City of Lost Souls

For mature readers.

Surprisingly I liked this book better than the others and mostly because I find everyone (all of the supporting characters) other than Jace and Clary more interesting.

Jace and Sebastian are missing. The Clave has decided that they are no longer a priority, scaling down their search/crew. This of course doesn't sit well with THE CREW and so they all get together to put Operation Find Jace and Sebastian into action. And so the adventure begins. We get a lot more of Isabelle, Magnus, Alec, Simon, Maia, and Jordan. I have really grown to appreciate these characters. Simon totally annoyed me in the last book and was glad that he was very likable in this one. Isabelle is just kick ass. She really is a great character. Magnus is great as always and Alec needs to grow up in more ways than one BUT Magnus needs to be more understanding of Alec's age/maturity/background. Maia and Jordan... they make me happy. I'm happy that they are happy.

I didn't feel that there were any great twists and turns in this book. In fact there wasn't much of a story. The book lent an opportunity to get to know these characters on a more personal level. You get glimpses of how they've grown and/or matured but mostly you get up close and personal with their HORMONES! This book had everyone coupling up (boo-ing up), a lot of suggested sex, a lot of sexual tension and let's not forget drugs to heighten that sexual tension even more. This read more like an adult book than a YA book. For those that felt that the cover made you feel as if you were reading a romance novel or erotica...YOU WERE! For Teens! Itwasthisclosetobeinganadultbook if a few words would have been added.

Unfortunately my son had read this book before I did and I count my lucky stars that my 10 year old is more like a 40 year old because otherwise I wouldn't have allowed him to read this one. Regardless I wouldn't have allowed him to read this one. I just didn't see it coming.

Incest is revisited in this book...I just rather leave that alone because I don't understand the fascination with it. Clary continues to make huge mistakes, Sebastian is evil and Jace is caught in the middle, as usual, waiting for his strings to be pulled.

The real story for me was left for the last few chapters and of course the author closes the last few chapters with an epic battle. A bigger story unfolds in the epilogue. This means that once again this could have been wrapped up using fewer pages.

With that said the last book of the series (I THINK/HOPE) is not due to be published until 2014.



On to the next...