City of Fallen Angels

I read City of Fallen Angels last weekend for the readathon, but it's taken a while to post about it because I haven't quite figured out how I feel... or rather, I was hoping I would change my mind.  It was my most anticipated book of the year, a continuation of one of my favorite series, and I really wanted to love it.

But I didn't.

I'm not really sure how to summarize this book since the description on amazon is not accurate.  It's probably bad form, but consider this review for those already familiar with the series.

I knew going in that Simon would be a main narrator (although from the Amazon description, you wouldn't think he was even a major part of the book).  I would go so far as to say that he is the main character of the book, since he is the one who is most active during the climax.  But Clary and Jace--the main characters of the first three books--are so prominent that I couldn't quite get away from them.  It threw off my whole connection--I couldn't totally get behind Simon as the most important character, but yet I had lost what made me identify with Clary and Jace.  I think a big problem with this is that this book focused so much on Simon while setting up the new big plot for the trilogy to focus on Clary and Jace, again.

While I loved a lot of the banter between Simon, Jace, and new werewolf (to us) Kyle, every other relationship felt like it had been written by Josh Schwartz.  There were so many relationship issues that I often lost track of the action trying to follow all the bickering.  And the betrayal the book trailer promised... didn't feel like betrayal.  It just felt like a really crappy situation.

Honestly, I think the next two books will probably rock.  The end, while I found it incredibly cheesy (the bushes, Clary, really?), set up a big enough adventure that I hope the characters will be able to get over themselves and their relationships.  I still love this world and I am still really hoping to love the new books.  Clare has so much to delve into and is totally capable of bringing it as far as it needs to go.

This book counts toward the following reading challenges: 100+, and Ancient Runes for The Harry Potter Reading Challenge.