Book Blog #90: City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

Title: City of Fallen Angels
Author: Cassandra Clare
# of Pages: 424 (paperback)
Genre: YA, Paranormal, Romance
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Synopsis: The Mortal War is over, and sixteen-year-old Clary Fray is back home in New York, excited about all the possibilities before her. She’s training to become a Shadowhunter and to use her unique power. Her mother is getting married to the love of her life. Downworlders and Shadowhunters are at peace at last. And—most importantly of all—she can finally call Jace her boyfriend.

But nothing comes without a price.

Someone is murdering Shadowhunters, provoking tensions between Downworlders and Shadowhunters that could lead to a second, bloody war. Clary’s best friend, Simon, can’t help her—his mother just found out that he’s a vampire, and now he’s homeless. When Jace begins to pull away from her without explaining why, Clary is forced to delve into the heart of a mystery whose solution reveals her worst nightmare: she herself has set in motion a terrible chain of events that could lead to her losing everything she loves. Even Jace.

Review: Well, this book took me longer to read than I expected. I really wanted to finish reading Great Expectations (which I haven't yet. It's hard to get into than I thought it would be), so City of Fallen Angels took the backseat as far as reading priority.

However, since I was reading this book at the same time I was reading Great Expectations, it was a bit of a relief for me to read it. Unlike Dickens' book, it was so much easier to read Clare's book. However, that does not change the fact that there were plenty of flaws that plagues the pages that make up The Mortal Instruments's fourth book.

For example, it doesn't even feel like Clary is the protagonist before. Simon became a leading character, but the other charcters also had their fair share of time in the spot light. There was so much drama; Jace is having relationship problems with Clary, Simon with Isabelle and Maria, Maria with Jordan, Alec with Magnus, etc. It's exhausting to read about.

There was a lot more interaction between Jace and Simon. This in particular is something that I didn't like very much because Simon turned into a nagging mother, asking Jace if he was okay. And JACE! I don't even know who he is now. Jace Wayland? Morgenstern? Herondale? Lightwood? I'm pretty sure it's not Morgenstern because he is not directly related to Valentine, but, then again, he was raised by Valentine early on. Does that make he a Morganstern? It's a puzzle of names that I'm not going to even try to figure out (although I'm sure I can Google it and some sort of explanation will come up).

So, yeah. I'm sure that if you hated this series, you wouldn't have read this far. So, to all the TMI fans, read this book. But if you don't like the series, don't waste your time. It's an okay book, I guess (do you feel my confidence in my opinion?).

Book Blog #49: Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick

Title: Crescendo
Author: Becca Fitzpatrick
# of Pages: 427 (hardback)
Genre: YA, Angels, Fantasy
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Synopsis: Nora Grey's life is still far from perfect. Surviving an attempt on her life wasn't pleasant, but at least she got a guardian angel out of it. A mysterious, magnetic, gorgeous guardian angel. But despite his role in her life, Patch has been acting anything but angelic. He's more elusive than ever (if that's possible) and what's worse, he seems to be spending time with Nora's archenemy, Marcie Millar.

Nora would have hardly noticed Scott Parnell, an old family friend who has moved back to town, if Patch hadn't been acting so distant. Even with Scott's totally infuriating attitude, Nora finds herself drawn to him - despite her lingering feelings that he is hiding something.

If that weren't enough, Nora is haunted by images of her murdered father, and comes to question whether her Nephilim bloodline has anything to do with his death. Desperate to figure out what happened, she puts herself in increasingly dangerous situations to get the answer. But maybe some things are better left buried, because the truth could destroy everything - and everyone - she trusts.(less)
Review: I found this book to be very confusing. I'm not sure if its because it took me longer than usual to read it (I was watching anime and reading manga 24/7 busy!), but I don't think that I was the definition of five star quality, let alone four stars. The story was all of the place. Throughout the story, I was puzzling over what it was actually about.

Now, I'm not sure why, but I just can't shake the feeling that it's similar to the Twilight Saga. Because its not. Not really. I kept trying and trying to pull out bits of the story line and proclaiming it a replica of the hot vampire romance novel. But then something later on in the story would counteract it. It was a very frustrating process. If you've read m review of the first book, then you know that I tried (and failed) to conducted this comparison. But I'm going to try again anyway.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

1) Scott is introduced into the story. He doesn't get along with Patch's kind, just like Meyer's werewolves and vampires don't get along. Scott's part of this group, like Jacob is part of a pack. In the beginning of the story, Bella Nora sees Jacob Scott as a potential boyfriend.

2) Nora's weak. She's your average girl, just let Bella if you ignore Nora's bloodline and Bella's mind-power-thingy. And this point is actually one factor that dragged down the star rating. I realized that she's not a kick-butt protagonists I like to read about. She's just a girl who the guys want. Like Bella.

I stil think that the two points of made a weak (I can counter them myself, but I won't. It would make me look bad in my own review), but it's the best I've got for now. I hope at least my points are valid; it's been a while since I have set eyes on anything Twilight.

SPOILERS END!

I do think that this book deserves a reread, not because it's good, but because I think I've forgotten part of the beginning of the book since it took me practically a week to read and because I was busy fan girling over Nastu, Naruto, and Kyo. But based on this first reading, I'd advise you to read the first one and stop. It's a bit of a let down, this one it.