Review: City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare

 

City of Lost Souls 

(The Mortal Instruments #5)

by Cassandra Clare

CITY OF LOST SOULS is book five in the The Mortal Instruments series. This series has been a long time favorite of mine since the very beginning. For me, CITY OF LOST SOULS was better than the last one, but I still don’t feel like they are up to par with the first three of the series.

I’m sure everyone noticed how much sexier this book was compared to the others in the series and I liked it fine, but also felt that it was forced in some situations. Like for example, I felt the shower scene between Maia and Jordan to be a little early since just a few pages before, Maia was yelling and walked away from him. Unlike some of the other romantic relationships that Clare has in this series, I just didn’t feel their romance. It all happened too quickly for me. On the flipside, there are two scenes where I thought the sexy bits were perfect. Scene one is where Alec comes home to Magnus after meeting with someone and Magnus asks where he went. For some reason, that moment resonated with me more than the pages involving Jordan and Maia. Similarly, the scene where Simon drinks from Isabelle also required a sexiness that was necessary and undeniable. In those moments, it worked. Sometimes I felt like the sexiness was added just for the sake of making things interesting as opposed to benefiting the plot or the character relationships. I felt a little awkward reading the sexy scenes between Jace and Clary because even though I believe these two have a deeper emotional and physical connection than everyone else in the series, there is also the fact that Jace isn’t really Jace in this book and that kept going around in the back of my mind while they were at it. It was just weird.

I also missed Jace in this book. Yes, we get some of his arrogant antics but it also didn’t feel completely right. I’m hoping we get him full throttle in the next book.

 And then there is Sebastian whom I must talk about. I don’t know what it is, but I FREAKING LOVE SEBASTIAN. I love how one moment, he can be so civil and seductive and then the next, he is out of his mind crazy!!! He is such a fabulous villain. I found it so interesting that Clary and Jace were willing to work side by side him for a week and then turn on him. Yes, I know Jace wasn’t truly himself, but Clary has no excuse. She was perfectly fine and yet, she was still able to tolerate his presence. Sebastian’s persuasion and charm is undeniable and it just shows you how well he is able to manipulate people into getting what he wants. He has single-handedly made this series a hit for me. Evil has never been so good.

 

 Purchase Links: Amazon