City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

Series: The Mortal Instruments (2)
Kindle Edition, March 24 2009, 453 pages
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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?

My thoughts
Okay so now I've finally decided to give this series a go I'm actually really into it. This book is exceptionally better than the first one in both the plot and how well it was written. I found some parts absolutely cringe worthy, I mean come on the fact that Clary and Jace where still doing stuff with each other when they thought they were brother and sister just creeps me out too much to describe. I mean I can understand the troubles they may have had with coming to terms with being related but I don't think they fought hard enough against what they rightfully thought of as unnatural.  This book tells more of the story from Jace's point of view as well as Clary's and a few other characters which gives you a good overall impression of what's going on. There wasn't really much along the lines of surprises in the book yet despite this it was still an exciting yet easy read.