Review: City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare
Publisher: Walker Books
Date of Publication: March 25th, 2008
Source: Bought
Pages: 411

Previous book in the series:
City of Bones - my review 

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?

My Rating: 5.0 / 5

First thoughts:

Even after reading the second novel of this series, I'm still a little bit angry at myself for not starting this earlier. Those novels are fantastic: Really well written, interesting characters, a heart-breaking love story and so much excitement. And of course cliffhangers. If you haven't read this series yet, you need to do so now!

More detailed:

City of Ashes is a stunning sequel to the first book of this series and made it impossible for me to forget this world. With every new page, every new chapter, I got pulled into this story more and I never wanted it to end while hoping to finally know that everything will be alright.

Like City of Bones, this novel is being told by a third person narrator, but this time we get to see some more different points of view. While Clary is still the person whose feelings we can explore most, it was lovely to experience a few certain situations from other people's point of view. It especially helped me to like Clary's best friend Simon a little bit better whom I didn't really care for during the first novel.

I really loved how the love story was treated in City of Ashes. While the usual "second book problem" of  the love interests being torn apart by something applies to Jace and Clary, I liked how they still shared a lot of scenes in this novel and had to face their feelings. But just like people have predicted, the ending broke my heart again (Cassandra Clare seems to love cliffhangers).

After finishing it, there are still a lot of questions left unanswered and many problems unsolved, which gives me high expectations for the third novel. But I already feel like Cassandra Clare can't really disappoint me with this series: Her writing is amazing and even though some of her story lines are torturous, they're just as addicting.

All in all, City of Ashes is a great novel that is just as amazing as the first book of this series. If you haven't read this series, you should do so, because I'm certainly regretting that I waited so long. It has a very interesting world, lovely characters and it will never fail to keep you entertained.

Following books of the series:

3. City of Glass

4. City of Fallen Angels

5. City of Lost Souls (2012)

6. City of Heavenly Fire (2013)

Have you read any books of this series? What did you think about it?
Carina