City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare Review

Title: The Mortal Instruments Book 4: City of Fallen Angels

Author: Cassandra Clare

Genre: Young Adult, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal

Page Count: 424 pages

Publish Date: April 5, 2011

Book Type: Library Hardcover

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing

ISBN: 9781442403543

Picture from Amazon

From Goodreads: The Mortal War is over, and 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 important of all—Clary can finally call Jace her boyfriend. 

But nothing comes without a price. 

Someone is murdering the Shadowhunters who used to be in Valentine’s Circle, 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 he’s a vampire and now he’s homeless. Everywhere he turns, someone wants him on their side—along with the power of the curse wrecking his life. And they’re willing to do anything to get what they want. At the same time he’s dating two beautiful, dangerous girls—neither of whom knows about the other. 

When Jace begins to pull away from Clary without explaining why, she 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. 

Love. Blood. Betrayal. Revenge. The stakes are higher than ever in City of Fallen Angels.

My Review: I love how all of the covers in this series have the same look and feel. It always bothers me if a series doesn’t go together.

I started this book last year when it first came out, but I just couldn’t get into it. Back to the library it went. When I was at the library a couple weeks ago, it caught my eye again. I enjoyed it much more this time and it was a pleasant break from reading school books (if you can’t tell from my previous reviews--womp womp). 

I really grew to love Simon in this one. I feel like we got to be in his head a bit more than  the previous books and that was nice. It was also fun to see the evolution of his relationships. I also loved the interactions between Simon and Jace. They’re an unlikely pairing, but it is nice to see. I have a feeling Simon will be helping Jace through his problems that were hinted to at the end of the book. Would be totally fun to read.

Poor Jace and Clary. They can’t seem to catch a break, can they? Cassie always seems to throw a wrench in their relationship, huh? I suppose it wouldn’t be The Mortal Instruments series without that, but I just want it to work out for those two crazy kids.

I always love Cassie’s world building. The moment I start reading one of her books, I can picture the world with no problem. I love that because sometimes it had be hard to imagine a fantasy world. Thanks, Cassie! 

You can check out my reviews of City of Bones and City of Ashes. (I still need to review City of Glass. Hm. I’m not sure why I haven’t). 

Which Mortal Instruments book has been your favorite so far? Or do you prefer The Infernal Devices? I can never decide!

Top 10 Books I’m Looking Forward to in 2012

In no particular order...

1. The Girl in the Clockwork Collar by Kady Cross

2. Cinder by Marissa Meyer

3. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith

4. Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

5. Black Dawn by Rachel Caine

6. Fear by Michael Grant

7. Dreamless by Josephine Angelini

8. Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare

9. The Selection by Kiera Cass

10. Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood

There you go! All of the links lead to Goodreads. :) What books are you most looking forward to in 2012? I'm sure I could have listed... ohhh 1,000 more.

Clockwork Angel Read-A-Long

Hey guys! Sorry for the zero posts last week. I had a crazy week at school and then I took a trip to my undergrad school this weekend for Homecoming! Best. Time. Ever. But, I'm really here to tell you about the Clockwork Angel Read-A-Long being hosted by Mundie Moms. I'm really excited to read Clockwork Angel again (I haven't since I read the ARC) and super excited for Clockwork Prince.

The schedule starts on October 12 and looks like this:

12th- Chapter 1

13th- Chapter 2

14th- Chapter 3

15th- Chapter 4

16th- Chapter 5

17th- Chapter 6

18th- Chapter 7

19th- Chapter 8

20th- Chapter 9

21st- Chapter 10

22nd- Chapter 11

23rd- Chapter 12

24th- Chapter 13

25th- Chapter 14

26th- Chapter 15

27th- Chapter 16

28th- Chapter 17

29th- Chapter 18

30th- Chapter 19

31st- Chapter 20

Nov 1st- wrap up & giveaway winners announced 


There will be questions each day about the chapter that was just read. It should be really fun. Will you be participating?

Batch of Library Books 8/22/10

It has been awhile (actually, exactly one month) since I’ve shared my library books with you all and I know I missed a couple, but you got reviews of most of them, so not too bad. You know the drill by now, so here we go!

Lucy by Laurence Gonzales. Looks intense and I’ve heard some really good things about this one.

City of Glass by Cassandra Clare. You all know my feelings on these books. I just want to know what happens!

Fade by Lisa McMann. I enjoyed the first, so I’m really looking forward to this one!

Flawless by Sara Shepard. Pretty Little Liars--it’s a guilty pleasure. Plus, I have my suspicions as to who A is and I want to read the books to see if I am anywhere close. That is, if they are keeping to the same storyline. We shall see.

Stalker Girl by Rosemary Graham. Super excited about this one. I love the cover. So much.

Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities by Alexandra Robbins. By now, you probably know that I was in a sorority in college. I just want to see how this book compares with my experiences (which were great). I’m also planning on having a Greek-life themed week sometime in September.

Girl Parts by John Cusick. I’ve been looking forward to this one ever since I started reading the reviews on other blogs. 

Okay, so I’m going to add in the school books I bought, since I didn’t actually receive anything fun enough to warrant a legit In My Mailbox post for the week.

Writing and Reporting News: A Coaching Method by Carole Rich. So, I definitely bought the international edition because it was $70 (yes, SEVENTY) cheaper. *sigh*

Media Ethics: Cases and Moral Reasoning by Clifford G. Christians, etc. Pretty self explanatory.

Basics of Design Layout & Typography for Beginners by Lisa Graham. Another one for my Desktop Publishing class that I’m excited about.

News Values: Ideas for an Information Age by Jack Fuller. Meh, we’ll see. 

There you have it! Have you read any of these? Any suggestions on a potential order to read them in? Thanks a million.

City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare Review

Title: The Mortal Instruments Book Two: City of Ashes

Author: Cassandra Clare

Genre: YA

Page Count: 453

Book Type: Library Paperback

Publisher: Simon Pulse, An Imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

ISBN: 9781416972242

Picture from Amazon

Summary from Goodreads: A murderer is loose in New York City ... 

... and the victims are Downworlder children. Clary Fray and her fellow Shadowhunters have a strong suspicion that Valentine, Clary's father, may be behind the killings. But if he is the murderer, then what's his true motive? To make matters worse, the second of the Mortal Instruments, the Soul-Sword, has been stolen, and the mysterious Inquisitor has arrived to investigate, with his eyes vigilantly targeted on Clary's brother, Jace. 

Clary will need to face some terrifying demons and even more terrifying family decisions. No one said that the life of a Shadowhunter would be easy.

My Review: I think the cover is gorgeous. I always seem to like Cassandra Clare’s book covers with their cityscapes and one character focus. I’m not a huge fan of the Stephenie Meyer quote being directly in the center, but to each their own. I love how the protagonist is a red-head. Yay for the red-head love. I’m so happy all of these books seem to match each other, so when I do buy them, they will look excellent next to one another on my shelf. They will also look nice with the Infernal Devices books. Score. 

I just want to start out with a couple things I tweeted while reading... 

1. “Page 271 out of 453 in 'city of ashes' by @cassieclare. i want to punch valentine in the face.” 
2. “he's such a jerk face” 
3. “Wahhh i just want to find out how city of ashes ends!”. 

Side-note: If you follow me on the Twitter, these are the kinds of things you will see. 

I’m pretty sure that Cassie makes me an impatient reader. It always seems as if I cannot read fast enough because I just want to know how this is going to end! Clearly, it will be awhile before I find out with one more book already printed in the series and three more after that which are currently unprinted. Luckily, the journey to find out what on Earth is happening in these books is quite excellent as well. 

I really like Clare’s writing style. She gives her characters some snark, which I always appreciate. She always makes me curious as to what is really happening. It makes me so frustrated when the characters think one thing, but in actuality, I think that something else is going on. It makes for a frustrating, but excellent read. I cannot wait to find out what the real deal is with Jace, Clary and Valentine. 

I may have preferred City of Bones a bit more, but that could change from day to day. I am really looking forward to the next installment I’m really glad I have it checked out from the library already!

Have you read this one? Which is your favorite book of the series? Let me know!

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare Review

Title: The Mortal Instruments Book One: City of Bones
Author: Cassandra Clare
Genre: YA
Page Count: 485
Book Type: Library Paperback
Publisher: Simon Pulse, An Imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division
ISBN: 978-1-4169-5507-8

From Goodreads: Their hidden world is about to be revealed.... 

When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder--much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Clary knows she should call the police, but it's hard to explain a murder when the body disappears into thin air and the murderers are invisible to everyone but Clary. 

Equally startled by her ability to see them, the murderers explain themselves as Shadowhunters: a secret tribe of warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. Within twenty-four hours, Clary's mother disappears and Clary herself is almost killed by a grotesque demon. 

But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know....

My Review: I love all of the covers for Cassandra Clare's books. I like how you can't really see their faces, but you still know exactly what character they are supposed to be. Add in the cityscape and I'm sold. 

A little background from me.... I read an ARC of Clockwork Angel (review) before I started the Mortal Instruments series. I'm not quite sure why I never read them (obviously I was delusional). I always picked them up in the bookstore and then put them down. I still don't get it. I clearly love the covers. The synopsis' are awesome. Just a major fail on my part, I suppose. Anyway, I adored Clockwork Angel more than anything so I had to snatch up City of Bones as soon as I could.

Clare has the talent of making you trust a person completely and then turning the whole story around on you. It is amazing. She draws me in and then plucks at my heartstrings. It is a testament to how delightful this book is that I was on vacation in Boston and all I wanted to do was get back to the room so I could read. Jace is the quintessential bad boy with a past--how could you not love him? One of my favorite things about Clare's writing is she draws me in with the characters and then the plot. Obviously the story is fantastic, but it would be nothing without the strong characters to support it. 

If you have been living under a rock, like I apparently have, go read these books...now. Is there anyone else out there reading them for the first time?

Batch of Library Books 7/22/10

This should probably be called the Holy $#!+ edition, because I got 10 books at the library today. All 10 decided to come to me from my waiting list at the same time. This should be interesting considering I still have 7 floating around my house.

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver. I've been looking forward to this one for awhile--so excited! It is sort of a 'Groundhog Day' tale where she lives the day of her death over and over again.

The Cinderella Society by Kay Cassidy. I read a review of this one on another book blog and added it to my list immediately. Seems like a classic outsider joins popular group and all is not as it seems story.

 

City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare. I am so, so happy this one came in because I just finished City of Bones and I wasn't really sure how I was going to last the wait until getting the next one.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith. I'll probably read this one before the copy of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter that I got last week.

Wake by Lisa McMann. I've heard nothing but good things about this one and it seems like a short read, so I'm excited.

Crank by Ellen Hopkins. I love how this is based on her daughter. I'm sure this will be a heavy, but thought provoking read.

Num8ers by Rachel Ward. I'm pretty sure this is one where she predicts deaths somehow. I don't really remember, but I do know that it was on my Goodreads list and it was on hold for awhile at the library!

Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick. I'm pretty sure I'll be the last person on the planet to read this one. I'm on the lookout for Patch.

Mugglenet.com's Harry Potter Should Have Died: Controversial Views from the #1 Fan Site by Emerson Spartz and Ben Schoen. I know I'm way behind on this one as well, but eh, what can I say. I'm hoping this one is funny.

Harry, A History by Melissa Anelli. I've heard very good things about this one (mainly from Sandy, Hi Sandy!). I always saw it in the store and almost picked it up, but I'll give it a shot from the library!

Phew, that was intense. Have you read any of these? Any suggestions on which ones I should tackle first? Thanks.