Consumed by "City of Ashes"

"City of Ashes"
By Cassandra Clare


6

Clary Fray just wishes that her life would go back to normal. But what's normal when you're a demon-slaying Shadowhunter, your mother is in a magically induced coma, and you can suddenly see Downworlders like werewolves, vampires, and faeries? If Clary left the world of the Shadowhunters behind, it would mean more time with her best friend, Simon, who's becoming more than a friend. But the Shadowhunting world isn't ready to let her go — especially her handsome, infuriating, newfound brother, Jace. And Clary's only chance to help her mother is to track down rogue Shadowhunter Valentine, who is probably insane, certainly evil — and also her father.

To complicate matters, someone in New York City is murdering Downworlder children. Is Valentine behind the killings — and if he is, what is he trying to do? When the second of the Mortal Instruments, the Soul-Sword, is stolen, the terrifying Inquisitor arrives to investigate and zooms right in on Jace.How can Clary stop Valentine if Jace is willing to betray everything he believes in to help their father?

In this breathtaking sequel to City of Bones, Cassandra Clare lures her readers back into the dark grip of New York City's Downworld, where love is never safe and power becomes the deadliest temptation.

Even though I thought the first book in this series was great, I enjoyed this book even more. I'm not sure if I found the first book a little slow, but I could not stop reading "City of Ashes". By the end of the book I was so invested in the Clary and Jace relationship that I had to take a break between the third book because I was so frustrated at them. This only happens with me when I am completely in love with the characters (if this happens to anyone else, please let me know because I feel pretty silly about it). I don't think there was a single character in the book that I could have done without, they were all so richly developed. I wasn't a huge fan of Simon in "City of Bones", I thought he was a bit obnoxious, but he even won me over. There was a lot of internal struggle in many of the characters in this book and Clare was able to bring them to the front of the story without slowing down the plot at all.

This is a book that should go in your must read pile. Check out the series at the website here. You can find an excerpt from "City of Ashes" here and more about upcoming books by the author. A prequel series is in the works!