Thursday, July 21, 2016

Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare

Book Summary
In a kingdom by the sea…

In a secret world where half-angel warriors are sworn to fight demons, parabatai is a sacred word.

parabatai is your partner in battle. A parabatai is your best friend. Parabatai can be everything to each other—but they can never fall in love.

Emma Carstairs is a warrior, a Shadowhunter, and the best in her generation. She lives for battle. Shoulder to shoulder with her parabatai, Julian Blackthorn, she patrols the streets of Los Angeles, where vampires party on the Sunset Strip, and faeries—the most powerful of supernatural creatures—teeter on the edge of open war with Shadowhunters. When the bodies of humans and faeries turn up murdered in the same way Emma’s parents were when she was a child, an uneasy alliance is formed. This is Emma’s chance for revenge—and Julian’s chance to get back his brother Mark, who is being held prisoner by the faerie Courts. All Emma, Mark, and Julian have to do is solve the murders within two weeks…and before the murderer targets them.

Their search takes Emma from sea caves full of sorcery to a dark lottery where death is dispensed. And each clue she unravels uncovers more secrets. What has Julian been hiding from her all these years? Why does Shadowhunter Law forbid parabatai to fall in love? Who really killed her parents—and can she bear to know the truth?

The darkly magical world of Shadowhunters has captured the imaginations of millions of readers across the globe. Join the adventure in Lady Midnight, the long-awaited first volume of a new trilogy from Cassandra Clare.
 

Flo's Review
I wrote once that Cassandra Clare could write her Shadowhunters walking down the street and I would love it. And still -- yes. I listened to Lady Midnight on CD audiobook. It was 17 CDs long and almost 20 hours. According to Goodreads, it took me a month to do, but it felt like longer. But I loved every single minute. This audiobook is fantastic. Usually my patience for long audiobooks is waning, but I listened to this one from the beginning to the end. The narrator, Morena Baccarin, may now be one of my favorites. She voiced the characters so distinctly, yet so fitting for their descriptions. She portrayed pain, love, annoyance, and the entire range of emotions in her reading. So so well done.

It did not take me long at all to fall in love with Emma and the Blackthorns. The characters are described so beautifully and so lovingly, that I felt as I read that I had loved them for a long time too. I laughed with them, I cried with them, I worried about them. I felt their love and their pain and their fear. I was not just reading this story -- I was deep inside it, deep inside their lives.

Cassandra Clare sometimes gets talk for continuing to write about Shadowhunters, and not anything else. But honestly? She's so good at it! Why stop?!? I will read it all!! I have no doubt that this new series, The Dark Artifices, will rival The Mortal Instruments and the Infernal Devices in epicness.

I had forgotten how Cassandra Clare likes her cliffhangers, and this one was no different. 5 out of 5 stars for this excellent book!

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