City of Bones
City of Bonesby Cassandra ClareOooooh! I really liked this book! Makes me feel a little sheepish that I only picked it up because I was drawn to the second book because of its cover. (But it looks really, really cool!) Now I know this book has been out for a while, and I remember seeing it on display tables at the store and I just walked away because honestly? I didn't like the cover. It didn't draw me to the book, and I thought it had a male main character.Have I mentioned that I am picky about my books? Well, I am. :)But because City of Ashes sounded like a great book to me, I actually went and picked up City of Bones and read the back cover and thought, hey, this sounds good! Why didn't I look at this before? (Because I am picky, that's why!)Yes, I have some problems with the book. It flips between being original and a little too formulaic at times. I found myself thinking, "hey, I really like this character!" and then "oh, I can't stand this character" with the SAME character every so often.I continuously liked Clary Fray, the main character, which was good since I don't think I could have read the book if I didn't. But I don't know about the other characters. I am not a fan of Jace or Aleric. Not too sure about Isabelle, though I don't think she was flushed out as much as I would have liked. Simon was ok, too. I think he needed to be around more.Clary discovers that she can see demons and people that others cannot. She learns that the people she can see - Jace, Aleric and Isabelle are Shadowhunters and they slay demons. Clary's mother is kidnapped and her home turned upside-down and when she goes home to look for her mother she's attacked by some not so pleasant demons.The so-called Big Surprises in the last quarter of the book really weren't that much of a surprise to me. By that time I had pretty much figured that Clary, who thought her father had died before she was born, was about to find something out about her father that most fantasy-type-heroine/heroes find out. I'm not sure how I feel about the heroine finding out she's supernatural and then her long lost parental unit turns out to be the Most Powerful Big Bad or something like that. It works in the story, but after reading book after book with this plot turn, it gets sort of redundant. (It was like that in my most favourite trilogy when I was a kid, the Secret Circle books by LJ Smith.)But despite the obvious plot twists, there were some original turns and I thought the dialogue was well written and witty. It was almost Buffy-esque at times and I liked that. Clary is especially sarcastic and entertaining, did I mention I liked her?Now I just have to remind myself that I have to WAIT a year before I pick up the second one, as it only just came out in Hard Cover. Aside from the fact that I much prefer paperbacks, I like my books in a series to look a like.Did I mention I was picky? ;)Mortal Instruments