City of Fallen Angels takes place just weeks after City of Glass ended and follows our favorite gang of characters in all new adventures. Each chapter is from the point of a view of a different character, so we get quite a variety of who we're following in the book. The plot of the story isn't very strong, there's a bit of a lot of different plots thrown into the midst, but because this is the first book of an entire new series I can see why this happens. There are still many issues begun in the first book to resolve in the next two. Still, Clare does a wonderful job at somehow tying everything in and having it make sense even though we don't really know what's going on in some of the plots yet.
When it comes to characters, all our favorites are still there...and even some we thought were gone forever. What I particular enjoyed was Jace and Clary's relationship, they've matured quite a bit and are slowly but surely heading into that part of the relationship...the sexual part. Cassandra does a wonderful job at portraying this without going too far over a YA reader scene, but she doesn't take away from sensual scenes being completely hot and erotic. The scene in Jace's bedroom had me sweating bullets. Sexuality is something all teens have to deal with at some point or another and this book portrays both the awkwardness and the hotness of it all. I'm also glad we got to see much deeper into Jace's character and his insecurities. He acts so cocky most of the time that it was very surprising to see just how insecure he is of himself; his attitude is just a show off to hide everything that's going on under there. Clary having to deal with all of this was also an insight for a female character that is so strong yet so weak when it comes to Jace and their relationship. As for the other characters I was bummed that Alec and Magnus were gone for most of the book, they're my favorite couple and would have loved to see more of them but I know there's more in-store for the following books in the series. As for Simon, perhaps there really was a bit too much of him for me. This is just my humble opinion since I don't like Simon that much as a character as some of the other characters in the book, but I thought there was a bit too much of him. At times his parts in the novel dragged on for too long, I got bored. I would also have loved to see more of his relationship with Isabelle (now that is a couple I'm rooting for!) since she is one of my favorite characters and I find their relationship just adorable, hopefully there will be much more of them in the future.
Oh and, by the way, there is a HUGE cliffhanger at the end of this novel. It left me itching, claiming, wailing for more. So if you're not ready to handle that, perhaps you'd like to wait until the next book is out before giving this a shot. Not me though, I enjoy the torture.
In the end, though I was quite a bit hesitant about this reboot of the series I was very pleasantly surprised. It is a new beginning for The Mortal Instruments and I'm incredibly curious as to where this series is going and where my beloved characters will end up. I can't wait until Miss Clare give us more!
Rebooting a series isn't easy, but Miss Clare did it right. I give The Mortal Instruments Book 4: City of Fallen Angels a 4 out of 5 stars!
