Review: City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

Title: City of Fallen Angels

Author: Cassandra Clare

Series: The Mortal Instruments #4

Genre: Urban Fantasy/YA/Romance/Demons

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books

Publication Date: April 5th, 2011

Edition: Paperback, 425 pages

Source: Purchased

Purchase: Amazon US | Barnes & Noble | BAM | Book Depository | Powell's

Synopsis:

       The Mortal War is over, and sixteen-year-old 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 power. Her mother is getting married to the love of her life. Downworlders and Shadowhunters are at peace at last. And—most importantly of all—she can finally call Jace her boyfriend.

         But nothing comes without a price.

     Someone is murdering Shadowhunters, 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. When Jace begins to pull away from her without explaining why, Clary 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.

   A re-read/skimming. I don't know where I thought that this book was better. This book almost feels like a hastily thrown-together filler book for the next two. Simon is still my favorite character, he still adds great humor to the story, but this time it gives more insight into what his home life is like post-vampire. The addition of Jordan Kyle was kind of unneeded, I found his and Maia's story boring and it deterred me away from the Shadowhunters too much. I actually never liked Maia's character, she seemed to be added only to give Izzy competition with Simon until Jordan was added.

   This book was very slow-paced and it took too long to get to the meat of the story. There was a lot of brief mentioning of dead or missing Shadowhunters, and vague mentioning on background news of dead babies being found all over the city. Even when I first read this book I was thinking "I bet those are connected, too convenient." Then there's Jace having crazy dreams of murdering Clary, you'd think he'd say something to someone instead of acting like a fool keeping it to himself.

   The alley scene with Jace and Clary was pretty steamy, but the rest of the scenes with their relationship were either overly cutesy or dramatic with them embracing and then Jace telling her she should go. He acted like a damn fool in this book and I more than once wanted to smack him upside the head. Simon's story was the only interesting part of 90% of this book. It was a little heartbreaking more than once, what happened between him and his mom was sad, and what happened with that girl in the alley was a "whoa" moment.

   The book really doesn't get interesting until Jace pulls his head out of his ass and tells Clary that he's having those dreams, and Lilith shows up with Sebastian/Johnathan trying to revive by him using Jace. But when the that happened, we all knew that the next book was going to be full of shenanigans. I just wish this book had more of Magnus in it.