City of Lost Souls (The Mortal Instruments #5)

Title: City of Lost Souls
Author: Cassandra Clare
Series?: The Mortal Instruments
Synopsis:
The New York Times bestselling Mortal Instruments continues—and so do the thrills and danger for Jace, Clary, and Simon.

What price is too high to pay, even for love? When Jace and Clary meet again, Clary is horrified to discover that the demon Lilith’s magic has bound her beloved Jace together with her evil brother Sebastian, and that Jace has become a servant of evil. The Clave is out to destroy Sebastian, but there is no way to harm one boy without destroying the other. As Alec, Magnus, Simon, and Isabelle wheedle and bargain with Seelies, demons, and the merciless Iron Sisters to try to save Jace, Clary plays a dangerous game of her own. The price of losing is not just her own life, but Jace’s soul. She’s willing to do anything for Jace, but can she still trust him? Or is he truly lost?

Love. Blood. Betrayal. Revenge. Darkness threatens to claim the Shadowhunters in the harrowing fifth book of the Mortal Instruments series.

 Why I Read This: 
I read the other books and wanted to read this one too, after the cliff hanger of the last book.

My Thoughts/Review:
"Harrowing" is a good word to describe this book (in more ways than one).

Clary, Simon, Jace, Sebastian, Maia, Jordan, Alec, Magnus, Isabelle and the Clave are all back for another installment of The Mortal Instruments series! While trying to figure what the heck is wrong with Jace for hanging out with Sebastian like they're brothers or something, Clary discovers that something is horribly wrong--Lilith's magic has bonded the two together; neither can die without the other dying, as well. Jace is submissive to Sebastian and loses himself, though he retains his love for her (no matter how twisted it becomes). Clary makes a move and acts like she's joining them, when she's actually communicating to Simon what's going on. Meanwhile, everyone else is trying to find a way to kill Sebastian without killing Jace--and they discover a solution that could end up killing someone in the process of getting an impossible weapon. Alec and Magnus have more relationship problems--problems bound to happen with a mortal and an immortal. Alec is tempted by an offer to take away Magnus' immortality, but will he take it? Will Jace live or die? Will Jace even get away from the control of Sebastian? Will Clary be able to pull of her most dangerous stunt yet? Will Maia and Jordan get back together? Will Simon and Isabelle be a happy couple? Who knows. You'll have to read to find out, I suppose.

On another note, we find out quite a bit about Sebastian in this book. I guess he's not all that bad of a guy, but still. Evil. Genius. Gotta admire his brains, though he does seem to underestimate Clary quite a bit, which wasn't necessarily the brightest move.

All those relationships that grow? Clary and Sebastian (as bro and sis of course), Clary and Jace, Simon and Isabelle, Maia and Jordan, and several others.
All those that crumble to dust? Sebastian and Jace, Simon and Maia, and Alec and Magnus (O.O)

The Alec/Magnus scenes were heart-wrenching and if they don't get back together, I will be forced to send angry fan letters to Cassy Clare because THEY ARE PERFECT FOR EACH OTHER. I CRIED DAMMIT.

Anyway, it's an okay book overall, but it didn't live up to my expectations, to be honest. The first three books were better than these past two, and I hope the last one will be getting better. The plot was kind of all over the place, but I can deal with that as long as I can piece it together. It was still pretty clear in the direction the book wanted to go.

I won't hold as high expectations for the next book, but I definitely will read it. I didn't stick with these books thus far just to give up now. It's happening.

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars.

City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments #3)

Title: City of Glass
Author: Cassandra Clare
Series?: The Mortal Instruments
Synopsis: 

To save her mother's life, Clary must travel to the City of Glass, the ancestral home of the Shadowhunters - never mind that entering the city without permission is against the Law, and breaking the Law could mean death. To make things worse, she learns that Jace does not want her there, and Simon has been thrown in prison by the Shadowhunters, who are deeply suspicious of a vampire who can withstand sunlight.

As Clary uncovers more about her family's past, she finds an ally in mysterious Shadowhunter Sebastian. With Valentine mustering the full force of his power to destroy all Shadowhunters forever, their only chance to defeat him is to fight alongside their eternal enemies. But can Downworlders and Shadowhunters put aside their hatred to work together? While Jace realizes exactly how much he's willing to risk for Clary, can she harness her newfound powers to help save the Glass City - whatever the cost?

Love is a mortal sin and the secrets of the past prove deadly as Clary and Jace face down Valentine in the final installment of the New York Times bestselling trilogy The Mortal Instruments.

Why I Read This:
I read the first two books in the series and couldn't wait to get my hands on this one. I'm very glad that I got over my fear of mainstream books being horrible (because not all of them are *coughMortalInstrumentscough*)

My Thoughts/Review:
City of Glass starts out with Clary getting ready to go to Idris with Jace and the Lightwoods. Jace is trying to get her to stay home, so he gets Simon out there to try to convince everyone that she changed her mind, while he had tricked Clary into thinking it was another time. However, it all goes wrong when some Fallen attack Jace, Simon, and the Lightwoods. They rush though the portal to Idris, taking the injured Simon with them, and leaving Clary behind in New York.

Clary soon finds out what happens, throws practically a temper tantrum, and makes a portal to Idris, nevermind the danger. She accidentally drags Luke along, and they land in the middle of a lake that the is like poison to Shadowhunters. Clary accidentally swallows some water, but they are now at Idris, on their way to Alicante, so there's nowhere for her to get help. Her and Luke get into Alicante illegally, so they can't let anyone know they're there, but Luke requests the helps of an unusual woman in the city to help Clary get better.

Clary's not supposed to go out because she's there illegally, but she does anyway, and she goes to see Jace and the Lightwoods, oblivious to Simon's dilemma, and that ends in heartbreak.

Meanwhile, Simon is being kept in the Gard's prison and coerced to try to sell out the Lightwoods.

Jace and Clary slowly but steadily find out more about their pasts, their family's past, and breakthrough discoveries are made. Their forbidden love is at an all-time high, even though they're trying harder than ever to make that not-so-obvious. The time comes to face it, to face everything, and to make hard decisions that could just result in the deaths of not just themselves, but lots of other people too.

This book was a great ride, though I didn't feel some emotions as I think I should have. I didn't get so sad where I should have, I didn't cry, I didn't get extremely happy. It's just not as much of an emotional roller coaster as I would've liked for it to be.

It was a good plot, with lots of twists that I didn't see coming. However, I had to skip through some parts because they were too boring for me to read all of it.

We find out more about Jace in this book, more than ever before, and we get to watch him grow even more, too. Same with Clary and Simon. Simon was a nice relief from Clary there for a while. I liked his point of view. Jace's point of view was also a nice change, but I didn't like it as much as Simon's.

Magnus was in here a lot more, which is an awesome thing.

I really liked this book, but it was not as good as its predecessors. I don't know what else to say. It was nice, but not fantabulous or anything.

I give this book 3.5 out of 5 stars.

~Jessicah

City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments #2)

Title: City of Ashes

Author: Cassandra Clare

Series?: The Mortal Instruments

Synopsis: 

Clary Fray just wishes that her life would go back to normal. But what's normal when you're a demon-slaying Shadowhunter, your mother is in a magically induced coma, and you can suddenly see Downworlders like werewolves, vampires, and faeries? If Clary left the world of the Shadowhunters behind, it would mean more time with her best friend, Simon, who's becoming more than a friend. But the Shadowhunting world isn't ready to let her go — especially her handsome, infuriating, newfound brother, Jace. And Clary's only chance to help her mother is to track down rogue Shadowhunter Valentine, who is probably insane, certainly evil — and also her father.

To complicate matters, someone in New York City is murdering Downworlder children. Is Valentine behind the killings — and if he is, what is he trying to do? When the second of the Mortal Instruments, the Soul-Sword, is stolen, the terrifying Inquisitor arrives to investigate and zooms right in on Jace. How can Clary stop Valentine if Jace is willing to betray everything he believes in to help their father?

In this breathtaking sequel to City of Bones, Cassandra Clare lures her readers back into the dark grip of New York City's Downworld, where love is never safe and power becomes the deadliest temptation.

Why I Read This: 

I finished the first book and I couldn't wait to pick up the second book and pick up where the first book left off!

My Thoughts/Review:

The book starts out slightly more captivating than it did in City of Bones, but it still wasn't a great beginning. I guess beginnings aren't Cassandra Clare's strong point.

It starts out with a poor, foolish warlock summoning a demon for Valentine, and all goes as planned--for Valentine. From there, the story winds into several twists with the unusual family of Jace, Clary, Luke, Valentine, and Jocelyn, as well as their close friends, the Lightwoods. We meet the boy, Max, and the adult Lightwoods, as well as a few other interesting characters. There are shenanigans, as always, but there are more dangerous aspects of what's going on and no one seems to be worthy of trust any more, even if they're telling the truth. Jace is locked away and Clary is worried and there's a love triangle and then there isn't and then there is--oh my, Ms. Clare, why can't your characters make up their minds?!

I really liked this story. It was constantly keeping me on my toes, wondering what would happen next. However sucky the beginning of the story may be, Cassandra Clare knows how to finish. She knows how to do things with an edge. I liked the plot of this story, and I was really worried that certain characters would die, since she seems to have no qualms about what she does to Simon in the book.

I loved Clary, but she was slightly more annoying in this one than the others. Jace was my favorite in this book (not exactly surprising), but I hated that he seemed to be blind to the others' feelings. I suppose that's just part of Jace, though. Simon was fun, but not one of the greatest characters ever. I liked him, but I was in love with Jace. Alec was cute. Magnus was awesome. Isabelle--I'm glad she didn;t show up too much. Max was so adorable! I didn't like Maryse or her husband, and I ended up having quite a bit of respect for Imogen. I loved all the twists with the characters; they all seemed so real.

"I am not," Alec said, through his teeth. "Just because you said dragon demons were extinct—""I said mostly extinct."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?"

I really don't know what else to say about this book other than that I absolutely loved what Cassandra did with everything, and that I'll be picking up the third book in the series as soon as I finish this review, so I guess this is it.

I give this book 4.75 stars out of 5.

~Jessicah

The City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments #1)

Title: The City of Bones
Author: Cassandra Clare
Series?: The Mortal Instruments
Synopsis:
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. Then the body disappears into thin air. It’s hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing—not even a smear of blood—to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?

This is Clary’s first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It’s also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace’s world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a 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. . . .

 Why I Read This:
Some friends on goodreads made a topic about TMI and convinced me to *finally* read the book. I have been thinking about it for a long time, but I never really wanted to because is so mainstream, and most mainstream stuff is either really well-deserved to be mainstream and is genius, or it's a load of crap. Typically, it's the load of crap option. LUCKILY, The City of Bones is the first option and I'm really glad that I was convinced to read it.

My Thoughts/Review: 
So, lemme get the bad out of the way before I start on the good, since the good outweighs the bad by a lot.

This book starts out not very well. It didn't hook me from the first few pages, which really sucked because I've been reading some really awesome books here lately that had me hooked from the first pages, the first few paragraph, and in some cases the first sentence (*coughDivergentcough*).

That was pretty much the only thing I didn't like about it, except that it didn't make me cry at the parts that it was supposed to. Now, I'm not usually one to cry; I didn't cry at most of my family members' funerals. However, books are different for me. I get into the character and I disappear in the mix and swirl of emotions. I always, always, end up crying where I'm supposed to cry, where there's so much emotion in a character. My eyes did water when reading certain parts, but I didn't cry. I thought it was weird, and not necessarily bad, but very strange.

Now for the good.

There were a lot of long words in this book; most I knew what they meant, but some were words that I'd never even seen before. I like when an author uses long words. It gives me a sense of pride because I think, People do know how to use English in this world! Maybe there's hope for the human race, after all! Because, let's face it, most people nowadays are illiterate and hate to read and write. So, yeah. I liked the long words. I learned something new, which is weird because I usually know all the words that are used in a book. I just....really liked her diction.

I liked the scenery she did. She was awesome at descriptions, and at just fitting them in with everything and everyone else.

I loved the characters in this book. All of them. No matter how much they annoyed me or betrayed my feelings, I loved them. Clary was....different. I liked her as a heroine, even when she couldn't do a whole lot, because she was real about herself. She knew she was afraid. She felt guilt. She felt so many things. She was so real that I felt like I could have a conversation with her and not freak out because she's just so real and you hardly think of her as being not real. I feel like I'm best friends with her or something.

I loved Jace's character. I like the way he was written, and he also seemed really real. It was awesome, and I fell in love with him. I fangirled about him and got frustrated at his behavior towards Simon and then about his behavior towards Clary. The twists with this guy were not totally unexpected, but it was still a surprise. About a third of the way through the book, I thought, Okay, so this is gonna happen. I can tell. and then 100 pages later I thought, Nope, nevermind, it's not gonna happen because it can't now MWAHAHA I'm almost glad it can't! and then it happened.

Simon was another guy I fangirled over. It's hard to say anything more about him, especially if I liked him or Jace more (WHICH I DO NOT KNOW WHO I LIKE MORE DON'T ASK). I don't really know what else to say about him, other than I thought he was cute and sweet and nice.

Isabelle and Alec. Okay, I really liked Alec, I did, but I was not expecting that character twist. At all. I was totally shocked when Clary said it. Just....*shock*. And Isabelle was really grating on my nerves there for the longest time, and then I felt pity for her, and then she was badass and I didn't know what to think. I guess she was pretty decent, but she wasn't my favorite.

The plot of this book. Oh my goodness, it was such a good plot! I loved it. There were so many twists and so much suspense.. I got all tense and stuff. She had her world carefully planned out, and it put a new spin on the world of fey and vampires and werewolves.

And then there was comedic relief! I've never laughed so much or so hard in my life! I loved the comedic relief! I'm so glad she had it, just enough for the book, because authors nowadays are not getting in enough comedic relief (either that or they make their whole book into a comedian act).

Overall, this book was just really, really good and I loved it! I'm so glad that I read it. It was way over my expectations (which were pretty low, actually).

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.

~Jessicah