*Beware, there is the potential for spoilers in this review as this is the second novel in the Mortal Instruments series.*

Though all Clary wants is to return to a life in which she is not surrounded by demons, warlocks and every magical thing in between, there seems to be no erasing the world of the Shadowhunters, a race of angelic warriors sworn to protect the Earth from the demonic entities wishing to invade it. Yet, once her mother is placed into a magically-induced coma and she finds out that not only is her father not dead as she previously thought, but actually a cruel and vicious mastermind plotting the downfall of all Shadowhunters, Clary's hope of returning to a sense of normalcy evaporates. Not only that, but finding out the boy she's in love with - Jace - is her brother, and that her best friend Simon has loved her dearly for many years, has Clary shaken and confused. So, she pushes her conflicting feelings aside to track down Valentine, her father, in the hopes that it leads her to a cure for her mother and the answer as to why bodies of downworlder children are mysteriously showing up in the streets, drained of blood. If Valentine really is behind these gruesome murders, what is the reasoning behind them? Out of spite, or are these killings all part of a much bigger plan?

When the Mortal Sword is stolen from deep within the Silent City by her father, leaving the crippled bodies of Silent Brothers in his wake, panic erupts. Clary's sole hope is that she can get to her father before he destroys those she loves, including her brother. Though, it seems she will have to protect Jace from himself, as a battle is conflicting inside him: does he believe in his father, or the Clave? Is he willing to throw his life away in order to help the man who he always considered his father, even though Valentine was the one to break Jace's heart for the first time and destroy his perception of what a family should be?

No matter what arises, Clary knows one thing:

All roads lead to her father. 

I absolutely flew through this book. As is characteristic of Cassandra Clare, the writing rose up from the pages and formed a vibrant, imaginative and original story that flowed effortlessly. Her writing is seamless, and always captures you from the very first sentence. Cassandra Clare truly has a knack for making the rest of the world fade away once you open up one of her novels, a trait that is very hard to come by. One of the only critiques I would have for City of Ashes is that as most sequels do, it resembles the first novel a little too much. It took me a little while to get into, but once I became invested in the story again I was completely absorbed in the conversations between characters, the grisly investigations and the numerous storylines all twining together to form an extremely complex, well thought out universe.

Personally, if City of Ashes sounds like a novel you would like, I would suggest looking into Sadie by Courtney Summers, The Folk of the Air series by Holly Black and Frostblood by Elly Blake for books you would most likely also enjoy.