You know you’re not really enthralled in a series when you get to the last book and your main thought is ‘thank goodness this is nearly over’.

Granted, the last book in the series did come action packed with drama and suspense, with unexpected twists and turns along the way, but it just wasn’t enough to rescue the series and turn it into something I love.

The author seemed quite intent on making sure everyone lived happily ever after, and maybe I’ve been damaged by George R. R. Martin, but when you’re fighting a war on this kind of scale, it’s kind of unrealistic that no-one dies. And especially when it looks like one of the group is going to be cut off forever, and the author magically invents a way for that not to happen, it was all just too candy-heart, marshmallow nice for me. Not that I’m a bloody thirsty maniac or anything, but it just seemed too ‘perfect’.

The author also seemed determined to make sure the book contained morals for the obvious young teenage girl audience. Things like when Clary and Jace are about to sleep together for the first time and he reaches over and Clary ‘hears the sound of ripping foil’. Don’t tell me that when they’ve travelled to a demon world for the pure and simple purpose of destroying Sebastian and saving the world, when they had minutes to pack and get all the food and clothes they’d need, that Jace had time to stop and pack condoms ‘just in case’. That’s just weird to me. Since it seems like Shadowhunters can draw runes on themselves for pretty much anything, why not just invent a ‘protection’ rune that would allow the author to tell young girls they needed to be safe without it feeling completely forced?! Maybe that’s just me though, and no-one else even noticed it!

So while I did enjoy the overall plot to the book and the way that the drama unfolded, switching between the main characters in the book to get the scene from all dimensions (literally), I just couldn’t bring myself to enjoy the book, and like I mentioned earlier, I just read the entire book clamouring for the end, when I can finally put this series to bed and start something better.