City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments #2) by Cassandra Clare Book Review

Synopsis from Goodreads:

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?

*MAY INCLUDE SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST BOOK, CITY OF BONES



What I Liked: 

• It was SO much better than the first book. Clary and Simon were less annoying, in fact, I think Simon was quite hilarious. Imagining him as Robert Sheehan makes it even better. Simon in the first book was just always in the way of Clace. 
• I liked that more characters were introduced and it was interesting to learn more about downworlders.
• There was much more action which i did enjoy. 
• Malec. Enough said. 

What I Disliked:

• Even though Clary was less annoying, she was still annoying as hell. She makes some stupid decisions without thinking sometimes. I've heard this doesn't get better in the later books unfortunately.
• I love Jace but i found him quite whiny in this book to be honest. It just always seemed like he was throwing a temper tantrum.
• I'm not going to lie the incest aspect of the story did make me kind of uncomfortable. 

My Favorite quote:

“Jace slammed his hand down on the stele. “Clary-“
“She said she doesn’t want it,” said Simon. “Ha-ha.”
“Ha-ha?” Jace looked incredulous. “That’s your comeback?”

My Rating: 4/5 stars

Have you read City of Ashes? What did you think? - Tess x

In Time by Alexandra Bracken Book Review

Synopsis from Goodreads: 

Don''t miss this exciting short story that connects THE DARKEST MINDS to its much-anticipated sequel, NEVER FADE!
 Gabe''s life has been devastated in the wake of the economic crash. The only option left for someone like him to escape his tragic past is to leave his small town behind and to attempt to become a skiptracer. This already almost impossible task is made all the more difficult by his first score, a young girl who won''t speak, but who changes his life in ways he could never imagine.









What I liked:

• Even though in the beginning i wasn't too sure on this new character (thought he had a bit of an attitude problem), he really grew on me which made the ending much more devastating!
• On the same topic of Gabe, i found him so funny and he went through so much character development in such a short novella. It has to be one of the best, if not, the best novella I've ever read.
•  I loved seeing a certain familiar face from The Darkest Minds ;) 
• We get to learn much more about the skiptracer network which we didn't see much of in the first book. I suspect Never Fade will also explain a lot of this. 
• We also get to learn a lot more about the outside world and what other people i.e. everyone not a teen were doing. I'm glad because we really didn't get much of an idea in TDM and it's always interested me how the rest of the country were handling the situation. 

What I disliked:

• There was literally nothing i didn't enjoy about this novella, although, I wouldn't have minded if it was longer.

My Favorite Quotes:

“Sometimes the darkness lives inside you, and sometimes it wins.”

My Rating: 5/5 Stars

Have you guys read In Time? What did you think? - Tess x