Waiting on Wednesday | Lady Midnight

Lady Midnight (The Dark Artifices, #1) by Cassandra Clare
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Release date: March 8th, 2016
Genres: YA, Fantasy, Paranormal
Pages: 720
Los Angeles. It’s been five years since the events of the Mortal Instruments when Nephilim stood poised on the brink of oblivion and Shadowhunter Emma Carstairs lost her parents. After the blood and violence she witnessed as a child, Emma has dedicated her life to to discovering exactly what it was that killed her parents and getting her revenge.

Raised in the Los Angeles Institute with the Blackthorn family, Emma is paired as a parabatai with her best friend, Julian Blackthorn. A series of murders in the city catch her attention — they seem to have the same characteristics as the deaths of her parents. Could the murderer be the same person? And her attention isn’t the only one caught: someone has been murdering Downworlders as well. The Fair Folk make a deal with the Institute: if the Blackthorns and Emma will investigate the killings, they’ll return Mark Blackthorn to his home. The catch: they have only two weeks to find the killers. Otherwise it’s open war between faeries and Nephilim.

The Shadowhunters of the Institute must race against time to catch the killers, even as they begin to suspect the involvement of those closest to them. At the same time, Emma is falling in love with the one person in the world she’s absolutely forbidden by Shadowhunter Law to love. Set against the glittering backdrop of present-day Los Angeles, Emma must learn to trust her head and her heart as she investigates a demonic plot that stretches from the warlock-run nightclubs of the Sunset Strip to the enchanted sea that pounds the beaches of Santa Monica.

I am beyond excited for Cassandra Clare's new addition to her Shadowhunter World: her upcoming series, The Dark Artifices. Lady Midnight will be the first book in the series.


It follows the life of seventeen-year-old Emma Carstairs, an orphaned shadowhunter, and her parabatai, Julian Blackthorn. She idolizes Jace Herondale and is a badass fighter. She aims to exact revenge upon whoever killed her parents, bringing comparisons to my mind to Arya Stark of Game of Thrones, another kick ass fantasy female character much loved by me.



I'm super thrilled to read her story, especially since I can't get enough of shadowhunters in general. It's so exhilarating to have another girl to join the ranks of Clary Fray, Tessa Gray, and Isabelle Lightwood. I'm particularly elated for a main female character who seems to be a fierce warrior. I'm used to seeing that more from male characters like Jace and Will Herondale. Sure, Isabelle was tough, but I see her more as a femme fatale, than just a kickass fighter. I'm highly anticipating Emma's badassery.



I can't wait to explore Emma and Julian's relationship as parabatai of the opposite sex. It's cute how Emma is going to be crushing on, and I'm always a sucker for forbidden romance (parabatai cannot be together romantically). More so, I'm ecstatic to get to read an opposite sex friendship that also involves them being fighting partners.

Julian's family, the Blackthorns, are going to be so much fun to read! I love reading about big families. I'm so interested in their family dynamic and reading the interactions between all the many different kids: Helen, Mark, Julian, Livia, Tiberius, Drusilla, and Octavian. I'm also particularly fascinated by the faerie blood in their family as a result of their father, Andrew Blackthorn's extra-marital affair with a faerie producing Helen and Mark. I find it interesting that he named all his kids after Greek and Latin historical. I'm falling in love with this Shadowhunter family already.

Something that is really exciting about this series is that it is set in Los Angeles, which is a far cry from the New York setting in the Mortal Instruments series. It also continues Cassandra Clare's portrayal of different big cities in her books, such as London in The Infernal Devices. I think that Los Angeles is going to be a fresh, interesting setting.

Mark is a character that I am desperate to know more about. I need to find out what happens to him after the events of City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments, #6). He's the second child and oldest boy of the Blackthorns, and his character really intrigues me. I don't want to give away any  events of CoHF, though. I suspect that he could also be a love interest for Emma, which I wouldn't mind at all. Fingers crossed!

After reading about Emma Carstairs and the Blackthorns last summer in CoHF, I'm dying to read more about this enchanting bunch. I was drawn to twelve-year-old Emma's impetus and outspokenness in CoHF, so I'm highly anticipating more of that in Lady Midnight. 2016 can't come fast enough!

If you're interested in kick-ass heroines, large families, and forbidden love, look no further than Lady Midnight, coming out in March 2016!

Written by Kelechi

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