City of Ashes - Cassandra Clare [2009] ENG

There is a slight possibility that you have already heard about my new challenge - I think that I have mentioned it somewhere here or there on Facebook or Twitter but I am not entirely sure about it 'cause these days I write a lot of reviews and posts in advance and publish them later on so it might be that this detail has not been mentioned yet. But nevermind. The thing is that I have decided to expand my vocabulary and do something more with English than at work where I am using IT terms and vocabulary, not to forget what I have learned at school and university. So in order to do this, I thought about reading books in English, in the original version. As far as I have my ebook reader, it is far more easier to accomplish. But not to make it that easy, I came up with an idea to tell you about those books in reviews that will be written in English too. So all in all, once in a while I am going to publish a review of a book read in the original version that will be written not in Polish but in English. Hope that you are going to like this idea and you will look forward to those reviews.

I guess that those first posts will be a little bit awkward because I have not written in English so much text in a while but as far as I exercise a little bit at work - IT Service Desk for Airports in England - I hope that it is not going to be that bad. Still, I apologize for all the mistakes and stuff that might occur here - if you happen to find any, please let me know! Feedback much appreciated.

Today I am going to tell you something about a book that I read a few years ago after it was published in 2009. It is the second installment in The Mortal Instruments series written by Cassandra Clare. I have read the translation first but as far as the memory fades away I decided to refresh this story once again to myself. Last year I read City of Bones due to the fact that I watched the adaptation of it, so since then I have decided to read whole series once again with all of the books that I have not read yet. Perhaps you know the story plot more or less, especially after the movie from last year but to sum it up, there was an ordinary girl called Clary that turned out to be not that ordinary as it was at first sight. Clary is capable of seeing THINGS and by things I mean demons, werewolves, vampires and most importantly.. shadowhunters. In City of Bones it came out that she is a shadowhunter herself, she has a brother that she fell in love with (Jace) and it is not a sisterly feeling unfortunately. More like girlfriend and boyfriend stuff. A little bit awkward, don't you think? When the guy you are attracted to fails to be a potential lover because he is your brother? Not pleasant.

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Right now, in the City of Ashes once again we need to face with the psycho-type Valentine who claims to be Clary's and Jace's father, who wants to ruin Clave by summoning demons and draining blood from innocent teen vamps and werewolves. Apart from obvious issues with their insane father, Clary and Jace have huge issues with their feelings to each other. In addition to this messed up situation, there is Simon, Clary's BFF, that, surprise surprise, is in love with her even more than Jace as it seems. So we have a perfect love triangle that obviously does not end up well to the good guy (Simon, of course).

In this book we have a lot of blood, lots of spectacular fighting scenes with magic stuff so we cannot complain about the lack of action. Valentine gives us  quite a dose of a thrill and goose bumps when he tries to fight with Clave no matter what will stand on his way. Valentine is completely mad and it seems that nobody can stop him, even his children so I am really looking forward for the next book which is City of Glass. When it goes to protagonists, the well-worn love triangle makes me a bit bored, even though there is a new point, which is the fact that Clary and Jace are siblings, still it is a bit gross to be honest. Incest is not my cup of tea. Thankfully, I have heard some rumours that this idea is not entirely true and there might be a lie involved so I hope that it will end up differently. But still I counted on Simon and deep inside I believed in his success, even though we all know that good guys, those charming, caring and cute (CCC!) boys never win the love of the heroine. NEVER, unfortunately. Ok, Jace has a zing and we all adore his arrogant asshole nature but still his romance with Clary sickens me a bit and I hope that it will end up soon.

To sum it up, I can say that all in all I like this series. It was the first kind of books that I have read which were paranormal romance type and I must admit that it was a good one. There is a lot of action going on, there is a romance plot, a bit weird but still, protagonists are well-built so it seems that everything required for a good book for young adult is perfectly there. I just regret that adaptation of City of Ashes is not going to happen this year because I would definitely go and see it. 

PS. Chwalę się moim nowym cudeńkiem :D