City of Glass

MARAVILLOSO, UN APLAUSO PARA RAZIEL QUE MATA A VALENTINE, TODOS A DARLE LOS APLAUSOS QUE SE MERECE!
Bueno, ahora los demás:

-Clary y Jace, me tenían sufriendo como cuando tenía 13 años, la diferencia es que mi yo de ese entonces los shippeaba Y NO SABÍA LA VERDAD COMO AHORA, QUÉ ME PASABA PARA SHIPPEAR A LOS HERMANOS?????

-Ay, Simon, Simon, Simon, como te quiero cuando no eres pesadito con “estoy enamorado de Clary”. Te amo rey, de diez, sigue así.

-ALEXANDER LIGHTWOOD TE AMO CON TODO MI CORAZÓN, DALE AMORCITO A MAGNUS, SOIS LOS MEJORES, OS QUIERO MIS REYES.

-Izzy DIOSA, TE AMO REINA, GRACIAS POR CORTARLE LA MANO A SEBASTIAN.

YES YES AND YES! So I'm rereading all of the Shadowhunter Chronicles this year and I remember this book being in my favorite half of the Mortal Instruments and it is one of the ones I remember very distinctly. I loved this book the second time around. I love all the characters and how we got to see them unfold more as well as the introduction of Sebastian and even seeing Clary's mother alive and up. I loved Idris and how everyone ended up there. I love the vibes of Idris. I also really enjoy how downworlders and shadowhunters finally banded together and will finally start to get along a bit more. The whole Valentine plot line ended well and I feel like everything wrapped up well but still left loose ends to continue in with because this was supposed to just be a trilogy. Everything is working out for Clary and Jace, Simon, Simon and Jace, Isabelle, Alec, Magus, even Luke and Jocelyn. We did have some dark points in this book though. Actually most of it is the characters being in a depressive state especially Jace. This is definitely not the Darkest we will see Jace though. Also with the death of Max that hit the characters really hard. I just loved everything about this book 10/5 stars. This book just makes my heart sing!

So this month I've been continuing on with my goal to finish The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare and I'm proud to say that having read City of Glass I am now half way there being now 3 books into this 6 book series and I would say that at this stage for me it felt like the books were themselves reaching a turning point in the series.

From the outset of this book, we are aware that things are going to be different, for a start the action moves away from New York and into the Shadowhunter homeland of Idris and it's capital city Alicante. This marks a change in the pace of the books as we are made aware quite early on that there is limited technology in Idris and that it is the home of the Clave, the Shadowhunter council who govern over the laws and codes that our characters live by. The Lightwoods are headed to Idris to inform the Clave of the events of the previous book and to prepare them for the potential upcoming attacks that can be expected from Valentine and they take their family and Jace with them. Clary also is headed to Idris in search of warlock Ragnor Fell who holds the secrets of how to wake Jocelyn, Clary's mother, from her self-imposed sleep like state.

As the action moves, we are allowed the scope to begin to introduce even more new characters to our narrative. We are introduced to the Penhallow family who the Lightwoods stay with whilst in Idris and we also meet the sister of werewolf Luke, a Shadowhunter who has seen little of her brother since his transformation to Werewolf but who's past marriage would seem to be significant.

As well as introducing new characters I felt this book really began to finalise some of the stories we've been working through in the first few books and to really give more depth to some of the people we've come to know and love. We get to meet Clary's mother Jocelyn properly for the first time, Simon is growing more accustomed to his life as a vampire and with this we see his strength and confidence beginning to grow and the growing relationship between Alec Lightwood and Magnus Bane is a highlight and they brighten up any pages they are on together.

I liked that this book seems to conclude one major plot we have been following since Book 1, I feel it is the right time to say goodbye to certain characters and to draw a line under some of those niggling plot twists that have been stopping the story from moving forward. I also feel that it may be time to move a little of the action away from Jace and Clary and to allow some of the amazing surrounding characters to have their moment in the spotlight. I like Jace and Clary very much but I almost love the other characters more.

At this stage in the series, I'd have to say I still prefer The Infernal Devices as a story overall as I felt it was slightly better developed and the writing more engaging. I am absolutely going to keep moving forward with The Mortal Instruments but I am also aware of The Dark Artifices series which is getting a LOT of attention and I'm really interested to be able to delve into that once I'm done with this but I'm aware that Lady Midnight the first in that series has major spoilers for the end of this series so I need to read books 4-6 of Mortal Instruments in order to move forward so I absolutely will be completing this series in the weeks ahead.

I have no freaking words to describe this book?

OH. MY. GOD. It was by far the best of the series. And if you haven't liked the first ones, I bet this one will change your point of view overall.

This was... woah. GIGANTIC. My love for the characters just got stronger and stronger and I'm so so happy to find out that Jace and Clary weren't actual siblings, even if I already knew it. And I'm soooo in love with the sexy vampire version of Simon.

CASSANDRA CLARE YOU'RE MY FIREWORK

This review is also featured on Behind the Pages: City of Glass

And my reread continues!

The City of Glass allows readers a glimpse into Alicante, the fabled city of the Shadowhunters that they have been hearing about since book one. The Shadowhunters are gathering, as Valentine prepares to launch an attack against the city. His ultimate goal to eradicate anyone who does not pledge loyalty to him. As war brews on the horizon, Clary desperately tries to find a cure for her mother's endless sleep. Simon has also found himself in trouble. Accidentally being transported to the city of Idris with the rest of the crew, Simon is wrongly imprisoned by the Shadowhunters. And of course, the tension rises as Clary and Jace fight against their feelings for one another. With so much at stake, there are bound to be sacrifices and losses.

This is a much longer book than the previous two novels. It almost seems like it could have been broken down into two separate books with the way the storyline progresses. But with that being said, Cassandra Clare did a good job of providing entertaining conflicts, and a steady pace with her plot development. Because of its size, readers also have the chance to see larger sections from the cast of characters. Of course, Clary and Jace steal the spotlight. The dynamics between the two are what enamored me to the series, and each book only proves to be more intense.

The series certainly takes a darker turn with this addition. If you've read the first two books, you know that the overall tone of The Mortal Instruments is dark, but there are no pulled punches as Valentine cuts his way through Shadowhunters to attain his goal. I prefer to read books with darker themes, and I was just as glued to the pages as I was with my first read through.

This is a great recommendation for fans of the urban fantasy and young adult genres. I would say it is more geared towards the older side of YA with the battle scenes and brewing romance. Adults will enjoy it as well! I'm off to start the next book!

I really liked this book. The fact that Max died was so sad though, especially with how everyone was ignoring him the entire time before it happened. I'm not quite sure how Sebastian (ok, jonathan) thought that Isabelle was most like him. I love that Clary and Jace find out they are not siblings, that was what I was waiting for the entire time. I'm interested as to how the tv show is going to portray that as well, since they are taking things so out of order...Overall, great book, it develops the plot quite well, and if Cassandra Clare wanted, she could probably have left it there as a trilogy...but thank god she didn't! :)

This is honestly such a fantastic end to a trilogy. Like it was great even when it was only three books, and then it just got better. It has such great character building in this one, we really start to see our supporting characters shine much brighter. It was already miles better in Ashes, but I loved seeing them all in this book and becoming the characters I actually remember them as from later books. Really just a wonderful conclusion to this storyline.
For some reason, this book has always been the one that I remembered least of. I don't know why, but that was always how it was. I could only remember a character death and the fact that there was a battle. But then when I started this book, it was like everything just rushed in and I found out that I remembered a lot more than I realized. And that was a weird and awesome experience!
This book is incredible, and definitely the best of these first three books (although all three are great). There's so much at stake, and things are settled so well, yet given the right clues to fuel the next three books. I can't wait to get to them, although I think I will read The Infernal Devices after this trilogy, and then pick up the second half after I finish TID. That seems about right. Also I miss Will Herondale! I'll be going into it with so many clues this time. I've reread TID before, but never with these books so fresh in my mind. Can't wait for all that fun stuff.

Hmmm. This series is getting worse. I didn't think it was possible for Clary to get more annoying, but this book certainly proved me wrong. And don't even get me started on Jace and Simon (why is he around anyway, other than to create useless drama?). I can't say that anything that happened in this book was at all surprising (or original), and I found myself skimming large portions of text that weren't dialogue.

I was in such suspense through this book, and when Clary found out for sure that Jace wasn't really her brother, I called out “Finally!” aloud and my husband looked at me funny. This is definitely my favorite “urban fantasy” so far though I must say I haven't read many of them and I'm not sure how fond I am of the genre in general. I was completely hooked on this whole series and read it all in the span of a few days, compelled to keep going.