The Last Hours Series by Cassandra Clare

Cordelia Carstairs is a Shadowhunter, a warrior trained since childhood to battle demons. When her father is accused of a terrible crime, she and her brother travel to London in hopes of preventing the family’s ruin. Cordelia’s mother wants to marry her off, but Cordelia is determined to be a hero rather than a bride.

Soon Cordelia encounters childhood friends James and Lucie Herondale and is drawn into their world of glittering ballrooms, secret assignations, and supernatural salons, where vampires and warlocks mingle with mermaids and magicians. All the while, she must hide her secret love for James, who is sworn to marry someone else.

But Cordelia’s new life is blown apart when a shocking series of demon attacks devastate London. These monsters are nothing like those Shadowhunters have fought before - these demons walk in. daylight, strike down the unwary with incurable poison, and seem impossible to kill. London is immediately quarantined.

Trapped in the city, Cordelia and her friends discover that their own connection to a dark legacy has gifted them with incredible powers - and forced a brutal choice that will reveal the true cruel price of being a hero.

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My first question when reading this book was WHY did Cassandra Clare take so long to write a sequel to the TID series?! I think The Infernal Devices is the most favoured of her Shadowhunter books and I know that the prospect of returning to Tessa and Will’s London is the entire reason why I got caught up in all her new releases (new from when I stopped reading her books about 7 years ago). There’s just something so unique and magical about demon hunting in Victorian London. Now with this series being in the early years of motor cars and pre WWI England it’s a time period I haven’t explored overmuch and am excited to be propelled into. (Think Downton Abbey but with demons, vampires, warlocks and a more YA drama approach). I absolutely loved it and I think this series might tie with TID as my favourite Cassandra Clare books.

We start off about 25 years after the events of the Clockwork War (now’s your warning to turn away if you haven’t read that series yet and want to avoid spoilers). Tessa and Will are married and their kids are teenagers. Jem is a steady presence in their lives, Charlotte is Consul and all of the original gangs children now have a wily and trouble-making gang of their own. It was a little bit bitter sweet at first, knowing how much time had passed since that story that I first fell in love with, with all the characters now being so much older and some of their children not quite measuring up to what I expected given their parents…. But it was also so refreshing and great. Cordelia is one of the best female protagonists so far, (yes, even better than Tessa, she’s a lot more fierce) and James and Lucie are different enough from their parents to really stand out but still have characteristics of them which I love. Chain of Iron was the perfect sequel. Usually the second books in series leave something to be desired but I think this sequel was even better than the first book. I won’t go into too much detail on book two in order to not spoil book one, but it ended on such an amazing tangle of miscommunication that I can’t even begin to describe how badly my mind was reeling at the end.

The dynamic between all of the characters was fantastic. I liked the Merry Thieves, they were reminiscent of the artsy boy clubs that were around back in Shakespeare’s day (The School of Night). Lucie was a lot more bubbly and happy than I expected of her, I love her support of her friends and loved ones, however, I’m hoping we get more depth from her in book three. There was also a lot more diversity in this book than I think all of the other books. Cassandra has always tried to include characters her fans can relate to but this is the biggest “cast” of characters I think and due to that, there was a lot more room for some diversity. I do, however, wonder how it’s so easy for characters like Anna and Matthew to be so open about their sexual orientation in the 1900s with little to no fuss when Alec, in the early 2000s, faced so many challenges in being openly gay as a Shadowhunter? I feel like it was a bit of a plot point that was maybe looked over. That being the biggest complaint I have, it’s not too bad!

The premise was fantastic. London having been virtually demon free for many years, all of the new gang don’t have nearly as much field experience as their parents did and the new generation of Shadowhunters are un-used to death and danger. Now with London closed off and under attack, they have to rely on their individual skill sets to solve the problem during a time (once again) when the governing systems of the nephilim won’t listen to teenagers (go figure!). The second book continued on with a very exciting event and more time to get to know all of the side characters so much better as well as a deeper understanding of the goings on in the years between TID and TLH. I liked how it started off as a typical historical fiction book with society balls and rules of etiquette and then when the demon attacks start it’s nearly as shocking for us as it is for the characters. The girly, “delicate” women of the novel transform immediately into angel warriors and you remember that even under frills and lace they can still be deadly and heroic. It was a fantastic series from start to finish and I cannot WAIT to see what happens in the third one (literally, I might die from the suspense).

I definitely loved these books and gave them both 5 stars (is this a first of me giving 5 stars to two books in a trilogy in a row? I think so!) which bodes very well for the third because I think Cassandra’s strength is in her concluding novels. She’s an expert at end of world drama/battles. If you liked any of the Shadowhunter books, you’ll love these.