Book Review - The City of Ashes

The City of Ashes 

(Mortal Instruments #2)

Cassandra Clare

6 Stars
453 Pages
Ya / Fantasy / Paranormal / Supernatural


This was a typical second installment of a longish series. We got quite a few little answers to questions from the first novel and the information we already had was expanded on. There was action, but a lot of things were left unresolved, my biggest issue was the character dynamics, which were either at a stand still or ran in circles. However I got the impression it is building up to a few major climax's between several sets of characters and that there is going to be almost a first and second "half" of the series marked by the end of the third book.

The Summary is below this page break
There are Spoilers so BEWARE! I did try to leave out as many as possible so it is a bit of a point blank style

We start pretty much where we left off. We have Jace and Clarey as brother and sister but they still have lovers feelings for each other. There is Clarey, who is torn in two by being a "Mundane Nephalim" and Simon - Simon (now vampire) is madly in love with Clarey; hates Jace. The problem for Simon being Clarey thinking of him as a brother or best friend
Moving on...Valentine has escaped with the cup, the evil bastard is still willing to use any means to his own end. Clarey is frantic to "cure" her mother somehow as Jocelyn is in some kind of coma, Luke is trying to keep Clarey safe while still watching over Jocelyn.  Jaces adoptive family, the Lightwoods and the Clave turn against him thinking he is a spy for Valentine. We learn more about the 3 mortal instruments -which are The Cup, The Sword and The Mirror - and there various powers.