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Book Summary
What if damnation is the price of true love?

Innocent blood has been spilled on the steps of the Council Hall, the sacred stronghold of the Shadowhunters. In the wake of the tragic death of Livia Blackthorn, the Clave teeters on the brink of civil war. One fragment of the Blackthorn family flees to Los Angeles, seeking to discover the source of the blight that is destroying the race of warlocks. 

Meanwhile, Julian and Emma take desperate measures to put their forbidden love aside and undertake a perilous mission to Faerie to retrieve the Black Volume of the Dead. What they find in the Courts is a secret that may tear the Shadow World asunder and open a dark path into a future they could never have imagined. Caught in a race against time, Emma and Julian must save the world of Shadowhunters before the deadly power of the parabatai curse destroys them and everyone they love.

Flo's Review
It is finally finished. All 900+ pages, 30+ plus hours. It's a 5 out of 5 star book, and I wasn't expecting anything less. I swear, no other book series takes me through the entire gamut of emotions that Shadowhunter novels do. It was long, but I intensely enjoyed every single minute of it.

James Marsters read the audiobook, and he did a PHENOMENAL job. His voice inflection is everything. I swear, listening to him read this heightened the experience for me so much. He slows down his reading to add dramatic emphasis, and lowers his voice to an almost-whisper in all the right places. I would get chills listening. 

I immediately loved The Dark Artifices with Lady Midnight. Cassie brought it from the very beginning of book one and never let up. I just love the way she does her characters. She describes them so well and so intimately -- their every little quirk and all their secrets. She introduces them to you entirely, and I felt like I came to know them like close friends. 

I will look forward to seeing these characters again. I'm definitely happy that we are so close to Red Scrolls of Magic. If you've read the other two books in their series, get a hold of this one, take a deep breath, and then go diving in head first. And if you haven't read any of The Dark Artifices? Get on that!

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.

A 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!