What if you discovered your entire life was a lie?

My latest obsession is fantasy novels geared more towards teens.  I think it’s because they are a quick easy read and that’s just about all I can find time for.  Not too many days I finished up The Mortal Instruments series and purchased the City of Bones.  In this series Clary Fray is the heroine alongside her mentor/ the hero of the series, Jace Wayland.

The City of Bones opens in the normal/average teenage life of Clary Fray, being raised by her mom with the support of her mother’s best friend Luke.

The hidden truth that Clary is soon to reveal is that she is in fact a Shadow Hunter.

She begins drawing this symbol repetitively and often times subconsciously.  In her efforts to discover what it is that the symbol represents she meets Jace Wayland.  He too is a Shadow Hunter and realizes and reveals to her that she is not mundane (human) but he has yet to uncover the entire truth as well.

Her adventure begins when her mom disappears.  The only message her mom manages to get through to her is that “Valentine’s alive and he found [her].”  As it turns out, Clary’s mother has had a spell placed on Clary by a Warlock and this is blocking all of Clary’s memories of the other realm and even suppressing her powers.

Clary begins her journey in an attempt to locate and rescue her mother but it soons intertwines into a mission to locate the Mortal Cup which her mother has been hiding from Valentine.  Clary has many mentors along the way. Jace Wayland who is immediately on her side and there to help her. Two other Shadow Hunters, Isabelle and Alexander, a brother/sister duo who aren’t entirely with her but go along with the plans because of Jace.  Also, there is Hodges, he essentially runs the institute and is able to fill Clary in on some of her past.

In this story the special world is the world of the Shadow Hunters and Under-Worlders.  Their world is kept hidden from the mundanes.  Shadow Hunters derive many of their powers from the use of runes, which they also use to mask their society.

Clary faces many trials along the way.  She learns that her neighbor is a witch who was protecting her mother’s secret, Luke IS a werewolf whom she actually “can’t trust,” and that Valentine isn’t the only person after the Mortal Cup.  She has to develop her skills in the midst of battle as there is no real time for proper training.

The main battle takes place when Clary discovers where her mother has hidden the cup.  She first must battle a demon in order to retrieve it and then upon returning to the institute she reveals the cup to Hodges and he reveals that he is working alongside Valentine.  Clary must now fight against Valentine and re-hide the cup even at the risk of potentially never seeing her mother again.  Valentine uses deception against Jace and Clary, who have fallen in love (the struggles of being female and having a heart lol) and tells them that they are in fact brother and sister (spoiler alert…they are not). Clary actually goes MIA for a good part of the battle and then returns just in time to rescue Jace by threatening to throw the cup into a portal.  As females, we have a tendency to let our hearts do the thinking.  Don’t be fooled though, turns out the cup was a fake and she is able to shove Valentine into the portal.

The battle is over and her reward is the safety of her still unconscious mother and the Mortal Cup.  She chooses to keep the cup hidden though so that it’s powers do not fall into the wrong hands.  There can be no return to normal for Clary.  She is not a mundane and being a Shadow Hunter is now her new normal.

This video does a fairly decent recap of the first installment but only up until 2 min 48 sec: