 Cassandra Clare

Clary Fray is seeing things: vampires in Brooklyn and werewolves in Manhattan. Irresistibly drawn to the Shadowhunters, a secret cadre of warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, Clary encounters the dark side of New York City - and the dangers of forbidden love.

City of Bones: Mortal Instruments Series Bk. 1

Ava Kernich

Sooooo.... remember when I said I would never read the Mortal Instruments? Well, I thought about it, and I realized how curious I was about Jace and Clary's story after reading Emma and Julian's story. And then my roommate started telling me how much she loves these books and then one thing led to another and...

Yeah, I can't believe I just finished this book either. After I SWORE I would never read these books. I fully blame my roommate haha.

As for my actual review, I will say this: you can tell this was CC's first book. She hadn't yet developed her voice that she has in her later books. Her character work is not yet as intricate, and she has less of a focus on the romance. She also doesn't have as many POVs as her later works, which in my opinion detracted from the story telling, as one of my favorite things from the other books I've read by her was the multiple points of view and multiple plot lines.

Still, there is a lot of good in this book! The plot is definitely tighter, and though the characters don't appear complex at first, if you dig deeper, you can see glimpses of complexity and intrigue that are sure to come out in the next few books.

I also found the villain of this book to be perfectly hate-able and very well-written. The overall mystery of the book was unraveled little by little, and though I went into this knowing almost all the plot twists (media-osmosis sucks sometimes), I found their execution to be very well done.

Thankfully, other than a few plot points here or there, I'm going to be going into the next few books more blind than this one. I am really going to enjoy traveling through the rest of the Shadowhunter books. I definitely recommend these books if you want ones that play out like a soap opera. They are drama-filled, with the beginnings of great romances, and have a very engaging plot. 

Overall, while this isn't my favorite Shadowhunter book (Lord of Shadows still has that honor), I am still very happy with this first TMI book and am eagerly jumping into the next book!

Emily B

3.75 STARS:

Sooooo.... remember when I said I would never read the Mortal Instruments? Well, I thought about it, and I realized how curious I was about Jace and Clary's story after reading Emma and Julian's story. And then my roommate started telling me how much she loves these books and then one thing led to another and...

Yeah, I can't believe I just finished this book either. After I SWORE I would never read these books. I fully blame my roommate haha.

As for my actual review, I will say this: you can tell this was CC's first book. She hadn't yet developed her voice that she has in her later books. Her character work is not yet as intricate, and she has less of a focus on the romance. She also doesn't have as many POVs as her later works, which in my opinion detracted from the story telling, as one of my favorite things from the other books I've read by her was the multiple points of view and multiple plot lines.

Still, there is a lot of good in this book! The plot is definitely tighter, and though the characters don't appear complex at first, if you dig deeper, you can see glimpses of complexity and intrigue that are sure to come out in the next few books.

I also found the villain of this book to be perfectly hate-able and very well-written. The overall mystery of the book was unraveled little by little, and though I went into this knowing almost all the plot twists (media-osmosis sucks sometimes), I found their execution to be very well done.

Thankfully, other than a few plot points here or there, I'm going to be going into the next few books more blind than this one. I am really going to enjoy traveling through the rest of the Shadowhunter books. I definitely recommend these books if you want ones that play out like a soap opera. They are drama-filled, with the beginnings of great romances, and have a very engaging plot. 

Overall, while this isn't my favorite Shadowhunter book (Lord of Shadows still has that honor), I am still very happy with this first TMI book and am eagerly jumping into the next book!

Some parts were nice and some parts boring, over all, the book was a bit long. I do love Jace & Alec though 

Brenda 🌙

Annabella

AH. The comfort of favourites and the rollercoaster that hides beneath that, ten years strong

City of Bones: Mortal Instruments Series Bk. 1

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