Pages:
668
Publisher:
S&S
Release
Date: 8th
March 2016
Edition:
UK proof, review
copy
Other
Titles by this Author: City
of Bones, City of Ashes, City
of Glass, City
of Fallen Angels, City
of Lost Souls, City
of Heavenly Fire, Clockwork
Angel, Clockwork
Prince, Clockwork
Princess, The Bane Chronicles, The Iron
Trial, The Copper Gauntlet, Tales
from Shadowhunter Academy
In
a secret world where half-angel warriors called Shadowhunters are sworn to
fight demons, parabatai
is a sacred word. A parabatai is your best friend and battle partner. Parabatai
can be everything to each other – but
they can never fall in love. Emma Carstairs is a Shadowhunter, the best in her
generation. Together with her parabatai, Julian Blackthorn, she patrols the streets of Los Angeles, where
faeries – the most powerful of supernatural creatures – teeter on the edge of
open war with Shadowhunters. When bodies – both faeries and human – turn up,
bearing marks that match those found on Emma’s own murdered parents, an uneasy
alliance is formed. This is Emma’s chance at revenge – and Julian’s chance to get
back his brother, a prisoner of the faerie Courts. All they have to do is solve
the murders within two weeks…and before the murderer targets them.
As you can imagine, I nearly died
of happiness when an early proof of Lady
Midnight arrived and I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed it.
We picked up with the world of
the Shadowhunters five years after the ending of City of Heavenly Fire, and the battle to defeat Sebastian is now
referred to as the Dark War, and a Cold Peace has been struck between the
Shadowhunters and the fae. The world has moved on a lot from where we left it
and it was so good to find out what Jace, Clary, Simon, Magnus, Alec, Jem and
Tessa are up to now – and to see them appear again! It was so lovely. I did
find that I spent at least the first half of Lady Midnight more invested in finding out about the old gang and
desperately waiting for them to be mentioned and make appearances. But I eventually
fell in love with Emma, Jules and the rest of the Blackthorns though.
There’s a whole new cast of
characters to meet – we’ve got another big family to fall in love with! I really
liked the dynamics between the Blackthorns and the way that the romance
developed between Jules and Emma; it wasn’t new, it has always been there in
the background but never fully embraced until now. It seemed to escalate a bit quicker
when it finally happened (420 flipping pages!!) than it has in either of the
previous series’ and it was actually really refreshing. It felt very natural
for their history. I have to admit that Emma and Jules seemed pretty much like
flipped versions of Jace and Clary, though.
One of Cassandra Clare’s strengths
is her ability to torture both her characters and her readers with an agonising
forbidden romance and The Dark Artifices is
going to be no different! I really loved how the whole ‘falling in love with
your parabatai is forbidden’ complication was revealed and played out. It’s
going to make for some very, very interesting reading, and I’ve already had my
heart a little broken… All I'm going to say is poor, poor Jules. I fell a bit
in love with Jules, to be honest. He’s not Will or Jace Herondale level yet
(yet) but he has serious potential. I think he has one of biggest and most in
depth backstories of Clare’s characters so far and I felt like I knew him very
early on.
I don’t want to go into the plot
or anything, especially as the book was on embargo until yesterday! But I loved
that it was a bit of a murder mystery as well as Emma’s search for answers, multiple
love stories and the grappling with the politics of the Shadowhunter world, and
once again, the oppressive power of the Clave. I do find this world endlessly
interesting, especially as we go back and forwards through time and to
different locations, and I'm looking forward to seeing where Clare will take it
in the rest of the trilogy.
In the back of Lady Midnight is a short story featuring
the old gang, running parallel to a moment in Lady Midnight and I’ve got to say, it through up quite a few questions, but also some
serious squeeing happy moments. I really hope that we get one of these after
each book to catch us up with what Cassandra Clare is tormenting us with here.
I thoroughly enjoyed Lady Midnight and I’m already desperate
for book two!
Thanks to S&S and Georgia
Lawe PR for the review copy.
Sophie
I feel like I really need to read some Cassandra Clare.....
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