City of Glass: Mortal Instruments, Book 3 (The Mortal Instruments) [Paperback]

I can't promise this review will be spoiler free so don't read it if you haven't read it or the previous books in the series.

I absolutely loved this book. It tied up brilliantly the mortal instruments triology to a satisfying conclusion (although I am happy there will be more). I don't really know where to begin when writing this review as I don't want to spoil things for others and I can't criticise it at all so I'll just go through the things I loved about this book in no particular order.

I loved how the Jace/Clary story line played out. I serious love Jace and want him to be my secret boyfriend as he is gorgeous and I loved how the story played out for them. I know people are going to come back and say the whole thing is sick and twisted but you literally can't fight the chemistry these two have and I think the whole thing was dealt with well by Clare in this book.

I was so excited to see that Jocelyn is in this book. I loved how she entered the story and loved her interactions with both Clary and Luke.

The Magnus and Alec story line was awesome - I particularly enjoyed Maia's reaction to it (when you read it you'll see what I mean)

My heart broke a little bit for Max (and that is all I'm going to say on that front)

The scene with Valentine and the Inquistor was immense (as was the whole section of the story with the demon army. I was like "wow this cannot be happening" but it was and it was awesome.

I loved seeing the development of Clary as a character and particularly how she used her ability to creat runes to help when everything seems a bit hopeless.

Simon was awesome in this book. I love that boy.

Sebastian - all I can say is wow - that whole story line blew me away.

As I said not a proper review as I normally do them - I don't want to give a blow by blow account of the action as I think it would spoil too much for other but all I can say it is it absolutely awesome!

City of Bones was pretty good, City of Ashes fell down a little bit and suffered a touch from middle book syndrome and because of that I was seriously tempted to give up with this series. BUT because I had to know the answers to some of the questions left hanging (how can they wake up Joceyln? Why can Simon, a vampire, walk in the sunlight? Are Jace and Clary really siblings? Will Luke ever confess his love for Jocelyn? WillValentine ever be defeated?). I'm so glad I didn't give up. I'm so glad Cassandra Clare left us with enough questions to keep me hooked even if I did think she'd lost her way a little. And you know what? She completely reignited my interest in this series and I can't wait to get my hands on Book 4, City of Fallen Angels.

This time around Clary (our fire-haired leading lady), Jace (her brother and previous love interest) and the gang must travel to Alicante (the home of Idris - the shadowhunter homeland) to find Ragnor Fell, the magician deemed to know how to wake up Jocelyn, Clary's self-bewitched shadowhunter mother. But of course the story doesn't stop there. With the addition of a few pretty cool characters (I especially liked the new Inquisitor and Sebastian) the battle between Valentine (our corrupt bad guy, and father to Clary and Jace), the nephilim and the downworlders is continuing. And it has to stop somewhere.

The storyline was much better this time around. It was faster paced, the new characters were mysterious and I wanted to know their backstories almost as badly as I want Clary and Jace to not be related! And let's face it, Jace and Clary have got to be the stars of this book anyway because their star-crossed romance keeps me on the edge of my seat all the way through. Previously I've actually found their relationship to be frustrating. The will they/won't they? story can only go so far and I was glad to finally get some answers in this book.

The additional characters, like Max, Izzy and Alec are still brilliant. Sometimes I want to read more about them than I do about Valentine's intentions purely because their conversations are so uniquely funny and very sinbling-like which I think many writers fail to properly capture. Magnus Bane and Alec's relationship does get a little more attention in this book too, which was refreshing and I was definitely interested to see if Alec would finally bite the bullet and completely commit himself.

What I liked the most though, aside from our questions finally being answered, was the depiction and exploration of Clary and Jace's "abilities". Clary is capable of creating new runes which can be applied to shadowhunters or whenever the situation arises; likewise Jace has some ridiculously impressive capabilities himself. These are explained in a lot more detail, in fact in full detail.

My ONLY complaint, is that there's a little twist with a new character and the storyline (which I won't discuss) which I felt was entirely predictable. Many readers disagree with me so maybe I was just looking for it, but I just saw it coming a mile off. I secretly hoped that Cassandra Clare had deliberately made it obvious and that there would be some shocking double-twist at the end, but sadly there wasn't so I was left a little disappointed.

For those of you who are die-hard fans of this series then you will definitely love this and be blown away by the progression Clare makes with her characters and her world. For those of you though who, like me, had doubts about how good this series was going to be then I can only say that you should perservere. This book is by far the best in the series although I continue to believe that Cassandra Clare's Infernal Devices series (the prequel to this one) is considerably better.

To save her mother's life, Clary must travel to the City of Glass, the ancestral home of the Shadowhunters -- never mind that entering the city without permission is against the Law, and breaking the Law could mean death. To make things worse, she learns that Jace does not want her there, and Simon has been thrown in prison by the Shadowhunters, who are deeply suspicious of a vampire who can withstand sunlight.
As Clary uncovers more about her family's past, she finds an ally in mysterious Shadow-hunter Sebastian. With Valentine mustering the full force of his power to destroy all Shadow-hunters forever, their only chance to defeat him is to fight alongside their eternal enemies. But can Downworlders and Shadowhunters put aside their hatred to work together? While Jace realizes exactly how much he's willing to risk for Clary, can she harness her new found powers to help save the Glass City -- whatever the cost?

You know when you stay up so late reading, even when you know that you have to get up in the morning? Yeah, this book made me stay up till three 'o' clock in the morning. But apart from the fact that it caused sleep loss it was just as amazing as its prequels. The plot line had so many twists, making me jump up and down with excitement. And I have to admit I did shed a few tears at the last chapter (I think... again I cant check, my mother has stolen it). I noticed that this book was slightly more well written than its prequels, which was good, even though it was told in Third Person, which kind of annoys me.

As I said before, the characters in this book are probably the best characters I have read. Before I start gushing about characters, I have to bully Sebastian. He had a very twisted, evil mind (duuu, Chloe, he is the bad guy...), I couldn't stand him. I practically punched the book I hated him so much. Simon became more tolerable in this book, which was good. And Clary was also more like able, as she was a bit irritating in the middle of book two. Jace was great, as ever. And finally, they found out the fact that I already knew from spoiler forums. :)

So yes, I enjoyed this book, probably more than the other books in the series. I cant wait to see what CC writes next, and I will most definitely buy it on the day it comes out.