City of Lost Souls and City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare

image from LibraryThing

I love a good series almost as much as I love a

Image from Library Thing

big fat novel.  Cassandra Clare has met both of my requirements!  These are the last two books in the Mortal Instruments series.  In the midst of these books she also wrote the Infernal Devices series that is a prequel to these, and in an absolutely wonderful way is not completely a prequel!

These books tell the story of Clary Fray and Jace Herondale - both Shadowhunters. In this earth the world is defended from demons by Shadowhunters descended from angels.  And the world is threatened by Clary's evil brother Sebastian - I am not talking run of the mill evil - but demon spawn, everything is turned on it's head and life as we know it will end when he gets control evil!

As usually happens in YA lit - the teens save the day.  And there is a bit of romance - between a werewolf and a shadowhunter, between a shadowhunter and a warlock and between Clary and Jace! Sometimes that can be annoying - but in these I was ok with it.  It's mostly longing and wondering and hoping.  The cover art makes it look much hotter than it actually is!!!

This is a complicated story - one that takes hundreds of pages and multiple books to roll out...and I loved every minute of it! Watching these awkward mundanes (non-magical or not yet magical) teens grow up on the pages of the book. In that way it reminded me of Harry and Ron and Hermoine.  The hope of every teen to be something amazing and the horror of every teen to be something amazing all rolled up together.

I highly recommend these books!  and in typical series fashion - at the end of this one is a small tidbit of the next series.  The twist Clare makes is each series is intertwined and foreshadowed!  I LOVE THAT!! I would love to see her planning notes.  How does she keep it all straight??  I stand in awe of writers who are able to craft a story in the way she does!  Bravo!!