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Cassandra Clare – City of Fallen Angels | Review

Title: City of Fallen Angels

Author: Cassandra Clare

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 448

Rating: 3.5*/5

Cassandra Clare – City of Fallen Angels

This is book number four in Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series, and as such it’s part of the series of buddy reads that I’ve been doing with a few BookTube friends of mine in which we’re trying to work our way through each of Cassie Clare’s books by doing one a month.

This isn’t the best so far, because that honour falls to City of Glass (which even then was only a 4/5). Still, it was all right, and definitely better than Clockwork Angel, the last book we read. Cassandra Clare seems to be some sort of divisive author that you either love or hate, but so far I’m pretty sure she’s just fine. Overhyped, perhaps, but her books aren’t garbage. Neither are they good enough to unseat Agatha Christie as my favourite (or at least, “most read”) female author. She’s just okay, you know?

The story line of this book felt a little weaker than those of others, and I’m bothered by how much of an emphasis keeps being placed on bringing characters back from the dead. I’ve always hated when authors do that because I think it cheapens death, and Clare does it in abundance. There are a few characters who I’m pretty sure have died and come back to life multiple times now, and we’re at the point where even if a major character like Magnus Bane were to die, I really wouldn’t care. In Clare’s world, dying and coming back to life is as common as changing your outfit.

Cassandra Clare

I also wasn’t too keen on the antagonist here. I think Valentine worked pretty well as a bad guy if only because he was so unorthodox, and because I could understand his motivation. But now, we’re pretty much left with antagonists who want the world to burn just for the sake of it, making it feel like something of a farce at times. I struggled to figure out why they were acting the way they were acting, although perhaps that’s my fault as a reader. I don’t know, I wasn’t paying too much attention.

Part of that was because of all of the love stuff. I mean, I get that that’s what a lot of this series is based on, but I really don’t care if Clary and Jace end up together or who Simon decides he wants to sleep with. In fact, every time two characters share a lovey-dovey moment, the pace of the damn story stops as suddenly as a car driving into a wall. Make of that what you will.

Cassandra Clare Quote

Click here to buy City of Fallen Angels.

Peter James – Want You Dead | Review

Title: Want You Dead

Author: Peter James

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 504

Rating: 4*/5

Peter James – Want You Dead

What we have here is another of the books in Peter James’ Roy Grace series, although I couldn’t tell you which one because I lost track. I’ve read all of them out of order, but what I will say is that a fairly major character dies here and I already knew about it. I’m not going to say any more than that because I don’t want to spoil it.

Still, there’s plenty here for you to enjoy if you like crime and detective novels, and there are elements of a good old-fashioned thriller here, too. James also does his typical thing where he shows us the bad guy’s perspective, as well as the perspectives of the people who are trying to stop him. I feel like that’s been kind of overdone by now, but James does a decent enough job of it here. And based on the way that his books are structured, it’s kind of necessary.

Unfortunately, I’ve read enough of James’ books now that the initial wow factor has started to wear off, and while I did think this book was pretty good, it’s not the best in the series. It is, however, an important one, with a lot happening to the characters we know and love throughout. As well as the death that I mentioned, there’s a wedding – although life gets in the way of the honeymoon.

Peter James

There was plenty that I liked here, but there was also a fair amount that I didn’t. This isn’t necessarily constructive criticism but more of personal preference, though. One example of this is the use of the name ‘Red‘ for someone with red hair, which I’ve seen before and which bugged me then, too. It doesn’t feel natural, for some reason, but maybe I’m just complaining because I didn’t really like her as a character. She was okay, but she was bland – and that’s unusual for Peter James.

Still, it’s definitely still worth reading, which is why I gave it a 4/5. And, while you don’t really need to read the Grace books in order, you kind of do because of this one. A lot changes and if pick this one up too early or too late then the series as a whole will be slightly less enjoyable. At least, that’s what I found.

But if you want a decent crime novel and you happen to spot this in a charity shop, it’s got to be worth the investment. Peter James is always a lot of fun and this particular book is no different, even if it doesn’t shine quite as much as some of his others. Plus there are fires and who doesn’t like reading about fires? Turns out that the killer is something of an arsonist – as well as a semi-professional magician. That’s why he has so many different tricks up his sleeve, as you’ll find out when you grab a copy.