City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

Paperback: 496 Pages

Publisher: McElderberry Books

ISBN: 978-1-4169-7224-2

My Rating: 5/5

WARNING: Don't read the area in green if you haven't read City of Bones and you plan on reading it, it contains spoilers!!

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 her best friend, Simon. But the Shadowhunters won't let her go-especially her handsome, infuriating newfound brother, Jace. And Clay's only chance to help her mother is to track down rogue Shadowhunter Valentine, who is probably insane, certainly evil-and also her father. When the second of the Mortal Instruments is stolen, the terrifying Inquisitor suspects Jace. Could Jace really be willing to betray everything he believes in to help their father?

It's been a long time since I read 'City of Bones' by Cassandra Clare so I had to refresh my memory before getting into City of Ashes. I don't know why I waited so long between the two because when I read 'City of Bones' I was instantly obsessed and the same holds true for 'City of Ashes.' All the same characters are there but with some new developments. This book was a little shocking. There were lots of points where I was just like "WHAT?????" but not in a bad way haha. It's really engaging and I'm glad I finally decided to pick it back up.

This book is the story of the Shadowhunters but, as we all know, there are also demons, werewolves, vampires, warlocks, and pretty much anything else you can think of. 'City of Ashes' is basically Clary and Jace's story with a little bit of Simon thrown in. There are a few deaths and some significant changes in key characters which were totally unexpected! We learn more about the notorious Valentine but also get hints that something else is going on...something about Valentine, Jace and Clary but it never quites get out there so I'm super anxious to read the next book and find out what it is.

Overall, I loved 'City of Ashes' just as much as I loved 'City of Bones.' Clare did an amazing job with this book as she did with the first one! I'm hoping to have the rest of the series read so I can be caught up for the new book release in April of 2014 but my To Be Read pile is HUGE right now. Yes, I've been totally slacking in the reading department. I tried to describe this series to a friend and the only thing I could think to say was that it is True Blood for a younger crowd. In case you didn't know, I love True Blood immensely! If you haven't checked out this series yet, you need to. It's absolutely amazing!

Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead

Paperback: 608 Pages

Publisher: RazorBill

ISBN: 978-1-59514-440-9

My Rating: 4/5

The Queen is dead and the Moroi world will never be the same. Now, with Rose awaiting wrongful execution and Lissa in a deadly struggle for the royal throne, the girls find themselves forced to rely upon enemies and to question those they thought they could trust...But what if true freedom means sacrificing the most important thing of all? Each other.

I'm a little sad to be writing this review. I've loved the Vampire Academy series for so long! So it's completely crushing for me to be writing my last review on the series. There are other series from Richelle Mead that will take place in the Moroi World (Bloodlines) but I'm fairly confident they won't have Rose Hathaway or Lissa Dragomir in them, which is heartbreaking. With that being said, I can honestly say that Vampire Academy has been one of my top three for favorite series! I love it and everything about it. Although I found the final book to be a little slow till about halfway, it was exponentially better than the ending to some other series....not naming any names (Twilight!).

The final book in the series, Last Sacrifice, picks up literally right where Spirit Bound left off. I don't want to reveal anything in case some of you aren't that far in the series. I will say that I found the first half of the book to be pretty slow going and boring...which is probably why it took me so long to read it. But the second half flew by in a second. There was a ton of stuff going on, unexpected deaths was a big one. There were a lot of things that I found to be predictable in the end. I mean, you just knew it was going to happen either way.

I initially was going to give Last Sacrifice a 3/5 but the last half of the book made up for the boring parts in the beginning. I didn't give it a solid 5 because of a few reasons, the slowness in the beginning, the ending was too perfect and there definitely should have been more....drama. I mean, I love all the characters but the ones that were most important that lived were too...happy? haha. That sounds mean. It was too fairy tale, happily ever after-ish. Despite all that, I love Richelle Mead as an author and I can't wait to start reading Bloodlines! If you haven't checked out the Vampire Academy series yet, I really don't know what you're waiting for....you definitely should....right now!