Title: City of Ashes

Author: Cassandra Clare

Series: The Mortal Instruments #2

Genre: Urban Fantasy Romance (YA)

Pages: 496 Pages (Paperback)

Original Publication Date: March 25, 2008

Overall Rating:
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Summary from Shelfari

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….

My Thoughts

As with City of Bones, I don’t regret my choice to buy this trilogy.  City of Ashes has also landed on my Favorites shelf.  These books are seriously intense!  There’s a part of me that wishes I would’ve read this series as each book was published so I could wait and let the adrenaline coursing through my body ebb a bit.  But, then there’s an even bigger part of me that’s glad I didn’t have to wait between each book as it would’ve been torture, even more so than waiting for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows or Breaking Dawn.

Wait … w-what?  Isn’t that sacrilege?  You’d think, but I’m seriously rethinking the order of my favorite books.  I don’t think anything can ever take the Twilight Saga’s place in my heart.  After all, it’s what started the catalyst to my reading frenzy and I still think about the characters, their lives, and compare them to every book I read.  But, the Mortal Instruments may one up Harry Potter.  I can’t say for sure yet; not until I read City of Glass, the final installment in the Mortal Instruments.

City of Ashes is just as intense as City of Bones.  Actually, it’s probably even more intense because you know the characters and you’re more interested in what happens to them now. The feelings the characters are going through along with the intense situations occurring around them make this book so action-packed that I felt like I needed an inhaler to help slow down my breathing and a sedative to relax my nerves.

There’s no way I can include the synopsis on the book jacket for City of Ashes in this post.  It would give away too much!  If you haven’t read City of Bones, I recommend you don’t read the synopsis yet.  Otherwise, it’ll ruin it for you!

At this point, I can’t wait until I read and finish City of Glass so I know what happens.  I’m worried that the story isn’t going to end the way I want it to; that the conflict between the two main characters can’t be resolved the way I need it to be.  But, I’m starting to see how things will turn out because of Cassandra Clare’s amazing ability to foreshadow.  There’s still hope.