Audiobook Review: City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

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City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Description:
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?

In this breathtaking sequel to City of Bones, Cassandra Clare lures her readers back into the dark grip of New York City's Downworld, where love is never safe and power becomes the deadliest temptation.

My review:
Main theme, let’s kill off a main character. And if that doesn’t work, let’s do it again. And again. Still, pretty awesome book. I thoroughly enjoyed this audiobook, which I borrowed from a local library.

While book one was great, it seemed to feature all the tried and contemporary paranormal prerequisites: monster/demon hunters, vampires and werewolves, fairies, demons, angels. Book two has all those, but also a great deal more plot, action, and romantic suspense.

Clary’s predicament is maddening and page turning, and hints and maybes really drew me along to the very end and right into the next book, which was, thankfully, available the very next day at the library.

I also rather enjoyed the narrator for this volume. Great pacing, easy to listen to, good use of emotion to match the mood of the book.

So, yes, I’d say this is worthy of the hype. I very much enjoyed this and would recommend it to fans of paranormal romance/modern fantasy.


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