by Cassandra Clare
ages: 14+
First sentence: “The cold snap of the previous week was over; the sun was shining brightly as Clary hurried across Luke’s dusty front yard, the hood of her jacket up to keep her hair from blowing across her face.”
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Others in the series: City of Bones, City of Ashes

There will be spoilers for the first two books in the series. And possible for this one. So: if you haven’t read this trilogy, do. Know this: it’s smart, it’s fun, this one had awesome twists (even if I called one), and came to an acceptable conclusion.

We last left the little group recuperating after blowing up Valentine’s ship. They finally convinced the Clave that Valentine is a force to be reckoned with, especially now that he has both the Mortal Cup and the Mortal Sword. All that’s left is the glass, and he will be able to raise the angel Raziel.

As a result, Jace, the Weylands, and Clary are going to Alicante – the city of the Shadowhunters. The Weylands and Jace to meet with the Clave; Clary to find Ragnor Fell, who may have the key to waking her mother.

Of course, Jace pulls his “for your protection” move (infuriating! Seriously. Clary’s impulsive and headstrong, but STOP trying to protect her!) and leaves for Alicante without Clary. And of course, she has to be impulsive and follow. Once there, though, things get complicated. They meet a cousin of a friend of the Weylands, Sebastian, who ends up playing a major role, in spite of just being introduced. (Yes, I called this twist.)

While I enjoyed the book overall, it wasn’t perfect. Aside from Jace being infuriating (when is he not, though?), it kind of frustrated me that Clary’s mom just showed up halfway through the book. Sure, Clary got what was needed to wake her mom from the coma, but I kind of expected something… more …. satisfying. That she just showed up at one point and started acting like Jocelyn From Before was kind of anti-climatic. I know it’s not Jocelyn’s story, but I had hoped for something more dramatic there. And I kind of felt that Clare copped out with the deaths; she killed off a minor character, rather than going for the jugular and offing someone we actually cared about. Understandable, but wimpy.

There were parts I liked, mostly toward the end. In fact, I think I liked the whole end. There was enough tension there to make things intense, and both Isabelle and Clary got to shine in their own ways. And the ending was satisfying without wrapping everything up in a neat little bow.

I’m glad I finally got around to reading these.