City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

Published: March 25, 2008
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing

Summary: 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: This is book 2 of Cassandra Clare’s New York Times Bestselling series, “The Mortal Instruments”. If you’ve read my review of Book 1, City of Bones, then you’ll know that I wasn’t all that impressed at the beginning, and it took me a while (chapter 14 to be exact) to get into reading it. That was bot the case with City of Ashes. I enjoyed every page of this book, and I didn’t want to ever put it down. It kept me on the edge of my seat with the storyline, and the characters. First off, the storyling was intriguing, original and exciting. And the characters were fun, complex and easy to empathize with. For me, I do have a “book crush” on Jace, and this book didn’t change that at all! If anything, while fulfilling my need to visualize and read about Jace, it had me crushing on him even harder.Once again, Cassandra Clare’s writing is incredible. Throughout City of Ashes, I could imagine everything. Down to the little details even. “Jace’s voice was still crisp and cool but with an edge to it now, autum leaves frosted with a sheen of hard ice” (page 225, City of Ashes) is an example of Clare’s superb writing. I got chills when I read that line because I totally heard exactly how Jace’s voice would sound.Needless to say, I was so glad that I stuck with this series and read City of Ashes, because it was truly an excellent read, and Cassandra Clare’s writing is something that I couldn’t get tired of!