My Review of Lady Midnight (The Dark Artifices, #1) by Cassandra Clare – 3 stars

27788505

Information from Goodreads:

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 ia a Shadowhunter, the best in her generation. Together with her parabatai, Julian Blackthorn, she patrols the streets of Loa Angeles, where faeries–the most powerful of supranatural creatures–teeter on the edge of open war with Shadowhunters. When bodies–both faerie 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 for revenge–and Julian’s chance to get back to his brother, a prisoner of the faerie Courts. All they have to do is solve the murders within two weeks… and before the murderer target them.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27788505-lady-midnight

Paperback, 669 pages — Published March 8th 2016 by Margaret K. McEldeberry Books

My Rating: 3 Stars

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My Review of Lady Midnight (The Dark Artifices, #1) by Cassandra Clare

3/5 stars

This book frustrated the heck out of me. Overall I’d say Cassandra Clare certainly can write and come up with some cool story ideas but but but BUT this book just wasn’t for me. I’ve not read any of her other books. I found this and started reading before I knew of the others. And at this point I will not continue with any others. (There were some sample chapters at the end of this story that I will admit piqued my interest a bit although not enough to chase them down now.)

The overall concept. angel-human hybrid race, is great, I was all in for this. And from the start it seemed like an interesting batch of characters. The forbidden love aspect is pretty clear from the beginning. Not everything has to be a surprise to be interesting. However it dragged and dragged. And that’s what I really didn’t like about this. So much attention was paid to relationships, especially that of Julian and Emma and Julian and the kids, that I felt like the plot suffered as a result. Of course it’s not uncommon for a story to be character driven but I can’t say I felt it was even that driven. It frustrated me and felt repetitive to keep reading how people felt for each other when we already got the point. For me these feelings equated to a whole lot of tell and not enough show.

My biggest complaint, and IMHO the biggest disservice to the story, was the length. At 669 pages this was not small book. I think the whole story would have been MUCH better were it half that. This is another reason I’m not particularly interested in continuing with the series, too much time spent on day to day life and relationships. But if that’s your thing, and you’re okay with action popping up like garnish, then by all means I’d recommend this. Otherwise, I regret to say that I don’t.

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Have you read this book, this series, or any of the other many many books by Cassandra Clare? (Gotta hand it to her, she’s putting in work!) What did you think?


P.S. This summer I shared a comment on another blog that was in disagreement with that blogger’s thoughts. Maybe I was wrong to go on bashing a book they professed to love, maybe I should have kept my thoughts to myself (if you don’t have anything nice to say…). Maybe I exhibited poor etiquette and it was simply wrong time, wrong place. But I want you to know that I respect your opinion on books I’ve read even if it’s different than mine. (If I don’t respect it, I’ll be sure to let you know. 😉 ) I encourage you to share when you love a book I don’t or can’t stand a book I love. Let’s just be respectful of each other okay? No nastiness towards each other, meaning go ahead and vent about the book but not the author or me. (I don’t think I have to amend this more do I?) That’s all I ask. It’s not personal. And please do give me your list of reasons, perhaps we can engage in some discussion. After all, if all you say is that book was crap, I’m going to want a reason or two.


If you’re interested in what else I’ve reviewed (shared my opinion on) CLICK HERE!

If you want to know what I’m currently reading or recently finished CLICK HERE!

Thank you for your time and interest!

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