City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

Title: City of Ashes
Author: Cassandra Clare 
Type: Young Adult Novel
Genre: Fantasy 
Series: The Mortal Instruments Book Two 
Copyright: 2008 
Publisher: Simon Pulse 
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Summary: from Good Reads
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?

Feelings:
This book much like the first feels a little reminiscent of Harry Potter. Characters grow a little bit and they go up against the bad guy, Valentine, whose name starts with a V. Just a question but do all bad guy's names start with V? Voldermort (Harry Potter), Volturi (Twighlight), Darth Vader (Star Wars, only sort of counts) alright so I can't think of any others. However, I do feel like this book has connections to both Twightlight and Harry Potter. Vampires play a big part in here so do werewolves, remind you of anything? If you can look beyond the comparisons for which there are many...the story is different and I like that.

The urban setting is what really makes this story so good. The characters are interesting and becoming more developed as are their relationships. The plot is much the same as the first book but I didn't mind that as much as I thought I would.

If you have not read the first book stop reading here. SPOILERS for book one

Moral challenges are a big part of this story, the relationship between Clary and Jace. Isabelle and her rebellion against tradition. Alec and his feelings about being attracted to men, and hiding it. I like that Alec and Mangus have a relationship and that it is excepted by those that know about it.

Mangus, warlock, becomes a bigger character in this book and I think that he is the most interesting of the new characters.

Dreams become a new theme in this book which is carried into the next books as well.

Jocelyn moved the driftwood over her skin. The touch stung like the burning of a stele, and left the same think black line behind. The rune Jocelyn drew was a shape Clary had never seen before, but she found it instinctively soothing to her eye. "What does this do?" "It should protect you." Clary's mother released her. "Against what?" (p. 132)

Protection is another theme in this book. Who is responsible for protecting who, and have they failed or not? This is a question that is answered to most of the main characters and in some cases it is yes and some no. I also think we see how independence plays into responsibility and protecting someone besides yourself.

In many ways the first book is more like a prologue to this and this is where the real story starts. We are introduced to Valentine in the last book but he doesn't really play that big a part in it. He is just the bad guy and not much of a character. In this book that is developed and he becomes a very horrible person. I think that was a necessary thing because otherwise I didn't really care that much about getting ride of Valentine he just was.

I liked all the action in this book and the fast pass of much of it. Some of it was a little bit predictable but I think every book has some predictability.

I will be continuing with the series and I am glad I gave it a chance.