After an excellent first book in the “The Last Hours” trilogy that had left me wanna read more, the second one was even better! If you have followed me for a while you may know my love for Cassandra Clare and her Shadowhunters Universe. If not, “Hi, I’m Marilita and I’m obsessed.”
Right after the events of the first book, with our teenage Shadowhunters trying to stop Tatiana Blackthorn from using black magic to bring her son Jesse back to life, things got messy. To give James an alibi, Cordelia confessed that they were together that night, doing… what a couple is doing leaving everyone in shock. Now, she and James have to get married to save her reputation. With James still under Grace’s spell ( let me destroy that damn bracelet in the Mountain Of Doom!!! ) the two soon-to-be-married characters agree to stay married for a year and after that, Cordelia will ask for a divorce due to her unfaithful husband.
Meanwhile, someone starts murdering Shadowhunters and our heroes figure out that this murder uses pithos a unique stele that allows someone to still runes from the bodies of the murdered Shadowhunters. James, at the same time, starts to believe that something is wrong with him since he sees dreams of the murders before they even happen. Cordelia, who tries to find a way to kill the demon, and James’s grandfather, Belial swears allegiance to Wayland but something that she could never think was that he was Lilith, the mother of demons, and not the real Wayland and she became her paladin.
Now that Tatiana is a prisoner in Citadel living with the Iron Sisters, Grace is trying to continue what her mother had started and with Lucie’s help, are trying to bring back Jesse. The Clace arrests Thomas as a suspect in the murders and Alastair goes to testify in his favor. There, the two finally Thomas confesses his feelings to Alastair and he starts to think that maybe he indeed isn’t uninterested in Thomas and the kiss ( halleluiah ) but things keep being complicated between them.
Matthew’s feelings for Cordelia grow day by day and James’s as well making Grace’s bracelet break in half. Meanwhile, Belial who is behind the murderers takes over Jesse’s body committing those crimes until he convinces James to give him his body, but with no positive results. Cordelia manages to hit another time Belial with Cortana making him even weaker and James shoots Lilith forcing her to leave wounded.
Just before the end of the book and while James wants to tell Cordelia the whole truth about his feelings and Grace’s spell, Cordelia sees them hugging and she thinks that James continues loving the other girl. Heartbroken runs away from home and goes to meet Matthew since he is the only one who knows about the fake wedding at the same time that James makes Grace confess everything. Matthew confesses his feelings to Cordelia and they run away to Paris.
The moment James is ready to catch them at the train station and confess everything to his wife, his dad runs to him to help him find Lucie who is missing. They think that she is trying to bring back to life Jesse, but something that they don’t know is that she has already managed to do that.
My opinion:
I already said, I love Cassandra’s books and I like that we see multiple povs from our heroes. I believe that it makes the book more alive but in this one, sometimes it was a little bit tiring. It’s really interesting and helps the reader to keep track of all the parallel stories but sometimes it got me confused. Maybe if the shifts weren’t so frequent would be easier to follow.
I loved Matthew’s backstory and it was heartbroken seeing him feeling so guilty for something that it was clearly an accident. I hope that he will find the courage to forgive himself and he will be happy. I didn’t like that his character is in love with the girl that his best friend is in love with as well, but I guess this is really common in real life as well, so I just hope that we will not have too much drama in the third book.
Cordelia and James’s scenes from once more were perfectly written. I keep disliking Grace with my whole heart and soul but reading about Will and Tessa, even as side characters heals my soul. Let’s hope for a happy ending in the last book of the trilogy.
Let me know if you have read it or if it’s on your list. From me, it’s a 4.8/5!
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