The Mortal Instruments Series Discussion [Summer Reading Challenge]

Hey, y'all! I'm here with another summer reading challenge post! I finished The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare, and I've posted discussions about each of the books individually. Here are the links to all six posts:

City of Bones

City of Ashes

City of Glass

City of Fallen Angels

City of Lost Souls
City of Heavenly Fire

Now, I'm here to discuss the series as a whole, including my opinions about the entire series, my rankings of the books, rankings of the covers, and some of my favorite things in the series.

Series Summary

The Mortal Instruments series begins in New York City in 2007. One night while Clary Fray is out with her best friend, Simon, she sees people that no one else can see. When her mother disappears the next day, Clary is sucked into the world of these people. They're called Shadowhunters, and their job is to protect humanity by hunting and killing demons. However, Clary quickly learns that she may already play a larger part in this world than she originally understood.

Overall Opinions

I've loved this series ever since I read the first four books back in 2012. Cassandra Clare has created such a huge and detailed world, and it's so interesting and exciting that you can't help but be sucked in. Not only has she created this incredible world, but also incredible characters that you fall in love with incredibly easy. The series is, however, just a little inconsistent. All of the books are good, but Cassandra Clare faltered just a little when expanding it from the original trilogy into a 6 book series. Thankfully, however, it wasn't a huge slip, and she recovered and finished strong. 

As with the Infernal Devices discussion post, I'll be using a 10 star rating system rather than a 5 star one. Either way, I find it really hard to give it an actual rating. It's hard to be objective when, subjectively, I feel so much love toward it. I think I'm going to give it 9.5 stars out of 10. I got really close to giving it 9.6, but 9.5 at least goes by .5.

Ranking The Books

#6: City of Fallen Angels

This and #5 are pretty much tied for me. City of Fallen Angels is not my least favorite of the books (if this was solely based on my taste, it would be #5), but I do think that quality-wise, it's the least successful, which is why it is #6 rather than #5. Way too much of the book was focused upon relationship drama, and the actual plot fell by the wayside a few too many times. It didn't start to get extremely exciting until the last few chapters. 

Favorite moment: Everything after chapter 16.

Rating: Overall, continuing the 10 star system, I'd give it 8.5 stars out of 10.

#5: City of Lost Souls

This is probably my personal least favorite book of the series, mostly because the fact that my favorite character in the series isn't himself in this book. I think that quality-wise, it's better than City of Fallen Angels, which is why it's #5, rather than 6. The parts I dislike are because of personal taste, and not due to it being a bad book. It's definitely not the worst book in the series. And it's not like I hate this book, I do actually like it, I just don't like it as much as the great books in this series.

Favorite moment: Probably the final battle scene, although I thought it was too short.

Rating: I'd have to give it 9 stars out of 10.

#4: City of Ashes

Just like my 5th and 6th choices, 3 &4 are fairly equal. I just have a deeper connection to the book that got 3rd place than to City of Ashes... although once again, City of Ashes might be a touch better. I really loved the action-packed scene at the end, and some of the big plot points, but some of the book was a little slow.

Favorite moment: The action-packed scene at the end, for sure. 

Rating: I'm going to stray away from strinct .5 ratings and give it 9.3 stars out of 10.

#3: City of Bones

Is City of Bones the best book in the series? No. But it was my introduction to the entire Shadowhunter world. When I first read this book, it pulled me in so much that I read it in one day. I was so intrigued and just wanted to know more and couldn't put it down. It may not be the best, but it'll always hold a special place in my heart as the book that made me fall in love with the Shadow world. 

Favorite moment: Magnus's party, for sure. 

Rating: Once again straying from the strict .5 ratings, this gets 9.4 stars out of 10.

#2: City of Heavenly Fire

This was a really satisfying conclusion to the series. I read the entire thing in a single day, and enjoyed it immensely. I've said this before, but Cassandra Clare is really skilled at concluding series. They always have some heartbreak, but you walk away from them content with the way everything turned out. That's how I felt about this book. After a couple books that weren't my favorite, this one was a breath of fresh air.

Favorite moment: Probably the epilogue. 

Rating: I'd have to give it 10 stars out of 10.

#1: City of Glass

I'm surprised I loved this one as much as I did. It was a re-read for me, and the first time I read it, I liked it but just thought that it was about as good as the books preceding it. But it's not. It's so, SO much better. I think this one wins over City of Heavenly Fire partially due to the nostalgia aspect. However, I also think that it capped off the original trilogy really nicely. This being placed higher than City of Heavenly Fire is once again, just personal taste, since they're both really great, great books.

Favorite moment: The scene at Lake Lyn near the end with Clary and Valentine and Jace.

Rating: It was a clear 10 stars out of 10. I really, really enjoyed this book.

Ranking The Covers

#6) City of Ashes

It's nothing special. I get that the blue and orange are supposed to offset each other and look striking because they're complementary colors, but the cover just looks pretty monotone besides that little orange bit. I've never been a huge fan of having half of their faces cut off either. 

#5) City of Fallen Angels

Once again, this is a case of monotonality for me. It's all orange and yellow. If a cover is going to be interesting, the colors have to at least have some sort of contrast so that something stands out.

#4) City of Bones

This cover is a nice dose of nostalgia for me, remembering that first time I saw it and wanted to read it. However, the way I always picture Jace and the Jace on the cover don't really match (even though I'm clearly the incorrect one here). And once again, why only half a head?

#3) City of Heavenly Fire

If the inside of the jacket were included in this list, this would win hands down, because the inside is just so cool. Excluding that though, it's still a pretty cool cover. There's definitely a large gap between my 3 favorite covers and 3 least favorite covers. This one is just really dynamic with the fire and Clary's hair and the purple radiating from Sebastian. Super cool.

#2) City of Glass

This is when they got the color contrast right. The orange sky contrasted with the blue glass city looks really cool. Add in Sebastian with wings, and it just looks really dynamic. 

#1) City of Lost Souls

The choice of this cover as #1 is more for color than anything else (which seems to be the pattern, honestly). Red and grey is one of the best color combos for me, and I really like the contrast of Clary's dress and the blueish grey background. As cheesy as this embrace is, I like that we at least don't have half-head syndrome. Also, I think that this is the closest the covers got to depicting the characters as I envisioned them.

Favorites/Least Favorites

Favorite character: Jace and Magnus. They're both just so wonderful! I also really like Simon

Least favorite character: I'm not going to be obvious and choose a villain. Of our good characters, I've never been a huge fan of Maia. I don't know why, I just never particularly cared about her.

Favorite ship: Jace and Clary. Obvi. 

Least favorite ship: Simon and Maia. I never really got that one.

Spoilers!

Favorite moment: I don't know if there's really one singular moment in the series that I can say was my favorite. Lots of smaller, wonderful moments, but not one total favorite.

Least favorite moment: When Simon is stripped of his immortality and loses his memories. It was so incredibly heartbreaking. If Cassandra Clare hadn't remedied that situation, I think she would've had a mutiny on her hands.

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So, there you go, that's all for The Mortal Instruments Series Discussion! Have you read the series? What did you think of it? I plan on getting my TMI vs. ID/ Wrapup post up tomorrow, so be on the lookout for that! Regular series posts and Harry Potter posts are coming soon! Promise! 

Thanks for reading this! If you like my posts, don't forget to subscribe/follow, since it lets me know that you're enjoying what I'm doing. See y'all soon!

City of Glass Discussion [Summer Reading Challenge]

Hey, y'all! I'm here with another summer reading challenge post! I'm now in the process of reading The Mortal Instruments series. The first four books of the series are re-reads for me, while the 5th and 6th books will be first-time reads. I'd read City of Glass once before this read-through, and I was surprised at how different my opinion was this time around. As usual, I'll give a non-spoilery summary and overall thoughts/rating before jumping into a spoilery discussion and my favorite quotes.

Also, as you might be able to tell, I'm a bit behind on my reading, since this is going up the day City of Heavenly Fire comes out. AKA I have 2 more books to get through before I can even think of getting to City of Heavenly Fire. I fully intend to have the books finished by the end of the month, but at this point, I'm fairly certain that the last couple posts will not be out by the end of the month. But I'll keep you updated. At this point, I'm putting a halt on my other series so that I can finish up this. Once I get all of these reading posts out for May, I'll get those started up again.

Book Summary

[Reminder: don't read this section if you haven't read both of the previous books. I have to talk about what's happened up to this point to discuss the plot of City of Glass!]

After the events of City of Ashes, everyone at the New York institute need to travel to Alicante. Clary finally has the name of someone who could help her wake her mom up. The Clave is meeting to figure out what to do about Valentine, so the Shadowhunters need to be there as well. However, things seem to quickly fall apart as Valentine throws everything into chaos.

Overall Thoughts

Non-spoiler section!

I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed City of Glass. The first time through, I liked it but although I really enjoyed it, I thought it was just about as good as the other two books. This time through, I don't think that at all. It was far, far better than the other two. 

I'm finding it hard to put into words my opinion about the original trilogy. While I enjoy all the books as they are, there's a certain... lack of balance to the trilogy. While the first two books contained a lot of information and exciting scenes, they were nothing in comparison to everything we discovered in City of Glass, as well as all of the action-packed scenes in the book. By the time I reached the half-way point in City of Glass, I was (pleasantly) surprised that I was only half-way through. For me, reading the first half of City of Glass felt like the equivalent of reading either City of Bones or City of Ashes because of how much had happened already. I see this as the first two books being slightly lacking, rather than as City of Glass having too much in it. Approximately 250 pages of City of Glass were just as satisfying as City of Bones and City of Ashes had been... and those are both over 450 pages. It's a clear indication that Cassandra Clare's writing improved greatly.

That reminds me- in my City of Ashes discussion, I said that I was glad that this became a 6 book series rather than the trilogy it was originally written to be, because City of Ashes felt like only the tip of the iceberg. However, at the end of City of Glass, the story feels very complete. I'm definitely still not opposed to the series continuing, but I can also see that making it only a trilogy would be very conclusive as well.  

City of Glass also cemented my love of all of our "good" characters. There were some characters I maybe didn't like as much at the beginning, but while I still have favorite characters, I've come to really like and care about all of the characters.

I really don't have many complaints for this book. I really, really loved it- a lot more than I did the first time. This could be partially due to the fact that in my first read, I read City of Ashes and City of Glass in the same weekend, each in a single day. I didn't really give myself any breathing room from the series, and I didn't really have time to process what happened and my feelings toward the books. I probably also wasn't reading as closely or thoroughly because I just wanted to know what happened. I gave myself a few days with City of Glass, and although I did read the last 40% (according to my kindle) in one sitting, I at least had time away from the book to process everything that was happening.

Also, as a side note, I really enjoyed getting some tie-ins with the Infernal Devices. I'm glad that I read the Infernal Devices before re-reading TMI, because I can actually understand some of the references that I missed the first time around.

So, rating. At this point, I'm giving it 5 stars out of 5. I tend to be kinda picky with my 5 star ratings (although I'm trying to not be quite as picky) but I was surprised by how much I really enjoyed City of Glass the second time through. 

Spoilery Discussion!

Even the first time I read the series, I didn't really believe that Jace and Clary were actually siblings. The entire time, I was kinda like "OK, Clare, how are you going to resolve this? How are Clary and Jace going to end up together?" I was completely convinced that they would end up together, so I was fairly certain that some twist would come up and we would find out that they weren't siblings. Obviously, this time around, I knew that "Sebastian" was actually Clary's brother, which made the scene where they kiss even creepier than before I knew.

I also loved that this is where Clary finally fully harnesses her power to create runes. She's used it off and on throughout the series, but this is where it finally becomes really helpful.

I honestly have trouble even talking about the book, because although there were scenes that I really loved, I just really loved it as a whole. Everything was just so wonderful that it's hard to pinpoint the best parts.

I liked how the whole Sebastian/Jace thing was handled. I liked how the characters kinda found out at different moments. I felt so bad for Jace when he believed that he had demon blood in him. The one complaint is that it was made very clear that the child with demon blood would not be able to understand or show compassion or love or really any sort of emotion. But Jace has certainly shown emotion... so I'm not sure why no one caught onto that fact that Jace clearly couldn't be the demon-child.

I loved the story about Jace's star birthmark, especially now that I know where it came from. The fact that the star birthmark was passed along from one of my favorite characters is just so great! Also, one moment that stood out for me was at the party in the epilogue. Magnus was talking to a girl with brown hair when Clary arrived. After all of the Infernal Devices references, I couldn't help but wonder... was it Tessa? Tessa has brown hair. She would probably be there, fighting alongside the warlocks. And, while we obviously don't know everything about Magnus by any stretch of the imagination, we don't know of any other brown-haired girl that he would even give the time of day to. I dunno, it just seemed more important than just some random girl who happened to pop up.

I don't even know what else to say about this book, because it was just so good. Everything was great.

Favorite Quotes

Page 48: "Did you ever think that in a past life Alec was an old woman with ninety cats who was always yelling at the neighborhood kids to get off her lawn? Because I do," he [Jace] said. 

Page 151: "It's my cologne. Eau de Recent Injury." Jace raised his left hand.

Page 168: "Nice, bah. He's gorgeous." Magnus gazed dreamily in his direction. "You should leave him here. I could hang hats on him and things."

Page 251: "I'm really, really grateful to you for saving us, Maia, and Jace is too, even though he's so stubborn that he'd rather jam a seraph blade through his eyeball than say so."

Page 256: Malachi scowled. "I don't remember the Clave inviting you into the Glass City, Magnus Bane."
"They didn't," Magnus said. "Your wards are down."
"Really?" the Consul's voice dripped sarcasm. "I hadn't noticed."
Magnus looked concerned. "That's terrible. Someone should have told you." He glanced at Luke. "Tell him the wards are down."

Page 268: "You had to make a crazy jail friend, didn't you? You couldn't just count ceiling tiles or tame a pet mouse like normal prisoners do?" [Jace]

Page 316: "Have you tried talking to her?"
"No," Jace said, "we've been punching her repeatedly in the face instead. Why, do you think that won't work?"

Page 366: "If you ever meet the man who could take advantage of Isabelle, you'll have to let me know. I'd like to shake his hand. Or run away from him very fast, I'm not sure which." [Simon]

Page 496: There was only one thing she could ask for, in the end, only one real choice. She raised her eyes to the Angel's. "Jace," she said.

Page 516: "All Lucian wants," said Amatis firmly, "is you. You and Clary. That's all he ever wanted."

Page 534: "I am a man," he told her, "and men do not consume pink beverages. Get thee gone, woman, and bring me something brown."
"Brown?" Isabelle made a face.
"Brown is a manly color," said Jace, and yanked on a stray lock of Isabelle's hair with his free hand. "In fact, look- Alec is wearing it."
Alec looked mournfully down at his sweater. "It was black," he said. "But then it faded."
"You could dress it up with a sequined headband," Magnus suggested, offering his boyfriend something blue and sparkly. "Just a thought."

So, there you go, that's all for this summer reading post! I hope to get a couple more posts out soon, since it's getting close to the end of May, but we'll see!

Thanks for reading this! If you like my posts, don't forget to subscribe/follow, since it lets me know that you're enjoying what I'm doing. See y'all tomorrow!

City of Ashes Discussion [Summer Reading Challenge]

Hey, y'all! I'm here with another summer reading challenge post! I'm now in the process of reading The Mortal Instruments series. The first four books of the series are re-reads for me, while the 5th and 6th books will be first-time reads. I'd read City of Ashes once before this read-through, and I was surprised at how much of the plot I'd forgotten.  As usual, I'll give a non-spoilery summary and overall thoughts/rating before jumping into a spoilery discussion and my favorite quotes.

Also, as a side note, you may have noticed that my normal series haven't come out as planned. Not to worry- I plan on getting a CDs On My Shelf post out in the next couple days, followed closely by a City of Glass Discussion.

Book Summary

[Reminder: don't read this section if you haven't read City of Bones. I have to spoil the events of City of Bones to discuss the plot of City of Ashes!]

Valentine has escaped with The Mortal Cup, but his presence is still clear. Downworlder children have been murdered, and the Shadowhunters suspect Valentine is behind it. To make everything infinitely worse, the Clave suspects that Jace is working with Valentine, another Mortal Instrument- the Soul-Sword- is stolen, and discord within the Clave is growing.

Overall Thoughts

Non-spoiler section!

I remember liking City of Bones A LOT more than City of Ashes the first time around, but upon a re-read, they're at least equal. I haven't yet decided if I like City of Ashes more than City of Bones. Also, as I'm writing this, I'm finding it extremely difficult to talk about it without spoiling anything, because I feel like everything worth talking about is a spoiler!

I certainly like Clary a lot more in this book. She actually figures out how to be useful! And the way that happens is extremely cool, in my opinion.

And of course I absolutely love Jace, as usual. I had totally forgotten about a certain moment with him and Simon near the end of the book, and when I re-read it, it reminded me why I love Jace so much. As I said in my last post, I wasn't sure I'd love Jace as much as Will Herondale or Jem Carstairs, but re-reading the books is just reminding me why I loved Jace so much in the first place. He's arrogant and sarcastic, but he's also an unbelievably wonderful character. Where would this series be without him?

Reading this also reminds me why I'm so glad that Cassandra Clare made this series 6 books rather than 3. By the end of Clockwork Prince, I felt like although we didn't have all of the information, we were nearing some sort of conclusion. In City of Ashes, however, it still feels like the tip of the iceberg. That could be because I've read past the original trilogy, but it just doesn't feel like the middle book in a trilogy.

I do think that the quality is better in City of Ashes than in City of Bones. The plotline is a lot more intricate in this one than in City of Bones. We get to see into the minds of more characters and see each character's struggles and confusion. It makes for a really solid book.

My big complaint for this book has to do with some relationship stuff. I can't say what exactly, since that would spoil City of Bones, but just... ew. After learning what we learned in the first book... WHY? In the long-run, I think it's great, but with the knowledge that these characters have at this point... NO.

So, rating. I think I'm going to go ahead and give this 4.5 stars out of 5. I may end up bumping it up to something like 4.6 or something, if I do decide that it's better than City of Bones, but for now, 4.5

Spoilery Discussion!

Starting out with the whole relationship thing. I'm sorry, but if I liked a guy and then found out that he was my brother, I would immediately say "well nevermind then!" and MOVE ON. The fact that Clary and Jace can't seem to keep their hands off each other, even though Valentine has informed them that they're siblings, is so gross and wrong on so many levels. Why, Cassandra Clare? Why?

Also, every time Clary and Simon were together, it just felt so cringe-y. I'm glad that was ended, because I don't think I could handle any more Clary-Simon action. Too awkward. Doesn't work.

Clary definitely becomes more pleasant in this book. She's acting more like a Shadowhunter than as a scared fifteen year old girl. And the power to create runes is seriously awesome. I do have to say though, that it does seem extremely similar to Tessa from the Infernal Devices and how she has a special talent no one else has.

Simon's plot is another of my favorites. I remember, the first time through, I got annoyed with myself because I didn't realize ahead of time that Simon would become a vampire, even though he bit one. But it was fairly subtly and cleverly done, and I really enjoy that. And it also gives Simon more of a purpose in the series. He's not just the mundane hanging around anymore. And I also love the twist with him being able to go into the sunlight. So great.

Which brings me to probably my favorite moment in the book- the moment when Jace lets Simon drink his blood. This is what reminded me why I love Jace so much. He cut his arm open and allowed Simon to drink from it, knowing fully well that Simon could easily kill him (whether purposefully, or accidentally). I don't care whether he did it for Clary, or if he did it purely to save Simon, but it's such a selfless act and shows that Jace isn't just that pretty, arrogant boy with no emotions.

I also love all of the questions left unanswered at the end of the book, particularly with Inquisitor Herondale and Jace. I obviously know the purpose, since I've read past this book, but I think it's really great to leave that hanging for the third (and originally, final) book of the series.

Favorite Quotes

Page 10: "I said mostly extint." [Jace]
Alec jabbed a finger toward him. "Mostly extinct," he said, his voice trembling with rage, "is NOT EXTINCT ENOUGH."
"I see," said Jace. "I'll just have them change the entry in the demonology textbook from 'almost extinct' to 'not extinct enough for Alec. He prefers his monsters really, really extinct.' Will that make you happy?" 

Page 123: "Yeah," Jace said, "he's terrified I'll tell everyone that he's always really wanted to be a ballerina."

Page 126: "Is he dead?" he [Magnus] inquired. "He looks dead."
"No," snapped Maryse. "He's not dead."
"Have you checked? I could kick him if you want." Magnus moved toward Jace

Page 137: "I was going to watch Project Runway," said Jace. "It's on next."
Project Runway is my favorite show, so that always makes me giggle.

Page 447: A pair of werewolves occupied another booth. They were eating raw shanks of lamb and arguing about who would win in a fight: Dumbledore from the Harry Potter books or Magnus Bane.
I always love a good Harry Potter reference!


So, there you go, that's all for this summer reading post! I hope to get a couple more posts out before the end of the weekend: a CDs On My Shelf post, and my City of Glass discussion. Hopefully I finish it by then, because I really need to get going if I'm going to get done with The Mortal Instruments by the time that City of Heavenly Fire comes out. It's gonna be a doozy.

Thanks for reading this! If you like my posts, don't forget to subscribe/follow, since it lets me know that you're enjoying what I'm doing. See y'all tomorrow!

City of Bones Discussion [Summer Reading Challenge]

Hey, y'all! I'm here with another summer reading challenge post! I've now started into The Mortal Instruments series. The first four books of the series are re-reads for me, while the 5th and 6th books will be first-time reads. I'd actually already read City of Bones twice before this re-read, so out of the books, this is the one I'm the most familiar with.  As usual, I'll give a non-spoilery summary and overall thoughts/rating before jumping into a spoilery discussion and my favorite quotes.

Book Summary

Our main character, Clary Fray, is a fifteen year old girl from New York City. One night, while out with her best friend, Simon, she realizes that she can see people that no one else is able to see. The next day, her mother goes missing, and when Clary returns home, she's attacked by a creature. Clary finds herself sucked into the world of demon hunters called Shadowhunters, and while trying to discover what happened to her mom, she realizes that she may be a bigger part of the Shadowhunter world than she originally thought.

Overall Thoughts

Non-spoiler section!

I'm going to try my hardest not to compare this to the Infernal Devices very much. I'm going to try to save that for the end of the month wrap-up. I do know that there will be some small comparisons, but I'm going to keep it to a minimum.

Right off the bat, I do have a comparison. Reading Clockwork Princess, Cassandra Clare's newest book, and then going straight into City of Bones, her first book, was a bit troublesome for me. It shows how much Clare has improved as a writer, but it also made it a bit difficult to really get into City of Bones, because it seemed a little childish in comparison. Once I got into it, however, I found myself enjoying it again. I didn't enjoy it as much as I did the first time, but that might be because I knew what was happening already.

There were a couple things that upset me because of some inconsistency between TMI and the ID. In City of Bones, Jace says that the Mortal Cup can only be used on children. Yet, we know from the ID that it was used on someone who was not a child. I doubt Jace doesn't know what he's talking about, so I'm not sure what Cassandra Clare was thinking with that.

Ok, so Clary. She bothered me this time. It wasn't overwhelming by any means, but there were definitely moments where I just wanted to smack her. There were several times when she could have figured something out just by thinking about it, but she was so oblivious that it wasn't even funny. There were also a couple times where she kinda just stood around and let everyone else do the work, and I wish she would've just done something.

OK, enough of the complaints. On to the good stuff. JACE. I had begun to doubt if I'd like Jace as much as I did the first and second reads... but I loved him, as always. There's one scene where I got mad at him, but I've always been annoyed in that scene. Overall, he's definitely my favorite character in the book.

This next part is based on past times I've read it rather than this time. So, clearly since this is the third time I've read this book, I already knew everything that was going to happen and therefore I didn't have that urge to keep reading to find out what was going on. However, the first time I read this book, that urge was there so strongly that I finished it in a day. There only a few books that I've read in a single day (on the first read). Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Divergent, and (most recently) Clockwork Princess are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head. Typically, I prefer to read chunks at a time, but when I'm really, really enjoying a book, I can't stand to put it down no matter what. Because of this, I think that plot-wise, this was a really great opener. There's a nice handful of action scenes, but also that on-going mystery there to keep the reader curious and wanting to continue to figure out what's going on.

So, rating. Although it kinda sounds like I have several complaints about the book, I really do like it. I think the main things that bothered me were Clary and the fact that I didn't think that the writing was quite up to par with some of Clare's other books. I'm going to [tentatively] give City of Bones 4.5 stars out of 5. I'll give my final rating on the series discussion post, but I think that for now, 4.5 is adequate.

Spoilery Discussion!

OK, so addressing one of my Clary problems more in-depth. Given the timeline and the fact that Clary discovered that her mom and Valentine were married, Clary should've deduced that she was Valentine's daughter approximately 200 pages before Luke told her. I mean, Clary has realized that her mom hid her entire past, so would it really be that far of a stretch for her to wonder, "Wait, is it possible that I'm Valentine's daughter?!" She didn't even question it. Plus, the fact that Simon made it incredibly obvious that he liked her, but she was clueless. Really, Clary?

I'm sure, that if you've read City of Bones, you know that the part where I really hated Jace was when we first see him with Valentine. I've always thought that this section was incredibly out of character for him. I guess I could understand him being shocked and therefore acting weird. However, can you imagine Star Wars if, when Darth Vader says "Luke, I am your father," Luke went, "OK, let me help you take lightsabers away from my friends!" I mean, Jace is an incredibly self-sufficient and independent character, and he was acting like an obedient five year old for a while. It's just too out of character.

The rest of the time, I really liked Jace though. I love Jace a lot. I think he's a really fun and interesting character to have around. Where would we be without his sarcasm and witty repartee? I think that if this were real life, I'd hate him, but this isn't real life, and I think he's adorable.

I think that the action and amount of world-building are two of the strongest parts of this book. We get the scene with the vampires, several demons and forsaken, and the battles at the end. It's an action-packed first book, and that makes it really great. I also felt like we got a great sense of the world. It definitely helps that the main character is being introduced to the world at the same time as us. What she understands, we understand. What confuses her, confuses us. It's really helpful.

Overall, I always enjoy getting into Cassandra Clare's Shadowhunter world!

Favorite Quotes

Page 6:"Meanwhile," Simon added, "I wanted to tell you that lately I've been cross-dressing. Also, I'm sleeping with your mom. I thought you should know."

Page 83: Alec looked horrified, as if she'd asked him to put on a tutu and execute a perfect pirouette.

Page 153: "It wouldn't be my move," Jace agreed. "First the candy and flowers, then the apology letters, then the ravenous demon hordes. In that order."

Page 179: 'Shadowhunters: Looking Better in Black Than the Widows of our Enemies Since 1234.'

Page 186: "Magnus Bane? But that's not even a name!"

Page 194: "Good idea," said Jace. "I shall be Baron Hotschaft VonHugenstein."

Page 324: "Look. Jammies."

Page 324: "Don't tell me," he [Jace] said. "You've got a drawing emergency. You need a nude model. Well, I'm not in the mood. You could ask Hodge."

Page 341: "True. I'd always hoped that when I finally said 'I love you' to a girl, she'd say 'I know' back, like Lei did to Han in Return of the Jedi."

Page 345: Jace said, "Unfortunately, Lady of the Haven, my one true love remains myself."
Dorothea roared at that. "At least," she said, "you don't have to worry about rejection, Jace Wayland."
"Not necessarily. I turn myself down occasionally, just to keep it interesting."



So, there you go, that's all for this summer reading post! A chapter of The Secret Lightning Scar should be up on Saturday. Sometime after that, I should have a City of Ashes post up. Hopefully on Monday.

Thanks for reading this! If you like my posts, don't forget to subscribe/follow, since it lets me know that you're enjoying what I'm doing. See y'all tomorrow!