The city of lost souls by Cassandra Clare

The City Of Lost Souls By Cassandra Clare
Published by Simon Pulse
Pages 534
Release date- May 8, 2012
Series- The Mortal Instruments
Genre- Paranormal/fantasy
(Amazon) (Goodreads) (Shelfari) (Tumblr) (Twitter) (shadowhunters)
rating- 5

 Jace and the previously dead Sebastian are missing and the clave is doing minimal to help. In the two weeks since Jace went missing Clary's been going crazy trying to save Jace from her evil brother. Thankfully she doesn't have to wait long, Jace comes back for her, only its not Jace, not really. He seems to be on Sebastian side now, pining for the greater cause, and forgiving him for killing his little brother max. It seems that the bond that Lilith put on the two boys is stronger then a physical one. Jace is entranced into agreeing with Sebastian's every move. Now Clary must figure out how to save him, kill Sebastian, and basically save the Nephelim world. Enlisting the help of her friends and Magnus, they have to search for a weapon to break the curse, and keep Jace alive. Which is a lot more difficult then it sounds.

First off this series has been a favorite of mine for ages, and im psyched that Cassie extended the series with COFA and the Infernal Devices. As a long time fan i was anxious to get The City of Lost Souls (COLS)and finally lost patience with my library's waiting list and bought my own copy. 

COLS exceed my expectations, no blew them off the roof, I love how the second part of the series has much more involvement in the other characters lives. I especially loved getting to know Izzy more, she wasn't really a favorite of mine until we got to see her venerable side. I also liked how we finally find out more about Clary's brother, Johnathan Christopher, or Sebastian (depending). Yes of course we met him on City of Glass but 90 percent of the time he was impersonating Sebastian Verlac, hence the nickname, and spent all of City of fallen angels dead. We know hes crazy because he was raised by their father, the Hitler of Clary's world, but in COLS we really get to know him up close. 

although most people hate Jonathan for multiple reasons i still cant help but feel sorry for him. He literally has no one that love's him, grew up in an extremely abusive household and was basically born to become evil. But its not like he chose to be that way. He's a living testament to Valentine's brutality and ignorance. If there's anyone I despise it's him. 

The city of Lost souls was of course amazing, and if you've read the series, their shouldnt be a doubt in your mind whether or not you should read this one. However i will attest to the wonderfulness of this series, and encourage everyone who hasn't given it a try to pick up the first one in the series, The City Of Bones. 

Have an amazing weekend and good luck to all who are going through there final exams like I am!

Dana

Tidbit Tuesday: The Art Of Racing In The Rain (2)

"To live every day as a day stolen from death is the way i would like to live.To feel the joy of live. To separate ones self from the burden, the angst, the anguish that we all encounter every day. To say I am alive, I am wonderful, I am."

"He died that day because his body had served its purpose. his soul had done what it came to do and learned that it came to learn, and then it was free to leave"

"Inside each of us lies the truth, the absolute truth. But sometimes the truth is hidden in a hall of mirrors. Sometimes we believe we are viewing the real thing when in fact we are viewing a facsimile, a distortion."


"the car goes where the eyes go."

Tidbit Tuesday- Darkest Hour

"Oh," I said as I stepped into the Kitchen. "Isn't that a lovely picture?"
Dopey lowered the Orange Juice container and looked at me.
"Don't you have somewhere to be?" he asked wiping his mouth with the back of his wrist.
"Of course." I said, " But I was hoping that before I left I could enjoy a nice glass of calcium fortified juice. I see now that that will not me possible." 
Dopey shook the carton. "There's still some left." He said. 
"Mixed with your backwash?" I heaved a shudder. "I think not."


- Darkest Hour (The Mediator book 4) Meg Cabot)

Tidbit tuesday- The scorch trials

"Nice to meet you, I'm a crank. I'm slowly going crazy. I keep wanting to chew off my own fingers and randomly kill people. Thomas here promised to save me."

_ the scorch trials. James Dashner

Tidbit Tuesday- shadowland

"Would you mind taking me somewhere?"

"Are you kidding me? Where do you want to go? You name it Suze, I'll take you there. Vegas? No problem. I mean, I'm 16, your 16.We can get married there easy. My parents will let us live with them, no problem.You don't mind sharing my room do you? I swear ill pick up after my self from now on-"

"Adam, don't be such a spaz. I doubt she wants to marry you."


-Shadowland (the Mediator, Book One) Meg Cabot

Tidbit tuesday- 13 days to midnight

"Here's your answer Oh:
All Creatures, all men and women and children, all dogs and cats and flowers and mountains, all of them are saved. If that's not the truth then I think the whole thing is probably a lie. lets assume for a moment that you, Oh, do not choose God. Does that prevent him from choosing you? I conclude from these many verses, it does not. Either he saves everyone, or he saves no one."


-13 days to midnight, Patrick Carmen

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

The Fault in our Stars by John Green
Published by Dutton Juvenile
pages- 336
Release Date- Jan. 10, 2012
Genre- Realistic Fiction
(shelfari) (amazon) (goodreads)
rating- 4

Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 12, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs... for now. 

Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault. 

Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.


John Green's a long time favorite of mine, and i was super psyched when he announced on his YouTube channel vlogbrothers that he was going to come out with another one, this time from a girls perspective, and even cooler... He was signing every single pre-order.That's 150,000 books! (if your interested in this click here***)


The Fault in Our Stars was very different from John Greens other novels, the most apparent change being that the main protagonist is a female, and that when the book starts out, she is already recovering from the climax of her life: that startling night years ago when she lied on a hospital bed, with her parents hovering over her, chocking out their last goodbyes. Hazel survives, although at this time its not much of a life.  She sleepwalks through the motions, School work, sleep, ANTM marathons, support group, and of course, reading her favorite novel An Imperial Affliction (or AIA)

Finally one night, things the future starts to look up when a friend from her group introduces her to Augustus who has taken the place as my favorite John Green character.  He was funny and a beautiful match for haven. I liked their relationship, their witty  dialog and all the deep conversation kept me enthralled through out the entire novel. Especially the parts where Issac was present, I'm not really sure what it was about Issac, but every scene he was in quickly became my favorites.


The only thing I wasn't crazy about was the amount of time Hazel spends obsessing over Anna the main character in her favorite book, An Imperial Affliction. what happened after the last page? what happened to Anna's mom? yes, I am aware that Anna in AIA and Hazel in TFIOS are basically the same person, just with different endings, and that you cannot confuse fiction with real life, you cant expect the characters to keep living past the last page. That a story really is just that. However, It's not really what I'm used to. That doesn't mean that i didn't like the book, just that it wasn't my favorite...


However, The Fault in Our Stars made me laugh and cry and think about how some infinities are larger then other infinities. It was a wonderful story that I would recommend to anyone.


Have a wonderful weekend,
Dana

Video Thursday

So yes. I am aware how often i post Mainstaypro's things. But they just have a tendency to take these completely awesome YA books, and turn them into completely awesome videos.

This week they came up with a short film based off Neal Shustermans book, Unwind
(which is actually becoming a real movie soon... eee!)

Anyway its one of my favorite videos of thees, so i hope that you enjoy.

super intense!

xo's,
Dana