City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments 2) by Cassandra Clare

Hello to all,

          First sunny  (though freezing) day and that really makes me happy after so many raining , snowing, gray days finally the sun is back even if it's only for today it's good even more when you are trying to recover your health.

March paranormal romance challenge 's topic is fae/fey so i will try to read several books fitting this topic but i won't read only that i've also some sport romance reads planned and YA reads...and some books just because i want to read them and since my birthday is this month i will take at least one day of pleasure reads^^;; after all reading should always stay a pleasure when you read as an obligation you loose your passion too so better to find some balance.

That being said i will start with a YA book fitting the Fey Category..... and looks like fey are not funny, kind and beautiful creatures....quite the opposite at least in this version ( will see if they are variant in the books i will read this month.)

Here is my opinion on City of Ashes, second book of the Mortal Intruments series by Cassandra Clare.

Publisher: Walker Books Ltd

Publication: 2008

ISBN:  1406307637

Genre: YA, fantasy, Paranormal, adventure,urban fantasy, romance
Violence: strong
Language: normal
sex: mild
Public: 16+

Source: bought

Short description from goodreads :

 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 opinion:

          This series is really a good surprise so far even if this book captivated me a little less than City of Bones. City of ashes start just where we left Clary and Jace at the end of book 1. Valentine is still on the run, Jocelyn is in the coma and Clary’s thoughts are in turmoil.

I had hoped to have some answers but mostly i got more questions and that bothered me a little. If Cassandra Clare doesn’t make some important revelations soon i guess i will fall out of love with this series because the love triangle won’t have sense anymore. I had hoped the inquisitor was going to said something but unfortunately Jace didn’t listen. In this book, Clary and Jace discover a little more about their powers and we can see the deep relation between Jace and Alex and Isabelle as well as between Clary and Luke.

I was even more disappointed with the shadowhunters than in city of Bones, the way Maryse reacted could only have one consequence as Luke pointed it and still she took her distances and said hurtful things. I don’t like her, yes she had some reasons but still. The inquisitor was worse, true but she was deeply hurting. I don’t forgive her either but i think i can have a little compassion because of what she did after.

In city of Ashes, the murder of different kinds of creatures is creating some tensions, the vampires are accused despite the fact they claim their innocence. Unfortunately, Maryse and the inquisitor are narrow minded and doesn’t want to listen to other possibilities despites the intervention of Magnus Bane and Luke. The children and their allies are then on their own to interfere with Valentine’s plan. We also discover more about the faeries and their Queen seems to know more about everything, unfortunately the price for that knowledge is too high.

Simon takes a bigger role now, however for being a roleplaying gamer too, i don’t think his reaction was logic, when  he intervened  before yes his idea of vampires, werewolves etc wasn’t the same as Jace’s but he still knew the dangers and such. So what happens seems strange to me. ( i understand why the author found that could be interesting for the story yes but the circumstances could have been better.

Clary is even more lost than before between what she wants and what she thinks she should want, the result is that she is acting like a baby, not wanting to speak, ignoring the others etc. Jace is confronted to hard choices, he discover that the Clave isn’t as perfect as he hoped and with whet he is enduring he has some moment of doubts but he still do the right things and i  appreciated more now than before.

I recommend this book if you want some YA fantasy and love paranormal, it won’t be good to read this as a stand alone though but if you liked book one City of Bones this one should please you as well.

Score:  3,5/5

Disclaimer: All opinions are my own and no compensation was received in exchange for this review

Challenges:

City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments1) by Cassandra Clare

Hello to all,

         I'm glad i did a lot of reading this week ( relatively speaking of course)  because i'm starting to be sick again ( not a good start for 2013 but the rest will get better) and the headache is back full force. At least i had lot of pleasure before i take a little rest ^^.  There are some series that everyone seems to have read but not you. I lost count of how many time i 've read Mortal Instruments somewhere but for some reason i couldn't decide myself to try them even when i had the books on my shelves.

Why?  I'm not sure at all, perhaps it was simply not the moment because now i did read it and quickly even (if you know me you know that when i like a book i read it more quickly than those i don't like^^), perhaps i decided to read them before the release of the film so i could know what it was about  like the rest of the world? What it's sure it's that a friend really helped my decision and i don't regret it because it was also perfect for a challenge i've entered.

So here is my opinion of City of Bones first book of the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare

Publisher: Walker Books Ltd

Publication: 2007

ISBN:  1406307629

Genre: YA, fantasy, Paranormal, adventure,urban fantasy, romance
Violence: strong
Language: normal
sex: none
Public: 16+

Source: bought

Short description from goodreads :

 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.

My opinion:

          I heard a lot of things about this series but I was a little hesitant, reason why I must be one of the last to discover it but better late than never!

Now, this book isn’t completely original or unpredictable, some typical storylines are used in it but some part felt really new to me. I liked the idea of the marks that gave power but were also dangerous, I also really enjoyed the twists that came several time renewed the interest I had in the story. I spend a really good time with this book and I hope the rest of the series will only get better. I want to discover more about the shadowshunters, whose i don’t like that much by the way, there are a little too narrow minded to my taste and prone to treachery. I really enjoyed Luke, who is suffering more than it seems caught between two worlds and who must take actions with dire consequences. From what I’ve read of the different groups so far, I think it was always more wolf than nephilim, loyalty and force were important for him since the start.

 I loved to see several creatures in the story and not just vampires, though I kind of like this new kind of bikers vampires, and werewolves. Those are the most cited, with the nephilim, aka shadowhunters, and the demons, but we got a glimpse of several fairies and others that I would like to read more of.

The plot is interesting, to see how a group by fear of extinction become more racist than ever and start taking drastic measures is a little reminder of historical events transposed in a universes of fantasy and mystical creatures. Perhaps it will serve to open the eyes of some readers but it’s also something simply enjoyable to read, even if myself I can’t stop to see the parallelism between fiction and history.  I wasn’t completely taken by surprise by some revelations while others did surprise me.

I spend really a good time reading this and I appreciated the books being divided in distinctive parts because it will help if you need to take a break but that being said… once started I didn’t want to put it down so I didn’t put the division to use but it’s something I noted and loved. I’m really curious as how things will evolve but Valentine is a villain that I really dislike and I hope Jace and Clary will manage to create what they need, now Simon must be relieved too and he is moving character too.

I recommend this book if you want some YA fantasy and love paranormal.

Score:  4/5

Disclaimer: All opinions are my own and no compensation was received in exchange for this review

Challenges: