Queen of Air and Darkness (Dark Artifices) Audio CD – Audiobook, Unabridged

I love Emma and Julian, so as soon as I found out Clare's latest series would be based around these two I knew I had to read it. With this being the third and final instalment I knew, from previous experience with Clare's books, that I would be in for a roller coaster ride of emotions, and I wasn't wrong. Throughout this book, and long after reading it, I  found myself laughing, crying, feeling angry, shocked and happy.Though this series is based around the Blackthorns as a whole the main focus is on Parabatai pair Emma and Julian. These two are the poster boys, and girls, for forbidden love. Willing to risk exile from everyone they love so they can be together. You cant help but want them to get a happy ending. I love how Kick-ass Emma is, Clare is not afraid of making her female characters more skilled than her male characters, and even though I love Julian I definitely think Emma could take him in a fight. Julian is a boy that was thrust into being an adult far too early in his life, and because of this feels like he should be the bearer of all the bad things that will happen. He's a character I found easy to relate too and couldn't help but feel for him, even if I didn't agree with all of his decisions.One of the things I loved about this book was the inclusion of all my favourite characters from Clare's Mortal instrument series; Clary and Jace, Magnus and Alec and Simon and Isabelle. They have a much bigger part to play in the plot of this book than the previous two, while taking nothing away from the blackthorns main story line, which at 912 pages shouldn't be too hard. And without giving too much away if you're a serious Malec fan like me then prepare yourself for the last few chapters!My only problem with the book was the ending...I hate that she ended on a massive cliffhanger and we have no word of when another modern day shadowhunter series will be written. I wont give anything away but I'm sure you will all be with me after you've read the epilogue. Although the last chapter was beautiful and I was so happy for two of my faves! This is an easy 5/5 for me. I've loved all of Clare's shadowhunter series and this is one of my favourites. Though you don't need to read the Mortal instruments to read this series I would still highly recommend it to understand certain character arcs and plot lines.

I did enjoy this book and the characters. I love Christina and Emma. It’s good to see some of the old characters return too. It’s also great that the book is so inclusive of LGBT characters. Not only do they not get killed off right away but they are main characters and get to be happy.However, I have a lot to rant about as well. I definitely didn’t enjoy it as much as the original trilogy or the prequel trilogy. For many reasons.The plot was good but I really hated the constantly changing POV. It felt disjointed a lot of the time. It was only part 2 that was consistent with keeping the POV the same. I don’t mind seeing different POV but it just constantly changed within each chapter.Also hated the epilogue. Don’t think it was needed. I don’t want there to be another trilogy or book. I hate when authors constantly keep writing about the same characters or world. It gets tiring, we’ve all seen how bad Harry Potter has become with the endless prequels and and the sequel that should never be mentioned again.I just want the characters to be happy. Literally been reading these books since I was 15. Would like to see something new and different from Casandra Clara and just have good memories of these books as they are.At the rate they’re going, feel like we’ll have trilogy about our favourite shadow hunters life in retirement.However, if you’ve only just started reading the shadow hunter books recently and haven’t transitioned from a teenage reader to an adult reader with growing and changing tastes since the first book was published....Then you’re probably still in the same mind frame to enjoy this book.

I love the Shadowhunter series, I’ve read all the previous and own most of the books, I cannot fault Cassandra’s writing, it’s brilliant!! My only reason for giving it 4 stars is the fact that it’s so much taller than the rest of her collection and stands out massively on my bookshelf which is driving me insane, I really hope she releases a shorter version of it, it’s too out of place from the rest of the series.