Review: City of Ashes

Title:  City of Ashes
Series:  The Mortal Instruments #2
Author:  Cassandra Clare
Published:  March 25th, 2008 by Margaret K. McElderry Books
Source:  Bought

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.

My Review:  I enjoyed this book so much!  After the initial world and character building of the first book, we were really given a chance to delve deeper into the plot and the magic that runs deep within this series.  Many of the conflicts introduced in the first books were explored further and new conflicts continued to pop up as we read.  I loved that there was never a lull in the action with this story!

After the ending of the first book, I was extremely anxious to see where our main characters were.  There subplots between them were very interesting and brought up new and unique problems.  It did a great job of adding tension to the already tense story.  Despite all of their personal and worldly problems, Jace, Clary, Izzy, Alec, Simon, and the rest of the gang did not fail to make me laugh.  Their dialogue and wit had me laughing out loud at the most inappropriate places.  This sarcasm filled writing style was amazing at lightning some darker parts while still pushing the hard and difficult to deal with subjects brought up with this book.  

I liked exploring the world as a whole more.  We got to see more into the life and the world of the downworlders we already have seen and we also had the chance to read and learn more about some of the others we hadn't been introduced to before this installment.  With all the different creatures and perspectives to see this world from, it really helped it become more real and three dimensional.  

This was a great sequel that hooked me from the very start.  It accentuated all the wonderful aspects from the first book such as the realistic world, the three dimensional characters, and the clever writing style.  I'm excited to get back into this series with the next book!

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