can, quite literally, come back to bite you.