Review: The Course of True Love (and First Dates)

The Course of True Love [And First Dates] (The Bane Chronicles, #10) by Cassandra Clare
Published: March 18th 2014 by Margaret K. McElderry Books
Pages: 40

Magnus Bane and Alec Lightwood might fall in love--but first they have a first date.

When Magnus Bane, warlock, meets Alec Lightwood, Shadowhunter, sparks fly. And what happens on their first date lights flame...

"You're sarcastic twelve hours a day, but you're almost never spiteful. You have a good heart under all the glitter."

First dates are known to be awkward, complete with silences from time to time and clumsy behaviour. The kind of first date I saw here could have been cute. I was ready for an opportunity to ship Malec more than I did before. You see, I'm not the biggest Malec shippper out there. I have quite the unpopular opinion of thinking both deserve better, and I rarely see sparks flying. This novella didn't help in shipping them more. Throughout the story they both felt uncomfortable and the atmosphere between the two was nothing but awkward. With the first date itself, I thought that Clare tried a bit too hard to make the date awkward.

My issues with the novella didn't remain with the chemistry. The attempted humour was cringe-worthy. While others may have bursted out laughing at The Butt Song, I was just sitting there with arched eyebrows. Also, I found the scene at the metro station to be a bit odd. Both the robber and the talent agent jump out of nowhere, turn out to be the friendliest of people and then leave. It was all too random for me and didn't seem to have a real purpose, if I may say so.

I didn't really enjoy reading about a first date gone wrong. That is why I highly appreciated that the supposed emergency wasn't supposed but real, and brought in some fabulous teamwork between the two lovers. It lifted up the rating I first was going to give, and managed to bring a smile to my face. For some reason, I enjoy Malec much more in an action scene than on a date.