Really Ravishing Review (City of Ashes)

Review of City of  Ashes, by Cassandra Clare.

Quickie: Enjoyable second installment. :)

Full: Clary and her friends return to us in City of Ashes, which starts up right where City of Bones left off. Clary's mother is in a spell-induced-coma, her relationship with Jace is on fragile and unknown ground, Simon is still in love with her, and oh yeah- She's got a maniac father who wants to overthrow the Clave and basically kill everyone in the process. Alec is still trying to protect his secret, Jace is turned away from his home, demons are showing up at an alarming rate, and bodies are being found drained of blood. There's a lot of stuff going on!

Not a bad second book. I think I actually liked it better than I did City of Bones, since the ending wasn't all... well, if you've read CoB you know about the ending.

In City of Ashes we get to know the characters more, which is the beauty of a series. One of my favorite characters is Magnus Bane, the High Warlock of Brooklyn. He's got a lot of personality, and he's just a very interesting character all around.

Jace and Clary.... oy. They give me a headache. Well, Simon and Clary kind of do too, although it's more heart-ache than head-ache. Love triangles can be interesting, but I'm ready for this one to end.

I really, really enjoyed seeing Jace and Clary's talents come to life. Clary's especially was fascinating. (Spoiler ahead!!) The power to create new runes- wow. That's a super cool power to have! Although the Spiderman movies remind us; With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility. Hee. In all seriousness, I think this could be a very important plot point later on, and I'm quite interested to see how it will affect Clary's future.

I'm still enjoying Clare's writing, and I love the wit and snark in this series. If I had any complaint about City of Ashes... it would be that the twist at the end of CoB is still making me uncomfortable, and I almost got lost in all the action at the end. It was a bit of a whorl for me. Totally interesting, but a bit overwhelming at times. There was a lot going on.

I already bought and plan to read City of Glass, so you can look for that review soon!

4 out of 5 stars.