City of Ashes

"A GORGEOUS fantasy that's so good ... Its DANGEROUS !!"

As per City of Bones this book was well worth the read. City of Ashes is the second book in this thrilling trilogy about Clary, Jace, Alec and Isabelle. We find ourselves shortly after the last book ended, Clary and Jace haven't spoken in about a week or so and non-stop Simon (Clary's best friend) has been keeping her company, friendly and romantic. 

I found that throughout the first book Simon and Clary's friendship was always a little more than friendly especially for Simon. You could tell just from his moods, his actions and his clear jealousy about Jace and Clary as well. I did not at first like Simon just because I was so head over heels about Jace and his whole persona, but Simon has definitely started to grow on me throughout this book for a couple reasons (that I cannot name because they would be HUGE spoilers for people who haven't read the second book yet). One of my favorite things about Cassandra Clare is her consistency with her characters, their persona's and how each one of them has their own inner "demons" per say to deal with, its not all the same problems with all the characters but it still connects each one of them with the main storyline. I also love how they are all teenagers and all their problems are mainly teenage problems about growing up, changing, love ... They are just amplified to suit the paranormal attributes of the book. 

The main part of this book was the introduction of the Inquisitor, the second Mortal Instrument (the Sword) and of course Jace and his father Valentine. Valentine I found to be a very odd mixture of a psychopath with a plan basically. He is a very masculine and strong figure within the book and Clare definitely has a way of making the reader like him even though he is the antagonist. Although I DO NOT like the fact that Jace is now Clary's brother because I was SO invested in their relationship as more than just friends too so I am hoping something in the third book reveals them not to be brother and sister or some weird twist of fate or something; that is what I am hoping for at least.

But Valentine was not what I was expecting as the evil antagonist; I was expecting some big bad demon or something a long those lines but a Shadowhunter, that was suppose to be dead along with his son and parents in law, now that just screams awesome battle scenes in the next novel. Over all this book was a great book for "filler". It definitely had some new story progressing parts, but the reader finds out more about who everyone is, Valentine, Lucian, the Lightwoods and even Clary and Jace all their stories past and future progress. I think Simon is the one who's characters changes the most out of all of them because of some of the "changes" he goes through. I feel there could have been a little more progression with Valentine and Clary's relationship but I sense that Clare is waiting for the perfect "epic" moment for that to happen, something that will really throw the reader off (which is perfectly fine with me may I add, I enjoy a little excitement in my readings, lol).

I must admit it took me a little while to right this review because I was unsure how I felt about it. I loved the characters, the storyline and everything but I felt there was something missing for some odd reason and right now I cannot figure it out. BUT I will say that this is definitely going on my must read list for 2011 if not for the story line then definitely for the Characters. I don't think I have ever loved characters, their descriptions, persona's and growth like I love Cassandra Clare's.