This book follows Cordelia Carstairs, a Shadowhunter, through her adventures becoming a hero in a brand new city – London. She quickly becomes close with other warriors in the area like James and Lucie Herondale, falling in love with James, who is sworn to marry someone else. After a series of demon attacks, Cordelia is forced into fighting sooner than expected and finds that she has her own connection to the violence. 

I really liked this book! The characters are extremely well written and realistic – no one wakes up at 3am and runs 15 miles before training for another 8 hours while balancing school and friends. Cassandra Clare does a great job of building character relationships and creating a world with complexity that mirrors our own. Even though this book is about killing demons and evil beings, I found myself relating to what certain characters are feeling or how they react to different situations. Character relationships and development throughout the book make it much more interesting and easier to read rather than a 350 page book with battle scenes every other page. So, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is having a hard time reading lately, because Clare does an excellent job creating an incredibly immersive world and a story that is hard to put down. 

Rating: 5/5

-Anna