The end of a saga...or is it?

I am writing this post even though I had to tear myself away from another book to do it. That being said, I will attempt to be brief. In fact, I'm not going to include much about the plot of Cassandra Clare's final book in the Mortal Instruments series, so no "spoiler alerts" needed. I finished the book a few days ago and I am thoroughly satisfied with City of Heavenly Fire. Satisfied and disappointed. Not disappointed with the book, but disappointed that as I was reading it, I knew I was saying "goodbye" to her wide variety of colorful characters.

The plot picks up right where we left off at the end of City of Lost Souls. Jace is now housing heavenly fire within his own body due to an exhilarating climax involving Jace, Clary, Sebastian, and an angelic sword. It is literally heavenly fire running through his veins which complicates things for Jace and Clary and their physical relationship, both to their frustration and teen (and adult) girls everywhere! I spent the first 100 pages or so (there are a whopping 725 pages to enjoy) confused. The prologue includes a heading the, Los Angeles, December 2007. Not confusing on its own, but confusing when the first chapter begins pretty much right after the events in the prologue. I finally realized that this makes perfect sense since the entire saga takes place over the course of several months rather than the several years that writing the series took. (Duh!) This also explains why everyone has a flip phone which frankly, was annoying me because teenagers always seem to have the latest gadgets.

Clare continues to give almost equal time to all her characters including Magnus and Alec (their break-up in the previous book really devastated me), Maia, Simon, Izzy, and all the other vampires, fairies, wolves, and Shadowhunters. I enjoy that she doesn't write in a strictly linear time line. Meaning that when she moves in and out of characters' plot lines, they are happening simultaneously rather than as separate moments in time. To me, this amps up the urgency within the story.

A word of advice about reading this last book. If you have already begun reading her Victorian era prequel trilogy, The Infernal Devices, you should probably finish it before reading City of Heavenly Fire. I have only read the first book in the trilogy. Plot lines and characters from that series are mentioned in this book which I will probably think about when I get around to reading the rest of the trilogy--kind of ruining the mystery of a story unfolding. If you haven't read the trilogy at all, I think you'll be just fine. However, if you love Magnus Bane as I do, I would definitely make time to read The Infernal Devices!

The title of this entry questions whether this book is really the final book. Cassandra Clare takes great care to introduce the readers to a new set of young Shadowhunters. It was quite obvious that she is setting up something new for the future. Of course, I was delighted then, when I found a one paragraph teaser at the conclusion of the book which included a title to a new series and book promised to be out this fall! What remains to be discovered is if characters from The Mortal Instruments return in the new series.

There's something to be said for an author giving us a happy ending after we've invested in 1000's of pages about her characters! I didn't want to throw my book across the room upon completing it as I did so desire with Allegiant. And, contrary to many readers of the Divergent series, I actually enjoyed Allegiant and Veronica Roth's bold move--because, well, it was bold. "Happily Tied Up" is maybe a better phrase to use because when demons are involved, there's never going to be "Happily Ever After." Which of course means, more books for me to read for my enjoyment!