City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments #2)
By Cassandra Clare
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
Recommended Ages: 18+
***Spoiler alerts if you have not read book one of this series***

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?

The Gist

I still don’t hate this series, but I don’t love it as much as so many other people do. It’s a good story I guess, though I do cringe at a lot of uncomfortable parts. I think I like the secondary characters more than the main characters. In general, it feels like there is always a lot going on, yet somehow it takes forever to get to anything worthwhile in my opinion. For me, this was one of those, I’ll read it to see what it’s about, but I also could survive without reading it.

What I Liked:

I like Cassandra’s writing. She is excellent at describing things in creative ways and allowing me to know exactly what the characters are thinking/feeling. I connect to the characters more because of her writing style. I may not always like what she writes but I like how she writes it.

I mentioned this above, but I love the secondary characters. Simon is the adorable geek every female reader is secretly in love with. Isabel is a strong, confident, protective woman with a no-BS attitude I wish I had more of sometimes. And I desperately want to be best friends with Magnus.

Valentine is the sexy villain you love to hate. He is very well written in my opinion and I wish we got to see more of him. He’s mysterious in an alluring way and has to ability to convince you what he’s doing is really good. And he thinks his goals are admirable, which is true of all villains I think and what makes them dynamic; they are the heroes in their mind.

What I Didn’t Like:

For goodness sakes Clary cut poor Simon lose! I was so annoyed with Clary in this book. Deep down she knew she didn’t care for Simon but she led him on while she tried to convince herself she did. A lot about Clary annoyed me in this book. She was sooooo whiny and I HATE how she (and Jace too) have this all consuming I’ll die without you love for each other. It’s not healthy and very cheese-tastic in this book.

It felt like there were a lot of unnecessary parts too. I can’t quite put my finger on why, but so often I found myself thinking everything, the drama, the whining, all the stuff was dragging on and on.

And, I’m sorry, I have to mention it. The whole brother/sister thing creeps me out. CREEPS ME OUT. I honestly think that’s my biggest problem with the book. I understand that in a series something has to happen to keep the main couple apart at first, some momentary insurmountable obstacle. I get that. I accept that. I don’t accept that the insurmountable goal is supposed brothers and sisters having lust for each other and wanting to make out all the time. Gross. Gross gross gross. That ruined it for me and is the major reason I gave it low stars because I think there were SO MANY other ways Clary and Jace could have been kept apart.

LunasLuckyRating: 3/5 Lunas (and that’s me being generous)