City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

I really should have written this review immediately after finishing the book.  I just finished the third book in this series, City of Glass, and the plots of all three books are kind of muddled together in my brain now, and I can't really remember what happened in which book.  So I'm just going to use the summary from the book cover for this review (there are spoilers from the first book, so read at your own risk):

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?

After the revelations in City of Bones, I was definitely looking forward to seeing what City of Ashes had in store for Clary, Jace, Simon, and the gang.  All I can say is, wow.  I definitely didn't see some things coming (like Simon's transformation), but other storylines had some definite foreshadowing of what was to come in the third book.  I grew to love Jace even more, and felt for him and Clary with everything they had to deal with.  But I could already see where the whole Jace and Clary storyline was headed, so I had hope that things would work out (as in, be revealed) in City of Glass, even though there were more books still to come in the series.

Definitely more fast-paced than the first book.  I was left wanting more, and put everything else on hold to delve right into City of Glass.

4/5

Also in the series: City of Bones, City of Glass, City of Fallen Angels (2011), City of Lost Souls (2012), City of Heavenly Fire (2013)