City of Fallen Angels (The Mortal Instruments #4)
By Cassandra Clare
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
Recommended Ages: 18+

The Mortal War is over, and sixteen-year-old Clary Fray is back home in New York, excited about all the possibilities before her. She’s training to become a Shadowhunter and to use her unique power. Her mother is getting married to the love of her life. Downworlders and Shadowhunters are at peace at last. And—most importantly of all—she can finally call Jace her boyfriend.

But nothing comes without a price.

Someone is murdering Shadowhunters, provoking tensions between Downworlders and Shadowhunters that could lead to a second, bloody war. Clary’s best friend, Simon, can’t help her—his mother just found out that he’s a vampire, and now he’s homeless. When Jace begins to pull away from her without explaining why, Clary is forced to delve into the heart of a mystery whose solution reveals her worst nightmare: she herself has set in motion a terrible chain of events that could lead to her losing everything she loves. Even Jace.

The Gist

My biggest complaint of this book is that it seems like a lot is going on but nothing is happening if that makes sense. It’s a lot of this, then this, then this, but not much connection between them or building momentum. Although the addition of points of view from Isabelle and Magnus help make the story more interesting. At this point, a lot in the series feels old and over-done and like it’s being unnecessarily extended.

What I Liked:

I liked seeing Jace trust Clary enough to tell her more about his struggles. It’s beginning to feel cliche that couples don’t tell each other secrets, so I was glad that at some point this stopped between the two of them.

Little vampire Maureen creeps me out, and I think that means she’ll grow to be an interesting villain so I’m excited to see where her character takes things.

As silly as I think the storyline is sometimes, I have to admit it is fairly fast-paced. There is a lot of action and things going on, so I’ll give kudos for that.

What I Didn’t Like:

It’s almost hard for me to name specific things I didn’t like. The writing just feels bogged down by such hard attempts at drama. And all the drama feels so incredibly teenage and petty that I found myself rolling my eyes a lot. Though perhaps I should cut some slack, they are after all just teenagers.

At this point, I expect Clary and Jace’s relationship to be growing, moving forward. Yet I feel like they have the same conversations over and over again and end up in the same spot. To me, this is a sign of an author trying to drag a series out past its expiration date.

As I listened to the book, I kept asking myself, what’s the big threat? Sure, there are short ones with Jace and Simon and what not, but for a series this long I would have liked to see a more overarching threat that’s big and looming and something the good guys are preparing to fight against. I kind of lost that in this fourth book.

I didn’t see any huge twists revealed and it didn’t leave me dying to read book 5.

LunasLuckyRating: 2.5/5 Lunas