City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

I've made it through book two of MI! Woohoo! You know, even though these books are quite long, they are a surprisingly quick read. I'm really enjoying them so far, and man, Cassandra Clare has a killer way of building characters.

 SO! Let's get to the good stuff. In this book, Jocelyn is still in her sleepy time coma, Clary and Jace are still bro and sis, and Valentine is still the evil genius out to take over the world and ruin everyone's life in the process. Those are the major things happening. There is no way for me to review this whole book without just basically doing a synopsis so I'm just going to do what I did last time and break it down into points that I think are worth talking about:

-Simon. Poor Simon. My poor booboo is still head over heels for Clary. He mans up and kind of claims her as his girlfriend in this book, but we all know she's just going along with it because she doesn't have any better options at the moment. This dude will literally doing anything for her including GETTING CHANGED INTO A FREAKING VAMPIRE. So if I didn't love Simon before now I really freaking love him. Cassandra Clare almost kills Simon off like a million times but being the true BA vamp that he is now, he rises from the dead every time. Jace also takes one for the team and lets Simon drink some of his blood to bring him back to life so now Simon is like HULK SMASH SUPER VAMP and really BA. My favorite scene though is during the epilogue when Simon does the "it's not you... well, actually it really is you" speech to Clary and realizes he shouldn't spend his time waiting around for her when she has the hots for her brother. SUCK IT CLARY. I don't really know how I feel about him going after Maia, but hopefully he will just find someone to love him in the way her deserves. Simon still reigns as my favorite character so far. <33333

- Luke. I loooooooveeeeee Luke in this book. He really steps up and sort of becomes the Hodge of this book in the way he becomes everyone's father figure/pack leader. We find out a little more about his relationship and feelings towards Jocelyn which is super sweet so I do hope that develops more once she wakes up. I just want him and Jocelyn and Clary to be a sweet little family. IS THAT SO MUCH TO ASK CASSANDRA CLARE. Probably. She's probably going to take my hopes and dreams and set them on fire, like in the last book.

- The Silent Brothers. Well, totally didn't see their death coming and OMG was it creepy enough?! The whole scene where Jace is locked up in the Silent City and Brother Jeremiah dies.... What nightmares are made of. I'm kind of sad that they're dead though. I love a good creepy but still good character so I'm so they won't be in any of the next books.

- Valentine. Evil as always, but he takes his evil to the next level. The biggest thing that sticks out for me about him is how he refused to trade Jace for the MI... and Jace already knew it. Even the freaking Inquistioner couldn't believe it because it was that sad. No wonder Jace is always such a D. Can you imagine what his childhood was like growing up with Valentine as a dad? 

- So speaking of Jace.. This dude. Every time something is about to resolve itself or things are going okay here comes Jace Wayland in deciding to make the wrong decision every freaking time or open his mouth when he should just shut his trap. Jace got himself put in MI version of jail twice in this book. Should've been more but he realized his super Shadow Hunter specialness in this book and realized that he can do all the things the Angel can do. How convenient. If Jace's ego wasn't big enough before......................... Anyway, Jace totally still has the hots for Clary in this book despite the whole sibling thing (and high five to the Faerie Queen for making them make out. That scene wins the awkward award for this book). I like how he even tries to convince her that they can still be siblings and be together and she's all like NAH BRAH. BUT THE MOMENT SHE DECIDES SHE'S OK WITH THE SIBLING TWINCEST HE BRO-BLOCKS HER AND SAYS HE JUST WANTS TO BE HER BRO. Gah, Jace Wayland you make me so mad! Can't wait for the next book so they can finally get past this sibling thing and see where the relationship actually goes.

- Clary. She really steps up her game in this book. She finds out she can do this super awesome rune stuff so actually becomes pretty useful to everyone for once instead of being a liability. I'm really interested to see how Clary develops when her mom wakes up and they get a chance to talk about everything. I also really hope Clary continues to become BA even after her and Jace are no longer siblings. 

- Magnus and Alec... Just going to say HEARTS HEARTS HEARTS. ALL THE CAT HEART EYES EMOJIS HEARTS HEARTS HEARTS. Love them both together. 

So that isn't much of a review but more of a brain dump reaction after finishing the book. Really, there is no way for me to describe what happens without just summarizing. My brain dump is like a little sneak peak inside my brain. Scary place, huh? 

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to City of Glass! City of Ashes really built up and left it open for CoG to be really BA. I've heard lots of people say CoG is their favorite out of the series so fingers crossed. I will be taking a short MI break so I can pick my brains up off the ground and process CoA and everything that happened. I have two random books I'm going to read as an in between-er, and then I will dive back into MI: City of Glass! 

5/5 stars