City of Fallen Angels (like, finally. I know)

City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

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. (Goodreads)

The Story:

There is absolutely no way that I can review this book without getting a teensy bit spoilery. In fact, I’ve never even been able to bring myself to review the other books in the Mortal Instruments series  because I’m loving on them SO HARD. I can’t even put it into words because so much crazy business happens.  Let me just rephrase it with a few sentences. 1. Clary is a badass. 2. Jace is hot. 3. The story is good. So, so good.

With that in mind, if you’ve not read any of the previous books, consider yourself warned.

Let me bring you up to speed. Jace and Clary are finally together.  Clary is training as a Shadowhunter. Simon is a vampire who can walk in the daylight (thank you, Jace) and he’s dating Isabel and Maia (the wolf). In the last book, after Sebastian died, unbeknownst to everyone else, Clary brought Jace back to life after he was mortally wounded. Because of this, they are about to pay a hefty price.

The problems in MI books are always aplenty. Outside of the fact that Simon is trying to balance to girls at once (something he isn’t particularly adept at), Camille, an old, evil vampire, is trying to get him on her side. Meanwhile, Jace is having frightening dreams about Clary. They start out all sexy sexy but then in the dream he usually ends up trying to kill her so…not so sexy. This drives him away from Clary because he feels he’s a danger to her.  Yet, in typical guy manner, he doesn’t actually explain why he’s pulling away.  This pains Clary because she loves Jace (and, I suspect, that even cold and aloof he’s still smokin).

And there’s more. While all of this is going on, someone is killing people in an obvious attempt to heat up tensions between the Downworlders and the Shadowhunters. No one is sure who’s doing it, but somehow it all seems tied to Camille and her desire to have someone on her side.

My Take:

What, are you kidding? I loved it. Clare’s books never disappoint. She’s perfected the art of sucking her readers into this crazy, incredible paranormal world by writing books that are practically impossible to put down. Her stories get me. Every single time.

I love Jace and Clary’s relationship, which on the surface seems to exude such passion, but at its heart, it’s one of pure, sweet love.  I love his confidence and his insecurities and his determined love of Clary. And I love Clary’s willingness to risk anything for the ones she loves; her mom, Jace, Simon. She’s perfect and devoted without being mindless and self-deprecating like so many other popular heroines seem to be (Bella, I still hate you after all these years).

I also love the way Simon has grown. He’s become so much more than the lovesick best friend of Clary. He’s come into his own now. He’s funny and brave and his relationship with Clary is so touching now that they have set the right parameters. In this story in particular, the relationship between Simon and Jace takes such a good, interesting turn as well.

Crush Intensity: 4/5 The ending of this book drove me nuts (in a good way) because it just made me wish harder for the next book, City of Lost Souls, which isn’t due out until May 2012.

The Way I See It:

I think that the people who cast the actual Mortal Instruments movie have done a fantastic job, so we’ll stick with their choices.

Lily Collins as Clary Fray

Jamie Campbell Bower as Jace