City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

Or maybe it’s just that beautiful things are so easily broken by the world.”

City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare is the fourth book in the Mortal Instruments series. Originally, the series was meant to end with the third book, so this last trilogy is a bit of a reboot.

In this first installment to the ‘second trilogy’ (as Cassandra Clare calls it), Simon is trying to cope with life as a vampire while juggling two girlfriends along with the Mark of Cain, Clary is trying to keep her relationship with Jace afloat while a demonic force is invading his dreams and tearing them apart, and the Clave is investigating the mysterious deaths of several Shadowhunters.

When I first started reading it, it really did feel like a bit of a jumbled reboot. There was so much focus on Simon with Clary and Jace and the other characters as an afterthought (though it was a relief to not have another book centered around their ‘tragic’ love story) and the events that took place didn’t really make sense. But then, things really came together in the last 100-150 pages and really made it worth sticking it out to the finish. It was an extremely entertaining book, even though it felt like it’s sole purpose was to upstart the series again.

The Mortal Intruments is one of my favorite young adult series, and this book somewhat struggled to live up to City of Glass but kept my interest nonetheless in a fantasy world that I was familiar with. Overall, I would give it 4/5 stars.