reading Archives - A Bookie's Books

What I Read This Week: Spring Break Edition

This week was such a good reading week for me because it was spring break! I did not have anything to do for school and did not have my night classes, so I was free to read whenever I wasn’t working. I read 5 physical books, 2 digital, and 4 audiobooks.

That is 11 books! I wish I had the time to read 11 books a week more often.

Ride On by Faith Erin Hicks

I loved this! This is a graphic novel and it has amazing pictures and is so fun. I need more horse stories. I want a huge stack of graphic novels that include horses. My horse era is beginning again. I used to own horses, but now that I moved away from home it is nice to be able to miss my horses again. But back to this story! It was so cute and touching. Little spoiler, but I love a good story that doesn’t necessarily end with everyone being best buds again. It’s good to show growth and change away from people.

3 Allison Montclair Books

Disclaimer: I work for Minotaur Books the publisher of this book. My opinions about this book are mine and have no representation of the company.

I love Allison Montclair’s stories. I was really impressed by The Haunting of the Desks. It is a short story. Most extra short stories I feel like do not add anything or just don’t have a good plot structure, but this one felt like all the other books and even though it was quick it was a full story. The Lady From Burma is one I listened to on audio, and they switched narrators for this book. I HATE that, and it made this book harder to get into since I couldn’t recognize the character’s voices anymore. But I am excited to see where we go in the next book.

Swimming Lessons by Lili Reinhart

I love poetry. I love celebrity drama. These two books combined were perfect! I have not read a poetry book in a few months and this was so refreshing. This is by an actress named Lili Reinhart. She plays in Riverdale. Her relationship (which may or may not be with Cole Sprouse) is examined in this book and it’s nice to kind of see behind the scenes how someone makes someone else feel. It always looks so perfect from the camera, but seeing behind a celebrity’s eyes is always fun.

Locked in Pursuit by Ashley Weaver

Disclaimer: I work for Minotaur Books the publisher of this book. My opinions about this book are mine and have no representation of the company.

I love this series! I will say, that this book is dragging out the lets-find-out-the-secrets-of-my-dad plot point a bit longer than needed. We should have solved that mystery in this book. I hope that there is a plan here, and hope we learn the secrets in the next book or it will just get too repetitive. Though I do love the will-they-wont-they tension in this romance and how it broke epically in this book.

I’ll Be Waiting by Kelley Armstrong

Disclaimer: I work for Minotaur Books (and SMP) the publisher of this book. My opinions about this book are mine and have no representation of the company.

AGH HORROR! Tell me why I had this huge discussion with my roommate about how I didn’t think I liked horror because all the horror books I have read (3 books) didn’t seem like horror books. Then I asked what makes a book horror, which she said she didn’t know. Then I proceeded to say, “Well these books I have read have me horrified and disturbed by the graphic images and all the freaky stuff I saw.” She then looked at me and rolled her eyes saying, I think you just described horror. So now I get it.

I will say though if that is the definition of horror this book is mild in that term. There is some great suspense involving the secrets the narrator is holding in, but once those are revealed it gets a little slower for me. BUT I still think the ending was heart-racing and I was entirely sucked into this novel. It is on the milder side of freaky, which is a great thing because who goes looking for that kind of pain?

Secrets Never Die by Vincent Ralph

Honestly, I have nothing to say about this book. I was neither impressed nor not impressed. The ending came out of nowhere, and not in a good way. It was solidly alright.

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

I read this book a few years back and I am adding the link to that original review here. I do not want to re-review this book, but I will say I LOVE this book.

However, my reading experience was thwarted by people on the internet. I originally read this book a long time ago in its self-published form. When I bought the official book and its sequel, I was just going to start with the sequel. But, someone online told me that I needed to re-read the first book since the self-published version and the new version were completely different and I wouldn’t understand. Well, they were wrong. It was basically all the same. If it were one of those spot-the-difference photos, I could maybe only spot the difference. It was the same. I waited two years to read this book again because I was so nervous and the text is so daunting when I could have just started the second years ago.

The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang

AGH YET ANOTHER GRAPHIC NOVEL!!!!!!!

I love a good graphic novel. I need to read them more often! This book was so fun. The illustrations were beautiful. I was drooling over how well done they were. It was such a complex and captivating story. I was sucked in. I had originally planned to read it over a few days and I devoured it in like two hours. This is a great book!

A Conjuring of Light by VE Schwab

I do not think I have had enough time to process the end of the series. Truly I do not have words. This book was a mammoth. I enjoyed it immensely and wish it would never end. (Please do not remind me that there is a spin-off series because I already have enough on my plate). I am just glad I got through the series and that it was not a disappointing conclusion. I quite literally cried and the ending. So good!!

Okay, let me know what I should read next!

What Am I Reading This Week?

“Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived here on Taking on a World of Words. Just answer the three questions below and leave a link to your post in the comments for others to look at. No blog? No problem! Just leave a comment with your responses. Please, take some time to visit the other participants and see what others are reading. So, let’s get to it!”

The Three Ws are:

What:

Are you currently reading?
Did you recently finish reading?
Do you think you’ll read next?

I have not been doing this tag recently. I have been scheduling out my posts far in advance, but I am hoping to start doing it more as I come back from my New York trip.

What are you currently reading?

Too Late by Colleen Hoover

I love Colleen Hoover. I hear it is a lot darker than her other books, so I am excited to see the turn this book takes. Is anyone else reading a Colleen Hoover book right now?

I am reading Too Late by Colleen hoover which has big bold black text with her name. and Too Late is big and bold reading with a gradient — Too Late Cover pulled from Goodreads

What did you recently finish?

The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose

Honestly, I was not impressed with this book. I loved One Of Us Is Dead, but this book did not live up to her masterpiece.

Reading The Perfect Marriage with a strikethrough of Perfect, Jeneva Rose is written along the bottom, and two rings with a splatter of blood on the center — The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose

What do you think you’ll read next?

Glow by Raven Kennedy

Will I 100% get to this book next, I am not sure. Since I flew through the entire series last week it would be great to read this next book. I would love to finish it but then I will have to wait a long time for the 5th book.

Reading Glow with a bright embossed gold lettering and raven kennedy's name at the bottom and a gold leaf and stem on a white background — Glow by Raven Kennedy cover from Goodreads

Make sure to add a link to your post below!

As always, thanks for reading,

A Bookie

Ten Books I Bought a While Ago but Havent Read

“Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.” -That Artsy Reader Girl

This week’s theme:

Books I Was SO EXCITED to Get, but Still Haven’t Read (bonus points if you tell us how long it’s been since you got them!)

City of Fallen Angels (and the rest of the Mortal Instruments series)-July 2021

2. Troubled Blood-Winter 2020

3. My Policeman-A month ago

4. The Crown of Gilded Bones-Spring 2021

5. Now I Rise-January 2021

6. A Darker Shade of Magic-January 2021

7. An Ember in the Ashes-2016

8. Wayfarer-2017

9. Legendborn-a few month ago

10. Vespertine-a few months ago

As always, thanks you for reading,

A Bookie

Song of Achilles: A Review

The Book:

Title: The Song of Achilles

Author: Madeline Miller

Published August 28th 2012

Genre: Historical Fiction, Fantasy, LGBT,

Pages: 369

“Achilles, “the best of all the Greeks,” son of the cruel sea goddess Thetis and the legendary king Peleus, is strong, swift, and beautiful, irresistible to all who meet him. Patroclus is an awkward young prince, exiled from his homeland after an act of shocking violence. Brought together by chance, they forge an inseparable bond, despite risking the gods’ wrath.

They are trained by the centaur Chiron in the arts of war and medicine, but when word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, all the heroes of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause, and torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows. Little do they know that the cruel Fates will test them both as never before and demand a terrible sacrifice.”

My Review:

I hate to speak negatively about books a lot of people like, for fear of retaliation. But I did not really get why this book is so popular.

It is very well-written. I am not here to slander Miller’s writing because I think that her writing is amazing.

Books that are this heavily researched usually read like a history textbook. This read like an actual story. Miller used period-accurate wording. She also just wrote really well.

But it was not enough to keep me interested.

I got this book because so many people recommended this book off of TikTok. They said this was one of the saddest books ever. It held them captivated. People were able to read it in one day.

I shed no tears. It took me three months to read. And I honestly was not interested.

The major thing that threw me off from this book was a sex scene between minors. I understand that at the time being 14 was probably of age, but they continually referenced in the book how they were just children, and then I had a very pornographic scene of them having sex. I know, me being mad about spice? How could I? But I don’t want to hear about people under the age of 18 having sex in graphic detail. It is just not my cup of tea.

The next thing that bugged me was just that I was bored. The book covers the span of like 27 years in 369 pages. I just got bored. If you are into huge time jumps or whole years of life being summed up, then that’s great. I just hated how the book read so slow but also was jumping so quickly through their lives.

Again, not my cup of tea.

I thought there was a lot of background knowledge that you needed to have to read this book. Thankfully for people not versed in the Greek culture, there was a lot of information on the back. I knew most of what they referenced in the story, but some things were hard to understand.

I don’t want to say this book was bad. I thought that the writing was good. The ending was also okay. The last 60 pages made up for some of the slowness in the beginning but not much.

In no way do I think that is the writer’s fault; I just don’t think I liked the book.

I do want to give it a decent score though, so I am giving it a 3 star because I do think it was written well.

As always, thanks for reading,

A Bookie

Star Rating: 3.0

Top Ten Tuesday: Authors I Want to Read

This week’s theme:

Authors I Haven’t Read, But Want To (Submitted by Deanna @ A Novel Glimpse)

Diana Gabaldon- the “Outlander” series
Sabaa Tahir- “Ember in the Ashes”
Deborah Harkness- “A Discovery of Witches”
Holly Black- “The Cruel Prince”
Sasha Alsberg- “Breaking Time”
Holly Jackson- “A Good Girls Guide to Murder”
Tracy Deonn- “Legendborn”
Kiera Cass- the “Selection” series
Nicholas Sparks- romance books
Katie Quinn- “The Diamond Eye”

Link your own post below or tell me who you want to read!

As always, thanks for reading,

A Bookie

Book Haul

Alas, my post-Christmas book buying ban has ended. I wanted it to last another month, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to buy these books.

I had gift cards and I wanted to buy a Barnes and Nobles membership, so I bought four books and a membership last week.

The first book I bought, I finished reading last week and I was amazed. I just posted a review of that book so go check it out. I also bought the author’s other two books. I am also very excited to be getting the last book since I am trying to have a more diverse bookshelf.

The books I bought are:

Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson

“All sorcerers are evil. Elisabeth has known that as long as she has known anything. Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among the tools of sorcery—magical grimoires that whisper on shelves and rattle beneath iron chains. If provoked, they transform into grotesque monsters of ink and leather. She hopes to become a warden, charged with protecting the kingdom from their power.

Then an act of sabotage releases the library’s most dangerous grimoire. Elisabeth’s desperate intervention implicates her in the crime, and she is torn from her home to face justice in the capital. With no one to turn to but her sworn enemy, the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn, and his mysterious demonic servant, she finds herself entangled in a centuries-old conspiracy. Not only could the Great Libraries go up in flames, but the world along with them.

As her alliance with Nathaniel grows stronger, Elisabeth starts to question everything she’s been taught—about sorcerers, about the libraries she loves, even about herself. For Elisabeth has a power she has never guessed, and a future she could never have imagined.” –Goodreads

Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson

“The dead of Loraille do not rest.

Artemisia is training to be a Gray Sister, a nun who cleanses the bodies of the deceased so that their souls can pass on; otherwise, they will rise as spirits with a ravenous hunger for the living. She would rather deal with the dead than the living, who trade whispers about her scarred hands and troubled past.

When her convent is attacked by possessed soldiers, Artemisia defends it by awakening an ancient spirit bound to a saint’s relic. It is a revenant, a malevolent being that threatens to possess her the moment she drops her guard. Wielding its extraordinary power almost consumes her—but death has come to Loraille, and only a vespertine, a priestess trained to wield a high relic, has any chance of stopping it. With all knowledge of vespertines lost to time, Artemisia turns to the last remaining expert for help: the revenant itself.

As she unravels a sinister mystery of saints, secrets, and dark magic, her bond with the revenant grows. And when a hidden evil begins to surface, she discovers that facing this enemy might require her to betray everything she has been taught to believe—if the revenant doesn’t betray her first.” -Goodreads

An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson

“Every enchantment has a price.

With a flick of her paintbrush, Isobel creates stunning portraits for a dangerous set of clients: the fair folk. These immortal creatures cannot bake bread or put a pen to paper without crumbling to dust. They crave human Craft with a terrible thirst, and they trade valuable enchantments for Isobel’s paintings. But when she receives her first royal patron—Rook, the autumn prince—Isobel makes a deadly mistake. She paints mortal sorrow in his eyes, a weakness that could cost him his throne, and even his life.

Furious, Rook spirits Isobel away to his kingdom to stand trial for her crime. But something is seriously amiss in his world, and they are attacked from every side. With Isobel and Rook depending upon each other for survival, their alliance blossoms into trust, perhaps even love . . . a forbidden emotion that would violate the fair folks’ ruthless laws, rendering both their lives forfeit. What force could Isobel’s paintings conjure that is powerful enough to defy the ancient malice of the fairy courts?

Isobel and Rook journey along a knife-edge in a lush world where beauty masks corruption and the cost of survival might be more frightening than death itself.” –Goodreads

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

“After her mother dies in an accident, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC–Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape—until Bree witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus.

A flying demon feeding on human energies.

A secret society of so called “Legendborn” students that hunt the creatures down.

And a mysterious teenage mage who calls himself a “Merlin” and who attempts—and fails—to wipe Bree’s memory of everything she saw.

The mage’s failure unlocks Bree’s own unique magic and a buried memory with a hidden connection: the night her mother died, another Merlin was at the hospital. Now that Bree knows there’s more to her mother’s death than what’s on the police report, she’ll do whatever it takes to find out the truth, even if that means infiltrating the Legendborn as one of their initiates.

She recruits Nick, a self-exiled Legendborn with his own grudge against the group, and their reluctant partnership pulls them deeper into the society’s secrets—and closer to each other. But when the Legendborn reveal themselves as the descendants of King Arthur’s knights and explain that a magical war is coming, Bree has to decide how far she’ll go for the truth and whether she should use her magic to take the society down—or join the fight.” –Goodreads

As always, thanks for reading,

A Bookie

Revolting Review: Baby Teeth

The Book:

Title: Baby Teeth

Author: Zoje Stage

Published July 17th 2018 by St Martin’s Press

Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller

Pages: 304

“Meet Hanna.

She’s the sweet-but-silent angel in the adoring eyes of her Daddy. He’s the only person who understands her, and all Hanna wants is to live happily ever after with him. But Mommy stands in her way, and she’ll try any trick she can think of to get rid of her. Ideally for good.

Meet Suzette.

She loves her daughter, really, but after years of expulsions and strained home schooling, her precarious health and sanity are weakening day by day. As Hanna’s tricks become increasingly sophisticated, and Suzette’s husband remains blind to the failing family dynamics, Suzette starts to fear that there’s something seriously wrong, and that maybe home isn’t the best place for their baby girl after all.”

My Review:

It took me three months to finish this book.

I did not like it. It was almost a DNF, but I told myself I wanted to see what happened no matter how much I did not like it. I needed to finish it, and it did not satisfy me.

The book was weird. (SPOILER WARNING!) One, there is talk of a seven-year-old having sex which really just put me off the book. Two, there is horrible imagery about things that made me so uncomfortable.

I had to put this book down numerous times because of how repulsive it was.

I did not like the plot. Seemingly nothing really happens until the end. Then the ending is like a huge cliffhanger, and there (hopefully) will never be a sequel. It was so boring.

The characters are boring too. The mom was so secretive and annoying. So many issues in the book could have been solved if she had talked to people years before the story began. The daughter was horrifying. I honestly never want kids in case I am the one that gets a daughter who is homicidal at the age of 7. The dad made me angry. That is all I have to say about him.

There was nothing of substance in this book. I did not feel fear as a thriller or horror novel should make me feel. I only wanted to burn the book since it was so boring.

I want to put this book behind me so I refuse to write any more about it. I am done. Do not read this book!

As always, thanks for reading,

A Bookie

Star Rating: 1

My 2021 Books:

This year I read 64 books. This was a huge accomplishment. I am so excited to be able to publish this list as a post.

I keep a list of the book I read as a page on my blog, but now this list must go to make room for my 2022 list.

I did not want this list to go away, so I have decided to post the list.

Also, I wanted to give a big thank you to everyone who follows my blog and who likes and comments. I appreciate everyone and cant wait to see where this blog goes in the next year.

Book I Read:

Empire of Storm by Sarah J. Maas
Lucy by Jamacia Kincaid
What If It’s Us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera
Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
We a BaddDDD People by Sonia Sanchez
Love Poems by Sonia Sanchez
homegirls and handgrenades by Sonia Sanchez
Into the Wild by John Krakauer
Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Maas
Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas
Caraval by Stephanie Garber
And I Darken by Kiersten White
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo
Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo
A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
Legendary by Stephanie Garber
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas
Sensational: The Hidden History of America’s “Girl Stunt Reporters” by Kim Todd
Ice Planet Barbarians by Ruby Dixon
The Foxhole Court by Nora Sakavic
The Glittering Court by Richelle Mead
Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
Fence: Striking Distance by Sarah Rees Brennan
Regretting You by Colleen Hoover
The Vine Witch by Luanne G. Smith
White Magic by Elissa Washuta
The Glamourist by Luanne G. Smith
A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas
You’re So Dead by Ash Parsons
The Conjurer by Luanne G. Smith
Blackout by Dhonielle Clayton, etc.
Finale by Stephanie Garber
Barbarian Alien by Ruby Dixon
She Drives Me Crazy by Kelly Quindlen
The Diabolic by S.J Kincaid
Layla by Colleen Hoover
The Box in the Woods by Maureen Johnson
Beach Read by Emily Henry
Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson
The Vanishing Stairs by Maureen Johnson
The Hand of the Wall by Maureen Johnson
From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Arementrout
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
American Animals by Eric Borsuk
The Seven Day Switch by Kelly Harms
The Bright Side of Going Dark by Kelly Harms
A Veil of Truth and Trickery by Analeigh Ford
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare
Heartstopper by Alice Oseman
City of Glass by Cassandra Clare
Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber
Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage
The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake
Without Merit by Colleen Hoover
Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover
Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe
Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon

As always, thanks for reading,

A Bookie

A Two Book Colleen Hoover Review

Here, I review Without Merit and Layla by Colleen Hoover

The Books:

Title: Without Merit

Author: Colleen Hoover

Published October 3rd 2017 by Atria Books

Genre: YA, Contemporary, Romance

Pages: 385

“The Voss family is anything but normal. They live in a repurposed church, newly baptized Dollar Voss. The once cancer-stricken mother lives in the basement, the father is married to the mother’s former nurse, the little half-brother isn’t allowed to do or eat anything fun, and the eldest siblings are irritatingly perfect. Then, there’s Merit.

Merit Voss collects trophies she hasn’t earned and secrets her family forces her to keep. While browsing the local antique shop for her next trophy, she finds Sagan. His wit and unapologetic idealism disarm and spark renewed life into her—until she discovers that he’s completely unavailable. Merit retreats deeper into herself, watching her family from the sidelines when she learns a secret that no trophy in the world can fix.

Fed up with the lies, Merit decides to shatter the happy family illusion that she’s never been a part of before leaving them behind for good. When her escape plan fails, Merit is forced to deal with the staggering consequences of telling the truth and losing the one boy she loves.” -Goodreads

Title: Layla

Author: Colleen Hoover

Published December 8th 2020 by Montlake

Genre: Romance, Paranormal

Pages: 301

“When Leeds meets Layla, he’s convinced he’ll spend the rest of his life with her—until an unexpected attack leaves Layla fighting for her life. After weeks in the hospital, Layla recovers physically, but the emotional and mental scarring has altered the woman Leeds fell in love with. In order to put their relationship back on track, Leeds whisks Layla away to the bed-and-breakfast where they first met. Once they arrive, Layla’s behavior takes a bizarre turn. And that’s just one of many inexplicable occurrences.

Feeling distant from Layla, Leeds soon finds solace in Willow—another guest of the B&B with whom he forms a connection through their shared concerns. As his curiosity for Willow grows, his decision to help her find answers puts him in direct conflict with Layla’s well-being. Leeds soon realizes he has to make a choice because he can’t help both of them. But if he makes the wrong choice, it could be detrimental for all of them. “ -Goodreads

My Reviews

For the first book, I am going to review Without Merit.

I listened to this book on audiobook this past week. I enjoyed the audiobook and the reader.

I thought the book was well done. Certainly, not her best work and it was not her worst.

The premise of the story was good, but I felt like it was a little bland. When I read the synopsis, I thought there would be a grad escape plan that would come to a crashing halt. Forgive me, Colleen Hoover, for assuming this.

When I say ‘bland,’ I don’t necessarily mean boring, because it wasn’t. I just mean that it did not have the OOMPF that most of Hoover’s books had. It did not have that spark. The story still had drama that kept pulling me into the story more and more.

The main character was honestly annoying but in a good way. Her family was even worse, but that was kind of the point.

I think the romance in here was a charming addition to the story. I think it added some suspense and some drama.

All in all, the story was good. Not high on her list but still a good read. I do not know how she comes up with all of the ideas for her books. Everyone I have read has something different in it than the next.

Hoover is a queen.

Star Rating: 3

This next book, however, is my least favorite out of all of her books.

I don’t know if it was the ghost or the fact that it was from a male’s POV.

The paranormal aspect was way out of the left field for a Colleen Hoover book. There was a good bit of suspense. I sometimes felt like I had to hide under my covers, but that was short-lived.

The male lead was horribly dull. Leeds was honestly boring. There was no development in his character. Every time he spoke, I wanted to kick him in the face. That was pretty hard to get past since the entire book is in his POV.

I could not get into this story. I also listened to this book and it was so hard for me to press play. I would listen for moments in the mornings, but it would not pique my interest enough to play it in the car or elsewhere.

I honestly don’t have much to say.

Nothing was necessarily bad with the book. The writing was great. The story was unique and interesting. I just did not vibe with it.

Star Rating: 1

I hoped you enjoyed my two reviews. I am so behind on reviews, I would have the next two months planned out if I did every single review, hence the combination of these two.

As always, thanks for reading,

A Bookie

The Thrilling Third Book in The Mortal Insruments

Like the title state, I was thrilled about how well-written this book was!

The Book:

Title: City of Glass

Author: Cassandra Clare

Series: The Mortal Instruments #3

Published September 1st 2015 by Margaret K. McElderry Books (first published March 24th 2009)

Genre: YA, Fantasy

Pages: 543

“To save her mother’s life, Clary must travel to the City of Glass, the ancestral home of the Shadowhunters — never mind that entering the city without permission is against the Law, and breaking the Law could mean death. To make things worse, she learns that Jace does not want her there, and her best friend, Simon, has been thrown in prison by the Shadowhunters, who are deeply suspicious of a vampire who can withstand sunlight.

As Clary uncovers more about her family’s past, she finds an ally in mysterious Shadowhunter Sebastian. With Valentine mustering the full force of his power to destroy all Shadowhunters forever, their only chance to defeat him is to fight alongside their eternal enemies. But can Downworlders and Shadowhunters put aside their hatred to work together? While Jace realizes exactly how much he’s willing to risk for Clary, can she harness her newfound powers to help save the Glass City — whatever the cost?” -Goodreads

My Review:

So far, this is the best book in the series.

I was unable to put this book down. I finished it faster than the other two, even thought it is significantly larger.

I have so many things to rave about this book.

Fight and war scenes are done exceptionally. The writing is easy to follow. The motions are fast, but not too fast, where you lose who is fighting who.

The entire middle section of this book is a war in the city, spread out over different POVs. I have seen this in many books, but honestly this book takes the cake. I was never confused. It was perfectly paced. Each POV added something unique to the story, and did not just describe the same scene from multiple angles.

I loved that part of the book. I talked my boyfriend’s ear off about how nice the writing was.

Different scenes in this book were so thought out and so beautifully haunting. (Slight Spoilers) Meeting Ithuriel was so exqusitely beautiful but also had shivers racing up and down my back.

I loved the way I could guess or make predictions about what was going to happen next. I think some may call that predictable, but, for this book, I thought it was perfect.

I could see the formings of ideas and could see where the book was headed, but there were some twists and turns that I had not anticipated or saw through. Some authors are so transparent, but Clare’s was not. (I knew the big twist in the romance beforehand, but if I hadn’t I would have never guessed.)

The story was good. I never felt like it was dry or dragging on. The book excited me a lot.

The romance is still a bit off in this book. Even with how things ended, I do not think that I could ever be in love with someone who I thought was my brother. No thank you!

As always, thanks for reading,

A Bookie

Star Rating: 4