Book Review: City of Fallen Angels

City of Fallen Angels

By:  Cassandra Clare

Publisher:  Simon & Schuster Teen

Publish Date:  April 2011

Format:  Hardcover 424pgs

Genre:  YA Fantasy

Series:  4th book in Mortal Instruments series; Book 1 ~ City of Bones, Book 2 ~ City of Ashes, Book 3 ~ City of Glass

Recommendation:  If you enjoyed the first three books Yes, continue on with the series as the story carries on for Jace.  And we get to know Simon much better, him and the vampire side.  But be ready for young relationship issues.

Book Synopsis:
The Mortal War is over, and Clary Fray is back home in New York, excited about all the possibilities before her.  She's training to become a Shadowhunter and to use her unique powers.  Her mother is getting married to the love of her life.  Downworlders and Shadowhunters are at peace at last.  And - most important of all - Clary can finally call Jace her boyfriend.

But nothing comes without a price.

Someone is murdering the Shadowhunters who used to be in Valentine's Circle, provoking tensions between Downworlders and Shadowhunters that could lead to a second bloody war.  Clary's best friend, Simon, can't help her.  His mother just found out that he's a vampire and now he's homeless.  Everywhere he turns, someone wants him on their side - along with the power of the curse that's wrecking his life.  And they're willing to do anything to get what they want.  At the same time he's dating two beautiful, dangerous girls - neither of whom knows about the other.

When Jace begins to pull away from Clary without explaining why, she is forced to delve into the heart of a mystery whose solution reveals her worst nightmare: She herself has set in motion a terrible chain of events that could lead to her losing everything she loves.  Even Jace.

Love.  Blood.  Betrayal.  Revenge.  The stakes are higher than ever in City of Fallen Angels

First Sentence:
"Just coffee, please."

My Thoughts and Summary:
Six weeks after the big battle in the home land of the Shadowhunters at the City of Glass, everyone is back at home with big events underway.  Clary is happy with her mother's marriage on the horizon and she's with her love, Jace.  Simon has two strong and beautiful girlfriends, neither knowing of the other.  Everything seems to be good for everyone, or is it?  Clary notices a distancing between her and Jace starting and not knowing why, and everyone's starting to see Jace isn't looking to good resulting from lack of sleep.  Simon has the most powerful vampire in New York City wanting him on her side, and people are trying to kill him.  Who could want Simon dead so badly to try going against the Mark of Cain present on him?  There are Shadowhunters being murdered.  Clary finds herself on her own mission when she finds out about a dead infant.  All starts to get twisted together in this book.

We have view points from Clary like in the first three books, but more view points from Simon this time around.  And it's neat to see things through Simons eyes and the life he is now leading as a marked vampire.  This is the book where Simon's life starts to see the consequences of his new life style along with the mark he bares.  Simon has lots to learn about being a vampire.  And with issues coming up we learn a good deal more of the Vampire side in this world and specifics in this kind of life  We do get a few views of Jace and his feelings for Clary from earlier in the series.  Which is a nice little touch to see what he felt when they weren't to be together.  Jace is still having troubles in trying to believe and convince himself he's not like Valentine.  And now he's experiencing horrible dreams.

We even get to see new characters this time around.  And characters are mentioned from Cassandra's other Shadowhunter series, Infernal Devices.  This world just keeps growing and growing.  But I enjoyed the new characters and the spins they added to the story line.  I'm hoping to see at least one of them again, and the other... well, not so much. ;)

This book had a slower start for me.  It seems this book is centered around the relationship drama of all the characters.  It's to catch us up on where they are in their lives, and most of the characters being young adults are learning about their feelings and why they feel the way they do for each other.  The book took me about one hundred and ten pages to start picking up the pacing of the plot for me, and at times slowed up to get back to the characters emotions.  But a little over half way, the book picked up with the action with the short segments that went from one character to the next as they were all in different places at one time.  This helped keep the pages turning quickly to see where they all were and what was going to happen.


I purchased this book for my own reading enjoyment.


This book qualifies for the Speculative Fiction Reading Challenge hosted by Floor to Ceiling Books, and 2011 YA Reading Challenge hosted by Jamie Loves YA.