City Of Glass by Cassadra Clare

Title: City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments #3)
Author: Cassandra Clare
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry
Published: March 29, 2009
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy
Source: Easons

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?

That's how I felt after finishing this book.
'City of Glass' is the fantastic third book in the Mortal Instruments series, a great sequel to 'City of Ashes', and an all-round awesome read! It's chalk-full of exciting fight sequences, yet sprinkled with surprising, and well-appreciated humor. It harbors a romance aspect, but one much more interesting than those of most other books, and is home to a great bunch of entertaining characters. The plot is nicely woven with just the right amount of everything, perfected with a smooth-flowing and easy to read writing style. This book was brilliant.

In my opinion, the first two books in this world-renowned series, were slightly over-hyped. I read and enjoyed them, but wasn't left with the absolute certainty that they deserved all the fame. This book, however, completely changed my perspective. It follows Clary, through a now, more plausible example of character development, as she tries to cope with the madness around her. She's distraught as her Mother is yet to wake from some magical coma, she's walking on thin ice with the fragile relationship between herself and best friend Simon, she has a fair bit to learn when it comes to her new role as a shadowhunter, and finally she is trying to end the battle with herself over her love for 'brother' Jace.

I'm aware that these books aren't actually focused on one particular character, that the point of views tend to drift over the stories of the main characters, but it was easier for me to just put Clary in the lead. It's for that reason, that I noticed more of a change in her character, than in any of the others. Okay, maybe except for Jace, but anyway. 'City of Bones' Clary and 'City of Glass' Clary are, for me, two completely different people, and the journey from the first book, to this point, made for a great read. I loved how Clary handled everything she came against, with maturity and reasoning. Even at that, however, I think would have held her in higher regard, were the books solely written from her point of view.
Clary may have been my favourite character in this book, but the character of Jace was definitely the most impressive. It's quite distinct, the difference that is, between his character two books ago, and at the end of the third book. Even from the start of this book, to it's closing pages the difference in character is still rather evident. I speak only for myself, mainly because I don't want Jace-loving fans after me, in saying that Jace's character in the first two books, and some of the third, just came off as petulant, a little overly sarcastic, and really annoying. I had no respect for the guy. But after finishing the book, I saw him in a whole new light. Everything came together, the character development was much more clear and concise, and I actually liked him.

Speaking of clear and concise, can we just talk about the plot in this book for a sec! Wow! In the past, the author, Cassandra Clare, didn't seem too sure of where she was taking the story, and that kind of irked me. But 'City of Glass' showed obvious signs of careful planning, as well as undeniable creativity. The twists in the story, especially nearing the end, had me utterly and genuinely baffled, and for a while I was unable to believe the cleverness of it all. All the insight into relations between Shadowhunters and Downworlders, the history of how Valentine experimented on his children with demon and angel blood, everything was just so intriguing and very well written.

I think I made the right decision by buying all the books in the series at once, because right now I just want to start 'City of Fallen Angels'! Just to re-iterate this whole review, I thought this book was brilliant, and was very impressed with Cassandra Clare.

What you guys thought of this book, particularly the plot, is what I want to know! Haha
Thanks for reading guys!

City Of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

Title: City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments #2)
Author: Cassandra Clare
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry
Published: March 25, 2008
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy
Source: Easons

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?

I started this book, honestly, with low hopes and even lower expectations. The first book, 'City of Bones', was just one of those books, where after reading it, you're not in too much of a hurry to get your hands on the sequel. At least, that was my experience. Overtime I began to forget about the series itself, until recently, when I braved the idea of buying the rest of the series and forcing myself to read it.
I regret nothing.. so far.

The beginning of 'City of Ashes' almost turned me off. The book begins with Clary settling back into a daily routine of watching T.v with Simon, thinking of her Mother and how desperately she wished the woman could just wake up, then thinking of her brother Jace, in ways that she shouldn't, chiding herself for thinking about her brother Jace in ways that she shouldn't. If the book had been written from just Clary's point of view, getting into the story would have proved some task, but fortunately we have what's going on in the Institute for redemption. On the shadowhunter side of things, Maryse exiles Jace from the Institute, and just when I was starting to like Jace, he throws his tantrum and goes to beat up have a dozen werewolves in Luke's bar.
Though this wasn't the best way to be re-introduced to Jace's character, it sure was a good source of entertainment.

Right about this time, was when my thoughts on the characters began forming. Let's take the obvious cases, of Jace and Clary. If you've read 'City of Bones' you'll know that these are our two protagonists, more or less, so it was kinda disappointing that after a few chapters of reading the book, I disliked both of them. And I mean really disliked. Clary wasn't too bad, other than the fact that she came off as rather childish and quite annoying. In fact, there was this one moment, when Clary was talking to Max Lightwood, and he said she looked fourteen as opposed to sixteen, her actual age. I couldn't help but think whether the author, Cassandra Clare did this purposely, for self-deprecation or something, but I remember absolutely loving it, and having to suppress laughter (because I read it on the bus and would've looked freaking weird had I laughed aloud).

Jace, was a whole other story. I'm not sure if Clare's interpretation is all that accurate, whether girls are actually drawn to the selfish, sarcastic, condescending, arrogant, and a million other nasty adjectives, type of guy, but for the better part of this book, it sure did look like it. Jace's personality, in my opinion, was really unappealing for the most part, which was a shame because I really wanted to like him.

Then, something magical happened. I was rewarded for sticking through all the not-so-enjoyable chapters, with awesome interpretations such as deadly faeries, genuinely funny moments like the one in Seelie Court, when they were all talking about kissing, creepy introductions to the Inquisitor and the Soul Sword. Out of nowhere, everything that I was inwardly complaining about, had been changed in some way, or developed, and turned the story around. Suddenly there were perfectly-written action sequences, and interesting plot reveals, and major character development.

As the story fleshed out, I started to like the characters more. Particularly, Clary. As I already said, she seemed really childish and overall not a very strong protagonist for the first part of the book, but that changed and I soon found myself really liking her. And I really have to commend Clare on that. Jace, still not so much though.
Alec, Simon, Magnus, and Isabelle were also characters I really enjoyed following!

The plot was perhaps my favourite part of the whole book. Once it picked up, every chapter was a new, very interesting adventure! I would never have guessed that Simon would have such a big, and awesome role in this book, and what happens to him near the end. Neither, was I expecting the reveal of Jace's and Clary's special abilities. The various plot additions made me want to tear through the book and find out what was in store fore them, and oh, was it big!

All in all, I'm so glad I picked this up, and can't wait to read on with the rest of the series!
If you've read it, how was City of Ashes for you? If not, and you're interested in YA fantasy, I would recommend this series!

 

Thanks for reading guys!

Birthday Book Haul

Books are dangerous.. and bookshops, even more so. 

After holidays in Barcelona, I still had a bit of birthday money left in my back pocket and what better thing to spend it on, than books right? Well that's what I seemed to have in mind when I walked into Easons. Honestly, I had only intended to get Legend, by Marie Lu, but you know, the temptation was just too strong! Haha

No but anyway, here are the books I bought!

The Scorch Trials
By James Dashner

I read The Maze Runner near the end of Summer 2013, which was quite a while ago, I know. I was so satisfied with the ending of the first book, and it didn't end with much of a cliffhanger, so I didn't really want to pick up the second, in case I wouldn't enjoy it. But I'm gonna give it a chance anyway, since I've heard some really positive stuff about the rest of the series!

The Fault in our Stars
By John Green

I've actually already read this, but it was on iBooks on my phone, and being one of my top reads of 2013, I just had to get the physical copy, you know, for re-reads and stuff!

All Our Yesterdays
By Cristin Terrill

You would not believe how long I've been waiting for this book to show up in my local bookshop! And you can only imagine how excited I'd gotten when I finally found it haha! It's a shame that it wasn't the one with the original cover, which was what caught my attention in the first place, but I'm still excited to read it!

Clockwork Angel
By Cassandra Clare

There's this awesome booktuber, namely Katytastic, who has raved about this book, and series, enough to make me want to read it. A few other people I know have recommended it too, so I decided to give it a go!

 &  

Legend and Champion
By Marie Lu

First of all, there was a 3 for 2 sale in Easons today, right? But the problem was, the only book by Marie Lu included in the sale was Champion. So I got that, and because it obviously didn't make sense buying only the third book in a series, I also got the first. I couldn't find Prodigy though, which is kinda sad and ruined all my plans! Haha



 &  

City of Ashes and City of Glass
 By Cassandra Clare

For some strange reason, I've only read the first book in the Mortal Instruments series, the City of Bones. I didn't love it, but I liked it, and really want to find out what happens with Jace and Clary, so I got the next two books! Again, part of the 3 for 2 sale.. haha



   &

Hunger and Lies
 By Michael Grant

This is sort of similar to my Legend series problem, but in this case, I couldn't find the first book of the series! I must have visited like fifteen different bookshops, including shops in the UK and Spain, might I add, yet I found every other book in the series except the first. It was really annoying, but because I had a really good feeling about the series, I went ahead and got the second and third books!

---

So, I guess I won't be buying lunch for school anytime soon, if you know what I mean *nudge nudge*.
Yeah.. I'm broke! Hahaha. Man, I really need to get a part-time job!
Anyway, what do you guys think of my pathetic willpower? Do you, perhaps, have the same problem? Haha

Thanks for reading guys, see you!