Title: City of Lost Souls
Author: Cassandra Clare
Series: The Mortal Instruments, #5
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Young Adult
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry (Imprint of Simon & Schuster)
Date Published: May 8th, 2012
Edition: Hardcover
Rating:
The demon Lilith has been destroyed and Jace has been freed from her captivity. But when the Shadowhunters arrive to rescue him, they find only blood and broken glass. Not only is the boy Clary loves missing–but so is the boy she hates, Sebastian, the son of her father Valentine: a son determined to succeed where their father failed, and bring the Shadowhunters to their knees.
No magic the Clave can summon can locate either boy, but Jace cannot stay away—not from Clary. When they meet again Clary discovers the horror Lilith’s dying magic has wrought—Jace is no longer the boy she loved. He and Sebastian are now bound to each other, and Jace has become what he most feared: a true servant of Valentine’s evil. The Clave is determined to destroy Sebastian, but there is no way to harm one boy without destroying the other. Will the Shadowhunters hesitate to kill one of their own?
Only a small band of Clary and Jace’s friends and family believe that Jace can still be saved — and that the fate of the Shadowhunters’ future may hinge on that salvation. They must defy the Clave and strike out on their own. Alec, Magnus, Simon and Isabelle must work together to save Jace: bargaining with the sinister Faerie Queen, contemplating deals with demons, and turning at last to the Iron Sisters, the reclusive and merciless weapons makers for the Shadowhunters, who tell them that no weapon on this earth can sever the bond between Sebastian and Jace. Their only chance of cutting Jace free is to challenge Heaven and Hell — a risk that could claim any, or all, of their lives.
And they must do it without Clary. For Clary has gone into the heart of darkness, to play a dangerous game utterly alone. The price of losing the game is not just her own life, but Jace’s soul. She’s willing to do anything for Jace, but can she even still trust him? Or is he truly lost? What price is too high to pay, even for love?
Darkness threatens to claim the Shadowhunters in the harrowing fifth book of the Mortal Instruments series.
My Review:
I’m going to start off by saying that even though I wasn’t thrilled with the last book in this series (it was okay, but a stretch to be able to keep the series going), I did really really enjoy this one. It’s not quite as good as the first three books in the series, but it was still phenomenally better than the last book and I feel like we’re back in business baby!
Let’s see. Well, first off the thing that I loved most about this book was that the humor and sarcasm I so love about them was back! Yes, finally. The last book had virtually no cocky Jace and sarcastic Simon. That’s what I love the most about these books though! So I was happy to see both of them (mostly) back to their old selves. Of course Jace is in a bit of a…predicament, but I won’t get into that to avoid spoiling. Even so though, his ridiculously high amount of self-loathing from the last book is thankfully gone and he’s for the most part back to the Jace we all fell in love with in the first three books.
Aside from Jace, really all the characters got back on my good side with this one. The last book was a lot of, I guess you could say, healing for the characters and trying to bounce back from everything that happened in the previous books. It was a tough read. But I feel like it’s worth it because of how much I love them all and how much it makes me appreciate each of them and their wonderful personalities.
I really can’t get into much more without spoiling, but trust me on this: if you loved the first three books but didn’t like the last book, you will be happy with this book. It has all the things we love about this series again and even though the next book is the last one *sniff* I feel like it picked it’s momentum back up majorly in this one. The one thing I did miss was the whole gang together, especially Jace and Simon. There were virtually no Jace/Simon commentary and so I’m really hoping we get that back for the final book.
I’m excited for the next book. I was surprised though that this one doesn’t give us a huge cliffhanger like Clare loves to leave us with. Good surprised though. It definitely leaves room for the next book to pick up, but it’s not so bad that I will absolutely dread the wait. But I will miss my Jace, how I love thee. *sigh* He’s got to be one of the most romantic YA guys I’ve ever read about, the things that comes out of his mouth will make you absolutely swoon. 
Read more reviews & Buy it up! 
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