City of Lost Souls

Title:  City of Lost Souls

Author: Cassandra Clare

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Publish Date:  8 May 2012

Pages: 544

ISBN:  978-1442416864

Source:  bought

Genre:  YA, demons, angels

Series:  The Mortal Instruments

Other books in series:  City of Bones, City of Ashes, City of Glass, City of Fallen Angels, City of Heavenly Fire (2014)

Rating: Really liked

The demon Lilith has been destroyed and Jace freed from captivity. But when the Shadowhunters arrive, they find only blood and broken glass. Not only is the boy Clary loves missing, so is the boy she hates: her brother Sebastian, who is determined to bring the Shadowhunters to their knees.

The Clave's magic cannot locate either boy, but Jace can't stay away from Clary. When they meet again Clary discovers the horror Lilith's magic has wrought - Jace and Sebastian are now bound to each other, and Jace has become a servant of evil. The Clave is determined to destroy Sebastian, but there is no way to harm one boy without destroying the other.

Only a few people believe that Jace can still be saved. Together, Alec, Magnus, Simon, and Isabelle bargain with the sinister Seelie Queen, contemplate deals with demons, and turn at last to the merciless, weapon-making Iron Sisters, who might be able to forge a weapon that can sever the bond between Sebastian and Jace. If the Iron Sisters can't help, their only hope is to challenge Heaven and Hell - a risk that could claim their lives.

And they must do it without Clary. For Clary is playing a dangerous game utterly alone. The price of losing 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? What price is too high to pay, even for love?

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

 

**WARNING:  Spoiler alert if you haven’t read City of Bones, City of Ashes, City of Glass or City of Fallen Angels!**

Are things finally looking up for Clary and Jace?  She thinks so, but then he disappears.  Sebastian, her brother, is also gone and nobody knows where they are.  This bothers Clary to know end.  She loves Jace and wants them to be together.  Jace cannot stay away from Clary.  He drags Sebastian into it and wants her.  He thinks his new life with his “blood brother” is amazing.  He wants Clary to be a part of it.

Jace and Sebastian are bound by blood.  This happened when Clary asked the angel Raziel to save his life.  Lilith explained how this works to Clary when she tried to bring Sebastian back.  Everyone is saying to just kill Sebastian and we will be rid of the problem.  The catch is that you will also kill Jace.   It is up to Clary, her family and friends to determine if you can break the blood bond between the two brothers.   Will Jace survive being with Sebastian?  What will happen with him and Clary?  Will they finally get to be together? 

I LOVE this series.  It has so many twists and turn.  Just when you think that Clary and Jace will be together, something else happens that prevents that from happening.  I also like the way that Clare weaves the other characters into the book.  She not only does this in The Mortal Instruments, I also noticed in her other series as well.  I loved watching the book trailer for this and hearing Sebastian aka Jonathon say “I’m going to burn down the world!”  I’m very excited for City of Heavenly Fire to be released in 2014 and see what happens in this final chapter.

The cover of this book has a picture of Jace and Clary on it.

Here is that trailer featuring Sebastian from Simon and Schuster youtube channel.

City of Fallen Angels

Title:  City of Fallen Angels

Author:  Cassandra Clare

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Publish Date:  05 April 2011

Pages: 424

ISBN:  978-1-4424-0354-3

Source:  bought

Genre:  YA, angels, demons, romance

Series:  The Mortal Instruments

Other books in series:  City of Bones, City of Ashes, City of Glass, City of Lost Souls, City of Heavenly Fire (September 2014)

Rating: Really liked

The Mortal War is over, and sixteen-year-old 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 importantly of all--she can finally call Jace her boyfriend. But nothing comes without a price.

Someone is murdering Shadowhunters, 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 that 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 that's wrecking his life. And they're willing to do anything to get what they want. Not to mention that he's dating two beautiful, dangerous girls--neither of whom knows about the other one.

When Jace begins to pull away from her without explaining why, Clary 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.

Love. Blood. Betrayal. Revenge. The stakes are higher than ever in "City of Fallen Angels.

**WARNING:  Spoiler Alert if you haven’t read City of Bones, City of Ashes and City of Glass**

The Mortal War is over, but does that mean everyone is safe?  Clary is excited because she can finally train to become a Shadowhunter, even though her mother wishes otherwise.  Her mother is busy preparing for her upcoming wedding to the man she’s loved for a long time. 

Things start happening in New York.  Shadowhunters are being murdered.  This is causing tension between the Shadowhunters and the Downworlders. 

Not only does Clary have that to deal with, but Simon is suddenly homeless because his mother found out about him being a vampire.  He moves in with a guy named Kyle, who, unbeknownst to Simon, is also a downworlder and has his own history.  Simon is also dating two girls at the same time, two dangerous girls.  Which one is he going to take to the wedding?  Simon doesn’t see this as a big deal, but Clary knows better.

Clary can finally call Jace her boyfriend after all this time.  (Well, three books.)  He is helping to train her as a Shadowhunter.   Now Jace is having nightmares, only they are causing him to do things.  Now he is pulling away from Clary because he doesn’t want to hurt her.  This causes Clary pain because she doesn’t know why he is avoiding her, so she investigates.  Will Jace and Clary finally be together?  What is happening and why are the Shadowhunters being killed?

It is no secret that I am a fan of Cassandra Clare’s writing.  I first read The Infernal Devices series and now and The Mortal Instruments series.  As I have said in previous reviews of these series.  I like that they deal with the same thing, only in different time periods.  In City of Fallen Angels, I had high hopes for Clary and Jace.  I really wanted them to be together.   After all the business with the Mortal War, them being siblings, Jace being part demon…it really seemed like things were finally working in their favor, except for that little incident with the Angel Raziel at the lake at the end of City of Glass.

I like that you get to see more of Simon in these books.  He has always been a good friend to Clary and now that he is a vampire, he is allowed to be more present in her world.  He is the “Daylighter” because he can go out during the day.  This has caused him to be able to continue his life, but also has caused some contention with the other downworlders.  The other vampires don’t want to associate with him, yet because of the Mark of Cain that he has on him, they cannot kill him. 

Jace, Jace, Jace.  He is the guy that one minute, you love him and the next you don’t.  It’s obvious that he really cares for Clary, but he has a funny way of showing it sometimes.  It seems like all the bad stuff happens to him.

Having already read City of Lost Souls before this review was written, I must say that Clare does not disappoint in keeping me interested in this series.  I am eagerly anticipating the release of City of Heavenly Fire, which is rumored to be in September 2014.

The cover features Clary Fray, adorned in Shadowhunter runes wearing the golden silk dress which she wore to the engagement party and the Morgenstern Ring on her necklace which Jace gave to her, and the Daylighter, Simon Lewis.  (This information was taken from Wikipedia.) 

City of Glass

Title:  City of Glass

Author:  Cassandra Clare

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Publish Date: 24 March 2009

Pages: 541

ISBN:  978-1-4169-7225-9

Source:  bought

Genre:  YA, angels, demons, romance

Series:  The Mortal Instruments

Other books in series:  City of Bones, City of Ashes, City of Fallen Angels, City of Lost Souls, City of Heavenly Fire (September 2014)

Rating: Really liked

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 Shadow-hunter Sebastian. With Valentine mustering the full force of his power to destroy all Shadow-hunters 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.

**WARNING: Spoiler Alert if you haven’t read City of Bones and City of Ashes**

What would you be willing to do to save your mother?  For Clary, it means going to the City of Glass.  It is forbidden to come to the city uninvited.  That is why Clary has agreed to talk to the Clave.  Only Jace doesn’t want her to go.  Recently, they found out that Clary and Jace were brother and sister.  This put stress on them as they had romantic feelings toward one another. 

Clary is determined to make it to Alicante and does so through her own portal.  She meets Luke’s sister, Amatis, when she saves Clary after an incident happens when she arrives.  She stays with Amatis, who gives her clothes; Shadowhunter clothes that make her feel part of them.

After a while, she meets Sebastian at the Penhallow’s House.  Sebastian seems interested in helping Clary discover what she needs to in order to save her mother.  While all this is happening, the threat of Valentine creating a Mortal War hangs over the City of Glass.  Can the Shadowhunters and the Downworlders work together to win this war, or will Valentine be the winner?  What will happen with Jace and Clary?

This third book in The Mortal Instruments series is just as good as the ones before it.  I like that it continues on the theme.  I really like that I didn’t have to wait for the next book as they were already released.  The story between Jace and Clary continues on in City of Fallen Angels and never failed to keep me interested in what was happening.  I like how Clare switches between points of view in the books.  It is easy to keep up with and you never feel like you are getting whiplash between the characters.

City of Glass was supposed to be the last book in this series, but Clare had decided to write three more books, City of Fallen Angels, City of Lost Souls and City of Heavenly Fire (September 2014).

The cover features the new character, Sebastian also known Johnathan Christopher (Clary's real brother), who is a Shadowhunter and on his father's (Valentine) side. He poses as a cousin of the Penhallows, who are friends of the Lightwoods Family, he dyes his hair black to do this and he is about seventeen. He is said to look like a spite image of his biological father.  (This information was taken from Wikipedia.)

This excerpt was taken from the Simon & Schuster webpage, PulseIt.  It includes an author commentary.

 

COG Chapter

City of Ashes

Title:  City of Ashes

Author:  Cassandra Clare

Publisher:  Simon & Schuster

Publish Date: 25 March 2008

Pages: 453

ISBN:  978-1-4169-7724-2

Source:  Bought

Genre:  YA, angels, demons

Series:  The Mortal Instruments

Other books in series:  City of Bones, City of Glass, City of Fallen Angels, City of Lost Souls, City of Heavenly Fire (September 2014)

Rating: Liked

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.

**WARNING: Spoiler Alert if you haven’t read City of Bones**

Clary Fray has found her mother, Jocelyn, so now what?  Jocelyn is in a magically induced coma, one that was supposed to keep her from revealing secrets to Valentine, her once husband.  Clary must figure out how to reverse the coma.  Luke, her long-time family friend and Alpha of the local werewolf pack, Simon and the Shadowhunters are there to help her.  She figures that the only way to find the answers she seeks is to track down her father, Valentine.  That sounds easy, right?  Except for the fact that all the Shadowhunters are looking for him as a traitor, so he is hidden well.

Clary just recently found out that the guy she was attracted to, Jace, is actually her brother.  This doesn’t help matters any because she still has feelings for him and they have to see each other a lot as Shadowhunters.  The inquisitor comes to the Institute to question the Lightwoods after the disappearance of The Mortal Cup.   After that, Jace was sent to the prisons in the Silent City so they could figure out what he knew about Valentine.  Only the Silent Brothers didn’t have time to go through his mind because Valentine showed up and stole another Mortal Instrument.  Because Jace was unarmed and still in the prison when the Shadowhunters eventually showed up, they thought he had a part in stealing of the Mortal Instrument. 

Will Clary find what she needs to help her mother?  What will happen to Jace now that the Clave thinks that he is guilty?

I like the fact that Valentine is shown having some compassion in this book, even though he is the villain.  This being the second book in The Mortal Instrument series, it didn’t fail to keep me interested in the plot.  Just when you thought all the questions were answered and nothing else could happen, the questions change.  Even though a lot of things happen, it doesn’t seem like it is excessive.  I really like this series and cannot wait to read more of it.  The cover photo is that of Clary Fray.

City of Bones

Title:  City of Bones

Author:  Cassandra Clare

Publisher:  Simon & Schuster

Publish Date:  27 March 2007

Pages: 485

ISBN:  978-1-4169-5507-8

Source:  bought

Genre:  YA, angels, demons, romance

Series:  The Mortal Instruments

Other books in series:  City of Ashes, City of Glass, City of Fallen Angels, City of Lost Souls, City of Heavenly Fire (no set release date)

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. . . .

Exotic and gritty, exhilarating and utterly gripping, Cassandra Clare's ferociously entertaining fantasy takes readers on a wild ride that they will never want to end.

When Clarissa aka Clary went to the club, Pandemonium, with her best friend, Simon, she never expected her world to change.  She just thought that Simon and she would have a good time.  Then she saw the boy on the dance floor and followed him because she thought there would be trouble.  Little did she know what she was getting herself into.

Clary was thrown into the world of the Shadowhunters.  She met Isabelle, Alec Lightwood and Jace Wayland at the club.  She didn’t believe in this world at first because she couldn’t believe that her mother would hide it from her.  Then her mother ends up missing and it is up to Clary, Simon and the other Shadowhunters to find her.  Why has someone kidnapped her mother?  What are “the Mortal Instruments” and what do they have to do with this book?

After reading The Infernal Devices series by Clare, I jumped right into this series because I was so hooked on the Shadowhunters.   It may seem like this is a re-telling of the same story, but that is not the case.   Infernal Devices was set in the 1800s in London.  The Mortal Instruments is set in today’s time in New York City.  There are different things involved and advances made.  I fell in love with these characters just as much as I did with the characters of The Infernal Devices.  After reading City of Bones, I couldn’t wait to read the rest of the books in the series.

On the cover, you see the skyline of New York City and a picture of a male, Jace Wayland. It shows him shirtless and you can see his rune tattoos.  I like that this says “book one” on the cover.  I cannot tell you how many times I will buy a series of books and then have to look up which order they are in.  This makes it easy.

•Clarissa Fray.  She is the main character of the book.  She is the one who is a Shadowhunter by blood, but it was kept from her.  She shows great strength in this book while she is looking for her mother.  Strange things happen that are beyond her control, but she doesn’t let them get in the way of her goal.

•Jace Wayland.  Since I first read about Jace, he reminded me of Will Herondale because he has the same air to him, and thus I instantly liked him.  I read The Infernal Devices before this series and so, it was kind of backwards in the way that they were written, but time-wise, it was right.  Anyway, Jace.  He is arrogant, self-less and vulnerable – the same characterstics that I recognized in Will.  How could you not like someone like that?  He also is sarcastic and has “bad-boy” written all over him.

•Simon Lewis.  He is Clary’s best friend and has been for a long time. They always have looked out for each other.  This didn’t change when Clary was suddenly thrust into the Shadowhunter world.  Although Simon felt left out at times because he is a “mundane,” he never let Clary down.

•Isabelle Lightwood.  She is the sister of Alec, Max and Jace.  She lives in the Institute with them.  Isabelle is known for liking the bad boys, or the boys that her parents wouldn’t approve of.  You find out a little more about why in the later books, but suffice it to say that she made a habit out of dating downworlders.  She is a spitfire and will help defend those she loves.

•Alec Lightwood.  He is the brother of Isabelle, Max and Jace.  He is also Jace’s parabatai.  He is the more serious one of the group.  He is the oldest and the only one of the “kids” who is legally an adult.  The rest are considered children by Shadowhunter standards, even though most of the books are about them.  At the beginning of the book, he doesn’t like Clary very much.  The rationale for that comes out later.

•Luke Garroway.  This is Clary’s mother’s closest friend.  He is like a step-father to Clary.  There are some moments in the book where you think that he is not a nice person, but overall, I put him in the like category.

 

•Valentine Morgenstern.  You hear about him throughout the book and his connection to the “circle.”  He doesn’t like the Accords and thinks that they should not be written.  The Accords are the agreements made between the Shadowhunters and the Downworlders.