New Favorite Book Series: Mortal Instruments

I have a new book series to love and it is The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare. People who know me know that I am an avid YA reader but try to dabble in a little bit of everything (see my full reading list). I read at least 50 books a year and love to lose myself in them. My friend Carol had been raving about The Mortal Instruments series and dropped a stack of them off for me with instructions to read as soon as possible. I dropped everything else I was reading and dove in. I was not disappointed!

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The issue of how many Mortal Instruments books there are and what order to read them in is a little confusing because The Infernal Devices series comes into play as well. Essentially Clare wrote The Mortal Instruments 1, 2, and 3 as a series (City of Bones, City of Ashes, and City of Glass). You should start with those. She’s now writing 3 more in that series as well as a prequel-type series (Infernal Devices). Only 1 of each of those is written. So you can pretty much read Infernal Devices 1 (Clockwork Angel) anytime and Infernal Devices 2 (Clockwork Prince) will be out in December. I actually read Clockwork Angel before reading the 3 main Mortal Instruments Books, but you could read it after book 3 or 4 if you wanted to.

So what is the series about and why do I love it so much? The books are essentially a mix of young adult and fantasy. You’ll find a whole world of characters, some recognizable and some completely new. There’s a little romance but the books hint of even more than what you will find within them (you’ll have to search the web for the “extras”!). You do need to read into the first book a few chapters before you really get a feel for the world and start to get addicted to it. There are an unbelievable number of twists and turns that will leave you wanting book after book (even when you get as far as you can go!).

The books don’t try to push any particular agenda or morality down your throat when you read them. You take the characters for what they are, all flawed in their own way. If you don’t feel some kind of stir in your gut for the relationship between Jace and Clare, you have no business reading Young Adult books. Simon is like the boy next store who always gets overlooked but tries desperately to find his own way somehow. Magnus Bane is both hilarious at times and distinctly sad at savvy at others. I could go on and on.

If all of that isn’t enough to get you interested, the rights to the first movie have been picked up and it looks like that process is moving along smoothly. You don’t want to be that person who all of a sudden starts reading the books because everyone is talking about the movie. Get ahead of the curve and pick up The Mortal Instruments now. You can get the trilogy for just $19.79 in paperback on Amazon.