City of Ashes

Title: City of Ashes

Author: Cassandra Clare

Rating: 3 stars

Summary:  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. 

Review: I don't particularly like the story, but I keep reading this series because I want to find out answers. In this book, I wanted to know how the author was going to resolve the problem of sibling romance. I've got some questions from this book for the third book to answer for me. In the first book, Clary didn't fight because she had never been trained. For the second book, though, I expected that to change. It didn't, which makes me wonder: Is the Clave really just letting Clary run around demons without any instructions on how to kill them? I expected more from her in this book. A lot of people think Jace is a jerk, but I find him kind of funny, if a bit annoying. Simon did well in that battle during the first book (more than Clary did, that's for sure), but in the second book I just want him to die. I know that sounds heartless, but in this book he escapes from the brink of death exactly three times. Once, I could have been okay with, but twice? And the author doesn't even explain how he escapes death the third time!