City of Glass

City of Glass by Cassandra Clare 

Title: City of Glass

Author: Cassandra Clare  

Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance

Published: July 6 2009, Walker Books

Pages: 509

Blurb: To save her mother's life, Clary must travel to the City of Glass, the ancestral home of the Shadowhunters - never mind that entering the city without permission is against the Law, and breaking the Law could mean death. To make things worse, she learns that Jace does not want her there, and Simon has been thrown in prison by the Shadowhunters, who are deeply suspicious of a vampire who can withstand sunlight.

As Clary uncovers more about her family's past, she finds an ally in mysterious Shadowhunter Sebastian. With Valentine mustering the full force of his power to destroy all Shadowhunters forever, their only chance to defeat him is to fight alongside their eternal enemies. But can Downworlders and Shadowhunters put aside their hatred to work together? While Jace realizes exactly how much he's willing to risk for Clary, can she harness her newfound powers to help save the Glass City - whatever the cost?

Love is a mortal sin and the secrets of the past prove deadly as Clary and Jace face down Valentine in the third installment of the New York Timesbestselling series The Mortal Instruments.

City of Glass starts off with everybody planning to go to Idris for this Shadowhunter gathering to decide on what to do with Valentine. Now Jace being Jace decides to “protect” Clary and plans on stopping her from going, things don`t go to plan and shit goes down and Clary is stuck in New York. Clary being Clary decides to draw up her own portal in which she drags herself and Luke through. Whilst Simon, Jace and the Lightwoods are at Idris they meet Sebastian and Aline, Sebastian is sketchy from the beginning. Anyway Clary‘s rash and impulsive portal dumps her in Lake Lyn, a cursed lake which is deadly to Shadowhunters. Now there’s this back story/legend of how an Angel rose out of the Lake carrying the Mortal Instruments and gave it to the first Shadowhunter, how predictable was it to guess what/where the third Mortal Instrument is? So Simon gets thrown in a cell where he meets Hodge and you get a deeper insight how corrupt the Clave really is – traitors are sometimes are greatest allies. Clary however is locked up in Luke’s sister’s house until she compares herself to her “brave” mother – how annoying is it when she compares herself to others – and runs off to where the Lightwood’s are living. That’s where she and Jace clash.

This tends to happen a lot in paranormal books – mostly in the second book of a trilogy - where the guy turns into a jerk and pushes the girl away to protect her – the girl runs of crying and everybody things the guy’s a dickhead.  And that my fellow reader is exactly what Jace does. Fortunately Isabel and Alec understand what he’s going through and don`t judge him. There is a lot of pity for him. That’s when Sebastian comes to the rescue; he helps Clary find the location for the Warlock who can save her mother. Enter Magnus Bane who tells her to get this magical book, the Book of the White and tells her it’s in the Wayland Family Manor and the only person who can get inside it is Valentine and Jace. So she runs back to Jace - typical. They get the book and Magnus saves her mother.

 When they go inside the Manor they find all these secrets; an angel in the cellar, what Valentine has been doing and Jace supposedly has demon blood in him. When they leave the Manor, Jace and Clary admit their feelings and they share a kiss – explosions – until Clary finds Jace is using her to fuel his self hatred. Nice. When they get back to Idris they find that demons have attacked the children and elderly and Max also dies, luckily the werewolves come to the rescue. Go Luke! Things happen – they rescue Simon, Sebastian kills Hodge and you realise that Valentine is jealous of the Downworlders. I did not see that coming.

To protect everybody (seriously!)Jace decides to hunt down Sebastian who will lead him to Valentine. He leaves with his disguised goodbyes. Clary freaks out until her mother comes.  Clary vents her anger at her mother and runs away – typical. Later on Clary reveals her special powers to others in the Clave and creates a new rune “Alliance” that unites a Shadowhunter with a Downworlder. Proving she’s actually useful for once! So the powers of a Downworlder are shared with the Shadowhunters and the Shadowhunters fighting abilities are shared with Downworlders.

Clary is told the truth from her mother, Jace isn`t her brother but Sebastian (didn`t see that coming, NOT) is and about the experiments that Valentine did (freaky).  Meanwhile Jace fights against Sebastian and kills him he also finds out the exact same thing (yes the exact same thing – annoying). The “big” fight happens (not a lot is written about it which is sad) Clary and Jace end up with Valentine near Lake Lyn where Valentine kills Jace and where the Angel rises.

Valentine dies! Clary is granted a wish from the Angel (WTF) and she decides to bring Jace back to life (I did not see that coming).

To the best part - Normally in books the guy just say “I Love You” and he leaves it at that. There’s nothing wrong with that but come on Jace’s confession was so cute/sweet. Also when Clary releases she can freely be with the boy she loves - you feel her joy, well I did.

Oh yes and the kiss we’ve been waiting for – yes the Malec kiss. So unexpected.

Plus the weird relationship between Simon, Isabelle and Aline – yeh wonder where that’s going.

And finally Luke and Jocelyn – for some reason I really love them together. Maybe because it was a long time coming.

Anyway this is another four star rating. 

Here are some quotes that I loved from the book -