City of Fallen Angels (The Mortal Instruments, #4) in Once Upon a Twilight blog

Sep 22, 2011 Kale rated it really liked it

Everyone's favorite tatted demon slaying teens are back, along with their downworlder cohorts kicking some demonic butt and thwarting evil villains' and their devious plans.

Well, kind of. You know, when it's not a school night.

It's not easy being a teen.... Vampire. Simon is trying really hard to maintain his old mundane life, with his new daylighter needs, and an increasingly over protective mother. Top that off with the dual love affairs, involving a particular lady shadowhunter, and she-wol Everyone's favorite tatted demon slaying teens are back, along with their downworlder cohorts kicking some demonic butt and thwarting evil villains' and their devious plans.

Well, kind of. You know, when it's not a school night.

It's not easy being a teen.... Vampire. Simon is trying really hard to maintain his old mundane life, with his new daylighter needs, and an increasingly over protective mother. Top that off with the dual love affairs, involving a particular lady shadowhunter, and she-wolf, and well Simon would most likely consider letting one of the assassin's, who have been trying to off him, finish the job and put him out of his misery if not for the mark of Cain preventing it. Meanwhile Jace and Clary are on the rocks. Jace isn't eating. He isn't sleeping. Thoughts and visions of hurting Clary abound. Something is terribly wrong. Secrets can hurt more in the end than the truth, and a big one is about to rebound on our nephilim power couple, and possibly destroy them. When all the powers of heaven and hell collide, can love truly conquer all?

Cassandra Clare's fourth venture into the MI world, starts off bit rough and disjointed. The MI gang is separated. All the plot points and individual character threads are important overall, and do eventually tie in together for the book's story arc, but it can be hard to follow. I find this forgivable because she's trying to balance kicking off the new story lines, with character updates, introducing new characters, multiple POVs, while maintaining her previously developed world. I think it's quite ambitious of her.

At the end of COG I felt like I could breathe easy, because Jace and Clary made it out together. Well, all the angst is definitely back, and killing me softly all over again. It does get a little annoying that no one's communicating with each other. I also feel cheated thinking this new second series was going to tie in more with the Infernal Devices trilogy. I read that there would be some crossover, but found it minimal. You really don't need to read ID to understand CoFA. I was also disappointed not to see Tessa. After COG I thought the scene between Magnus and Tessa would be important somehow. I did like getting to see how my favorite characters are handling the changes in their lives, Simon's POV, Jace and Clary's relationship problems, Alec and Magnus' budding relationship, and Isabel's surprising rise to a more prominent role in this book. City of Fallen Angels is definitely about the relationships. Since a lot of the book separates our heroes and heroines, I find that I miss the dynamic of them all together battling the forces of evil. I did rejoice a bit at the end when that did happen.

Overall a lot of good things are happening in CoFA. If you can wade through the multiple points of view telling the story you will be rewarded with a very interesting new villain and plot. There is a cliffhanger at the end that sets up the sequel. City of Fallen Angels is definitely a sinfully delicious pleasure.

SPECIAL NOTE:
I got the audiobook version of CoFA. This was an excellent recording. I don't know why a lot audiobooks aren't treated like a music recording. I hate getting one that sounds like it's in a can or has a lot of noise in the background. Sometimes the VoiceOver talent isn't very good but a good recording can compensate. The City of Fallen Angels audiobook should be the standard for the format. It was recorded well. Ed Westwick and Molly Quinn were wonderful narrators. I highly recommend the audiobook version of CoFA. ...more

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Aug 08, 2011 Chrisabel rated it really liked it

Shelves: paperback, owned-books

Loved it...

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Nov 01, 2011 Julie Witt rated it really liked it

Shelves: reviewed, ya, contemporary, fant-pnr-scifi, romance, angels, vampires

Please check out my reviews at: http://injuliesopinion.blogspot.com/2...

The Mortal Instruments is one of my all time favorite series, and I was so excited when I heard that Cassandra Clare was continuing it with City of Fallen Angels! I knew going into it that this book told mostly Simon's story, and since I love Simon, I was okay with that. Unfortunately, it just felt like something was missing from this installment. It wasn't that the writing wasn't good - it's Cassandra Clare, for Heaven's sa ...more

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Nov 06, 2011 Beckie Treble rated it it was amazing

One word to explain this entire series: AMAZINGLYAWESOME.
I know technically two words with no space, but ah well. I loved it. I really hope there is a book 5 coming out, because I want to know what happens now with Sebastian... sorry Jonathon, Jace, Simon *le sigh* and Clary.

Just amazing. Loved it and I can't wait to see what Cassandra comes up with next! ...more

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