Me on City of Fallen Angels

Title: City of Fallen Angels
Author: Cassandra Clare
Release Date: April 5, 2011
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry (S&S imprint)

The anticipation for this book was so big. I was surprised Twitter didn't explode on release day. ;) I'm going to attempt to write this without giving anything away, but I can't make an promises. Well, I would recommend that you at least read the first three TMI books before reading this.

Six weeks after the end of City of Glass, City of Fallen Angels starts back in New York. Everyone's getting back to normal. Well, as normal as it gets for Clary, who's trying to fit a relationship with Jace into her Shadowhunter training. Simon's also trying to cope with being the only vampire that can walk in sunlight. Plus, someone's killing Shadowhunters that once aligned themselves with Valentine, and something's going on with the vampires in the Downworld.

The action and twists and turns brought me right back into Clary and Simon's world. It almost felt like I hadn't left, that it hadn't been a few months since I read the first three books. Shadowhunters and runes, vampires and werewolves and warlocks, everything totally going straight to hell and messing everything up. It was awesome.

New characters balanced out the old, adding new conflict and a new dimension to old relationships (or totally messing them up). The book was oddly refreshing, something new mixed with something old.

I know that initially the series was going to end after City of Glass and now won't for another two books, but I don't know what other readers were expecting to find when they read City of Fallen Angels. I knew things weren't going to be easy. If things were easy, if Cassandra Clare wrote nothing but 400 pages of Clary and Jace dating like a happy couple, the book would've been outrageously boring. You can't go from 3 books of action and disaster and surprises to 3 books of normal boring life.

I expected a weird new evil person to show up, I expected something to happen between Clary and Jace that might split them up until the end of the series, and I expected Simon to do something because he was tired of being the only special vampire. I even expected part of the city to explode and ruin everything. I won't say if any of this actually happened, those would be spoilers, but I will say that I'm totally satisfied with where the book went and how it ended.

I will say I'm not looking forward to the wait for City of Lost Souls and City of Heavenly Fire. I understand why, though. I'll just have to self-medicate with the first four TMI books and The Infernal Devices series in the meantime. ;)

Cassandra Clare was able to draw me back into her dark and dangerous New York with its Shadowhunters and Downworlders. I was sucked back in so quickly, so seamlessly, that it felt like I hadn't ever left. Classic twists, turns, and secrets mixed with runes and magic, and an ending no one will expect.