City of Fallen Angels, Book 4

Title: City of Fallen Angels - Book 4
Series: The Mortal Instruments
Author: Cassandra Clare
Publication: April 5th, 2011

City of Fallen Angels takes place two months after the events of City of Glass. In it, a mysterious someone’s killing the Shadowhunters who used to be in Valentine’s Circle and displaying their bodies around New York City in a manner designed to provoke hostility between Downworlders and Shadowhunters, leaving tensions running high in the city and disrupting Clary’s plan to lead as normal a life as she can — training to be a Shadowhunter, and pursuing her relationship with Jace. As Jace and Clary delve into the issue of the murdered Shadowhunters, they discover a mystery that has deeply personal consequences for them — consequences that may strengthen their relationship, or rip it apart forever.

Meanwhile, internecine warfare among vampires is tearing the Downworld community apart, and only Simon — the Daylighter who everyone wants on their side — can decide the outcome; too bad he wants nothing to do with Downworld politics. Love, blood, betrayal and revenge: the stakes are higher than ever in City of Fallen Angels.

Ashley's Review:

Something Cassandra Clare does very well is keep you interested in her characters. There is a constant need and want to know what will happen next, how will this story end? With all the anticipation and what will/has happened comes disappointment as well. I very much wanted to love this book. I even pre-ordered it, which I must say is the first time I have ever done that or even spent as much on the book as I have on any other book. I HAD to have the letter from Jace to Clary that was referenced in City of Glass and now I have it. After being so in love with books 1-3, I was really expecting greatness. That page turning effect that makes you feel like you cannot get enough of it. I don’t know maybe the anticipation of the release of this book and getting my hands on it totally killed my opinion of the story itself. Maybe I will read it again and think it’s a better story, but as of now I am just happy I finished it.

I did like the spin of adding Simon’s point of view in the mix with Jace and Clary, but I felt the other character’s point of views were too random throughout the book and needed more consistency. Having Isabelle, Alec and even Maia’s point of view at one point would have fit better with the story had they been heard throughout the entire book, rather than towards the end. I felt like that jumped around a bit too much. That being said, I did really like being more inside their head, knowing what was going on with them.
The character development and the storyline are definitely there and in some aspects a little over the top. There is a constant over explanation of every situation and even referencing past situations as if the reader has not read the previous 3 book in this series. I wish the book would have just picked up right where City of Glass had left off. I understand attention to detail and it being necessary for certain scenarios', but not for each and every one. I found myself, reading past certain long paragraphs of descriptions and skipping straight for the action or dialog. Not because I didn’t like it, I just felt it was not necessary.

I know it sounds like I hated this book, but really I didn’t. I did like it very much, but I think a lot of it could have been tweaked to an extent. One thing I love about reading Cassandra Clare’s books is playing the guessing game. What’s happening in the next addition? How will these series correlate together? What did that phrase mean? She is very, very good at keeping you guessing and wanting to know what is going to happen next. I guess you could say I have a love and hate relationship with her books, enough to read the next one and maybe one day reread the ones I already have.