I'm going to start this post off with my obligatory statement on how the following will contain spoilers, because I really don't feel like I can review this book without giving away a spoiler to SOMETHING. So if you haven't read CoG or the first three Mortal Instruments book, don't read any further!It took me over a month to read this book in its entirety. Every time I would start to read, I would get frustrated by one of the characters to the point where I had to put the book down. The big one was when Simon gets thrown in a cell by the new Inquistor around page 100 that I put the book down several weeks. I was SO frustrated that poor Simon (who still is one of my favorite characters, btw) kept getting the crap end of every situation! When Alec just handed him off to the guards, I was literally yelling at the book saying "YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KITTEN ME!"
Anyway, I finally picked this book back up because I really do love the series and I felt ready to fight through my frustration and see what happens. I pushed on and am really glad I did. I spent most of this book wanting to punch Jace in the face for acting like a douche bag. He really says some awful stuff and ends up hurting almost everyone who he is close to with words or actions at some point. I get his frustration and why he was acting the way he was, but CALM DOWN DUDE and stop man-strating.
I also really felt bad for Clary for a large part of this book. The series has progressed enough where a lot of information is finally getting revealed about why things are the way they are, and I really felt like Clary was getting dealt a bad hand in this book. Jace really hurts her with his words and she is left alone, truly alone except for Sebastian (and we see how well that worked out!), for a large part of the book. Her mom is a in a coma, Jace basically says that he spends all his time cleaning up her messes and he wishes she would GTFO, Simon is in a jail cell, Luke is off with his pack somewhere, all the Lightwoods are giving her the cold shoulder for Jace's sake, and her father is freaking Valentine. On top of all that she is in a country she has never been to, staying in a house with a strange lady, and is trying to find some elusive warlock to break her mom's coma/spell. Where I felt she was really whiny in other books, I really felt bad for her in this one. The one thing I really highfived her for was stepping up and just saying EFF EVERYONE and getting things done herself. Yeah, she doesn't exactly do things the best way the first way, but she gets things done. She really learns a lot about herself and finally learns to use her rune power for good. She basically is the reason why the New Council is formed at the end.
I also highfived her when her mom shows up in Idris for not just running and giving her a hug, but for being super pissed at her. Can you blame her? I mean, her mom lied to her for her entire life about basically everything and it isn't until her mom falls into a freaking coma and is kidnapped that she has to figure out everything on her own and on top of that she falls in love with her freaking (not so) brother! I'd be pissed too! Jocelyn is pretty B.A. though. I really enjoyed how once she started explaining everything, she explained EVERYTHING. The whole past of her and Valentine and Luke and the Herondales and Jace and Jonathan/Sebastian is revealed. Finally! I knew before reading the spoiler about Jace not really being her brother, but I was so dang ready for it to be revealed in the book! Plus I really wanted to find out who his actual parents were and what is real story is
This book is my favorite of the series so far because all the questions so far have been answered. Plus there is finally some really sweet romance! The night that Jace dips out on his suicide mission to find Sebastian and Valentine, he spills his whole heart to Clary and tells her that he is in love with her. I had real tears in my eyes during this (mostly because my heart was aching because I knew they weren't related) because his profession is so sweet and so desperate for her to understand how he feels that you can't help but feel his sorrow that this may really be the last night he sees her. The ending is so sweet and heart wrenching as Clary has Raziel save Jace. The desperation of their love is what really tugs at my heart strings, so I am interested to see how that progresses in the future. Also, Magnus and Alec finally get over their boy drama. I love them as a couple! I really love that Magnus plays a big part in this book. He is definitely one of my favorite characters too. I love that Jocelyn and Luke finally get together (I was shipping them from the beginning!). I also even like that Simon is now hot commodity and has Isabelle and Maia fighting for his attention. I hope he goes for Maia, but I really love that he was there for Isabelle when things got bad..... which leads me to the saddest part of this book. Poor Max. I didn't see that coming from a mile away. I really thought it was Isabelle that was dead. Again, real tears fell for when the nine year old died. It was so sad for all the characters.
"There is no pretending," Jace said with absolute clarity, "I love you, and I will until I die, and if there's a life after that, I'll love you then."
I'm happy with the resolution of this book, but I'm scared as to what is to come. You know something is going to come back and bite Clary in the butt for turning down the Seelie Queen. Also we know that Sebastian/Jonathan isn't dead, so I'm sure he will take on the new role as the big evil they are fighting. I hope the next book has a lot more Clary and Jace romance. I also hope we find out more information about Simon and what happens now that he is has this awesome rune on him.
On to book four! Hopefully it won't take me as long to read this one, but TMI has definitely taught me that book hangovers are a real thing and I have a hard time with reading a really long series consecutively. I like to read a book then break it up with a completely different book then come back to the series. I think it helps me appreciate the series more in the end by doing it this way. I want to be able to absorb all the information and not feel burnt out.
5/5 stars
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