City of Fallen Angels: The Mortal Instruments, Book Four -- Cassandra Clare

Just when you thought that Clary and Jace and Simon and the rest had Saved The World and were about to Live Happily Ever After... THE ANGST BEGINS ANEW!

Simon: Juggling two girls, and dealing with his vampy urges! Not to mention PROBLEMS AT HOME!
Clary: Training as a Shadowhunter, and unhappy that Jace is pulling away for SOME UNKNOWN REASON!
Jace: TORTURED AND GUILT-RIDDEN AS USUAL!

And that's BEFORE the bodies start appearing!

Okay, so I realize that the above makes it sound like I'm wearing my snarkypants.

But I'm really not.

I genuinely enjoy these books, with their drama, angst and all other silliness included, and happily, City of Fallen Angels is no exception. It's another big soap opera starring an ensemble cast, and now, with the Infernal Devices prequel series, it's been transformed into a soap opera ACROSS CENTURIES. Lots of references between the two will provide much fun for the fans.

That isn't to say that there aren't valid criticisms to be made: There's a goodly amount of unlikely expository dialogue* (especially towards the beginning), and one can't help but notice that the number of times Jace is described as "gold" or "golden" comes alarmingly close to the number of times a certain other YA Love-Him-Or-Hate-Him Hero was so described:

"He was looking up at her with dark golden eyes..." (p38)

"...sheen of paler gold over his already golden hair and skin. His closed eyes were fringed with gold a shade darker than his hair." (p74)

"His golden eyes burned..." (p112)

"...his pale gold eyes watchful." (p179)

"...His eyes, surrounding [sic] by lashes darkened with rainwater, were impossibly gold." (p186)

"His gold eyes darkened." (p303)

"...his eyes wide and vulnerable under their thick gold lashes." (p305)

"His golden eyes dulled." (p406)

"...the tangled golden hair, the shadows cast by his lashes, the rings of darker gold inside the light amber of his eyes." (p410)

Well. Gosh.

I guess I'd marked a few more pages than I'd originally realized.

ANYWAY.

DESPITE THAT, I hugely enjoyed Book Four, as I have all of the others. While I loved that Simon got more of the lead than Jace and Clary, I also loved that Jace and Clary can't keep their hands off of each other. No chaste peck on the cheek for THOSE two lovebirds, no siree!

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*No D&D player/Harry Potter fan/general geek worth his (or her!) salt would ask this question, and Simon is very definitely a self-proclaimed geek: