The Mortal Instruments: City of Glass by Cassandra Clare is an incredible book written for young adults. The main idea with not only this book but, most of the books in the Mortal Instrument series, is good intentions will lead to success. Many of the characters find this easier said than done.

     
          In brief, this starts out where City of Ashes left off; Valentine is currently in possession of two of the three Mortal instruments. With the Mortal Cup and the Mortal Sword he can now raise demons and plans to destroy any Nephilim, A.K.A. Shadowhunters, that have ever interacted or consorted with a Downworlder. Clary and the Lightwoods set off for Idiris to find a potion to save Jocelyn, although, Jace has other plans in mind. When Magnus opens the portal to Alicante, the Lightwoods and Simon are attacked by hordes of demons and are forced to jump through the portal without Clary. Now with no way of joining the group, Clary must use her newly found talent and create a portal rune to take her into Idiris. When Clary jumps through her makeshift portal with Luke close behind, she quickly finds that she can't get into Alicante without authorization and instead is thrown into Lake Lyn and forced to hike to the gates.

After several chapters of exploring the new city and meeting new people, Clary journeys to find the Book of White that Jocelyn has hidden in a brilliantly named book (that you will just have to read to find out) in the Wayland manor. She is now accompanied by the handsome Sebastian, who Clary seems drawn to in a way. So not only does Clary have to worry about her mixed feelings for Jace and Simon, but what has now become an odd love square between them and Sebastian.

As the Nephilim prepare for the oncoming war, Jace and Clary must journey into the past to find out their true heritage. Once Jace has gone in search of Valentine, Clary must find a way to lessen the tension between Downworlders and Shadowhunters and create an alliance rune so they can all truly fight as one.

Without spoiling too much, I have to say that the ending of this book was probably the best out of all three and I would definitely read it again. This book was my favorite so far and will always be memorable. Especially, Jace's and Simon's wise crack jokes. One of the big issues that this book brings up is that you should always know where you stand and even if you feel your intentions are good they may be looked down upon by the angels and other people and are not always for the benefit of others but for yourself instead. I am in total agreement with Cassandra that in order for change, everyone needs to come together and work as one. This book goes to show that there are people in the world like Valentine but that there are also people like Clary and Jace. One person can make a difference and change the world.

All in all, City of Glass is my new found favorite in the series. Don't worry; most of your questions from the previous books will be answered in this book. Even though this book didn't have a suspenseful cliff hanger, it is still compelling you to read the next. I do have to advise you that this book is mildly gory and will be slightly confusing during the process of tying everything together. Besides that, this book will make you want to sit in the corner with your blanket, teddy bear, and all the Jace you can handle. It's an excellent read and you should definitely consider cracking open this series.

Candle Wax

In a world where four kingdoms occupy the mysterious land of Lackanay, and a great evil waits for the right moment to emerge again, there must be corruption. C. Bailey Sims delivers this world of supernatural magic in this book shown to the left. The story starts with a sixteen year old girl named Catherine leaving her room and walking down a dark corridor in the middle of the night. She gets outside through a secret passageway in the kitchen. After that she heads to the vault, she gets the guards to open it and grabs some money and the Ancient Onyxes given to her by her grandmother. She leaves the vault, dresses as a boy to be able to leave her kingdom unnoticed, and rides a horse towards the bay of Portsland, where she will take a ship away from the mainland to start a new life. Along the way she is attacked by a 732 year old Farrier cat, a living legend. He eats her horse and she must go on a journey to help this Farrier cat, named Spelopokos, or Pokos. This is all because of the Onyxes. In the ancient land of Devona, a great evil awaits to awaken that can only be stopped by Farrier cats. Without a mate Pokos will die, and leave this great evil to take over all four kingdoms of Lackanay. They travel to a town to get Catherine new supplies where she is befriended by a kind lady who takes her in. Eventually, Catherine's father tries to locate her. She runs away from the village with the daughter of the kind woman who gave Catherine assistance, but they are then captured by the men of a power-loving ruler of one of the four kingdoms. With the help of Pokos they escape and are found by the king of Candle wax. The reason she ran away from home, she was to marry him. They group together and travel to Candle wax. Pokos and Catherine plan to run away to the land outside of Lackanay, called Cinna to find another Farrier cat as he is the only one left in Lackanay.
         They are stopped by the king of Candle wax named Cyril. Cyril and his advisor join them in their quest to find another Farrier cat. While in Cinna, they kill four Farrier cats in self-defense, encounter Cinnans and travel to their mountain fortress, join in a competition to earn their freedom, and chase after the corrupt rulers of Cinna. Pokos is shot by an arrow in the neck and almost dies. With the help of survivors of a shipwreck, they must take Pokos to his brthplace to heal, and Catherine must take the Farrier cats found in Cinna to Lackanay. When Pokos left Lackanay, the great evil awoke and started to march across the land. The other kingdoms soon start to hold back. Eventually Catherine makes it back to Lackanay, and they meet the traitor... The rest you will just have to read, because the rest of the story is too complicated and long to explain in this review. This book was really good and I recommend it to all who enjoy fantasy and made-up creatures. It was an excellent page turner. A+

FYI: If you were wondering, there will be a sequel.

"Neither animal nor man, it was a creature the likes of which he had never before seen" (page 2)

The Crowfield Curse is an incredible story. The various twisted and turns that the plot takes do wonders for the story, taking the characters to a depth like a deep, dark well. Pat Walsh, an author that I had never heard of before, became one of my top ten favorite authors of make-believe stories. I simply love this book.
The story focuses on a single boy, William, who works as a servant for an abbey of monks. He has only one brother left after the terrible fire that consumed his family's mill. The monks treat him less than fairly, but I don't think he notices that they sort of fear him. When he finds a mysterious creature in the forest outside the abbey, his oblivious world tears apart at the seams.
This is a great read, and like I said, full of twists and turns. A few of the terms were a tiny bit difficult to understand, but otherwise very clear. Also, there is one chapter that is extremely disturbing and gory. My thanks to Pat Walsh, the author of this fantastic series of two books, I'd give it an A-. The second book is called The Crowfield Demon.

Demon Thief By Darren Shan

Demon Thief is the second book in the Demonata series. It doesn't matter because there are no returning characters. Instead we follow Kernel a boy that can see "spots". These "spots" are explained as flashing lights that only Kernel can see and because of this everyone thinks Kernel is freakin' insane. Soon in the book we learn Kernel can manipulate the "spots" into shapes. Eventually Kernel somehow makes a "window" at least that's what the voice in his head said. Did I mention he's a little insane?

So after he goes through this "window" the book cuts to him holding his brother Art in his hands while on the floor. You find out he's been missing for days and that he can't remember anything. His parents of course freak out. But this is not the first time they have had to deal with child loss as Kernel tells us about his sister who died when she was a baby. So after Kernel reappears his parents almost immediately move to a small town to get away from all the things bothering them in that house or at least that's what Kernel's dad says.

So in this small town is where the book really picks up. For awhile the town is great nothing bad really happens. But there is one thing that Kernel doesn't like about it there is a crazy old lady they say is a witch. Eventually you find out she really is a witch after she summons a demon that immediately kills her. This is where Art is captured and where Kernel begins his quest trying to save him. It's also the first time that we see what is really behind the "window" where Kernel meets the mentors in the book.

The mentors in this book are called The Disciples. The disciples are constantly changing so I can't name them all. But their main purpose is to stop demons when they enter the world of the humans. They do their best to stop people from summoning demons but aren't always successful. The technical leader of the Disciples is Beranabus. Beranabus is a very old wizard that has little empathy for the rest of humanity. All he cares about are the pieces of the Kah-gash. The Kah-gash is the ultimate weapon that could destroy the a entire universe.

If you like horror books or books that involve horrible monsters you should check out the book. I give the book an A+. It was really gruesome though so it's not for the faint of heart. Also it can get really disgusting sometimes I mean some of the details of how gross the monsters are sickened me. But overall it's just a really good book.