City of Fallen Angels - Cassandra Clare

The fourth book in The Mortal Instruments series follows on the storyline from the original three books once our characters have returned from the Shadowhunter home country of Idris having defeated the evil Valentine. While I'm sure there are plenty of people out there that are stoked there are more books being written in this world that Cassandra Clare has created, I am not one of those super psyched people. Don't get me wrong I did thoroughly enjoy the trilogy that came before this book, but I felt that the story was done and I have happy to leave it there. This new extension and angle have put a twist on it all to keep it fresh but still lack a little for me.

Again having listened to this on audiobook I was truly disappointed by the two narrators, Ed Westwick and Molly C Quinn. The surprising thing, even to myself, is that I love Ed Westwick. I think he is amazingly talented and as soon as I heard him speak I was in a whirlwind trying to pin point where exactly I knew the voice from and when it clicked who it was I was so happy. However the excitement didn't last very long. I found that both narrators seemed to miss the beat and emotion of the text they were reading and their different pronunciation of names and places from all the previous books made me so furious that I found myself correcting them every single time throughout the entirety of the book. For me, this put such a downer on my listening experience, that I fear it has even dampened my feelings for the story itself.

This story took a long time to get anywhere and was mainly focused on the character Simon, who I thought was a little boring even if he is a downworlder now. Then once it did start to flow at a decent pace it felt to me like it was rushed with a few story lines being avoided so that there could be yet another book to conclude everything. The final few minutes of this story were so infuriating that it has made me seriously question whether or not I want to listen to the last book in the series.

There are good fun characters in this story, why didn't Clare follow them instead of making them bit characters who only appear when the main boring characters we follow need something from them. That especially would have made this post trilogy storyline a little more exciting and enticing. More Issy and Magnus to spice things up in the final instalment please.

City of Glass - Cassandra Clare

City of Glass was a fun brisk paced book. It was much better than the previous two in the series. I feel that was because there was a lot happening and the story all tied in together. I felt that it moved at the right pace without slowing down, and things weren't explained in great depth to slow the flow of the story down. It was a typical third book and end of trilogy where the story wraps up easily and the good guys win in the end, but not without cost.

I felt the descriptions of the fictional Shadowhunter home land of Idris and the city of glass itself, Alicante, were delightful with just enough information to give you a basic description but little enough to allow the reader to use their imagination to construct a remarkable landscape unlike anything I have read of before in any other novel.

Knowing that this book will be made into a movie in the coming future lifts my spirits. I just hope they can do it justice with the imagery. Watching the full story play out on the big screen will be something to look forward to.

This book is worth the read to finish the trilogy and get some closure on the world of shadowhunters. However I have just been made aware that there are two further stories in this series that I will be listening to very shortly, as well as a prequel trilogy set in Victorian England.

City of Ashes - Cassandra Clare

This being the second book of a trilogy was quite surprising to me.Normally the second book doesn't really do a whole lot except set up the story for the third and final part of the story, and while it does do that it also has its own story that hold its own weight. I actually found this book to be more interesting that the first one. I'm not sure if that was because I already knew the characters or the world in which the story was written, or even if I thought it was just a better story. All I know is that I enjoyed it more, I felt like more happened.

Sure the story did jump around from character to character to follow all the story arcs that were going on, but there weren't too many to follow that you lost track of what was going on. Plus I am used to that sort of writing style from other books I read. The introduction of new parts of the 'downworld' was great and interesting and even fun. Having now brought these characters and races into the mix there is so much potential in what can be done in book three City of Glass.

Having a different narrator on the audio book made a large difference too. I found the reader of this book more involving and I didn't feel as though the book went for the full 12 and a half hours, whereas City of Bones dragged on.

Very interested to see where the story goes as I have many questions that need answers. Starting the third and final book tomorrow.

City of Bones - Cassandra Clare

This book has been on my nightstand for the past 4 years.
I always wanted to read it by many other books were higher on my list and so I didn't ever get around to it. Then they made it into a movie which I saw before I listened to the book.

I must say from watching the movie there were many things that were confusing and not clear which I assumed must be explained more in the book. Similar of what people have said about The Hunger Games move compared to the book written by Suzanne Collins. However after listening to this book I found that some of the questions I had are still there. Not everything I wanted explained was explained.

However saying that I found the storyline to be interesting. I felt that so much more could have been done with the idea, but that may happen in the following books City of Ashes and City of Glass. While the writing was a little bland for my liking (reminiscent of Stephenie Meyers Twilight books) I did still find it engaging and easy to listen to. I'm sure that if you were to read this book it would flow well and be a fast read. I also found that if I stopped the recording and come back to listen to it after time had passed, I still know where I was and what was going on in the storyline, which makes for a good non thinking, easy-going, pass time book.

I feel for what this book was trying to be, it hit the mark and created a world that could be believable with only a little suspended reality. Fun but not a book I'd keep on my shelves.