City of Lost Souls Cover Reveal and Teaser!

Today The City of Lost Souls (the 5th installment of The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare) cover has been revealed. Here it is!

So, what do you think? I don’t know about you guys but I literally gasped and said “Ohhh that’s so preeeettyyyy” and hugged my phone then proceeded to set the cover as my phone’s wallpaper (which was previously the cover of Clockwork Prince).

Ugh is it May yet? No? Wellll, until then, to help feed our addiction, here is the prologue to CoLS:

‘ Simon stood and stared numbly at the front door of his house.
He’d never known another home. This was the place his parents had brought him home to when he was born. He had grown up within the walls of the Brooklyn row house. He’d played on the street under the leafy shade of the trees in the summer, and had made improvised sleds out of garbage can lids in the winter. In this house his whole family had sat shivah after his father had died. Here he had kissed Clary for the first time.
He had never imagined a day when the door of the house would be closed to him. The last time he had seen his mother, she had called him a monster and prayed at him that he would go away. He had made her forget that he was a vampire, using glamour, but he had not known how long the glamour would last. As he stood in the cold autumn air, staring in front of him, he knew it had not lasted long enough.
The door was covered with signs—Stars of David splashed on in paint, the incised shape of the symbol for Chai, life. Tefillin were bound to the doorknob and knocker. A hamesh, the Hand of God, covered the peephole.
Numbly he put his hand to the metal mezuzah affixed to the right side of the doorway. He saw the smoke rise from the place where his hand touched the holy object, but he felt nothing. No pain. Only a terrible empty blankness, rising slowly into a cold rage.
He kicked the bottom of the door and heard the echo through the house. “Mom!” he shouted. “Mom, it’s me!”
There was no reply—only the sound of the bolts being turned on the door. His sensitized hearing had recognized his mother’s footsteps, her breathing, but she said nothing. He could smell acrid fear and panic even through the wood. “Mom!” His voice broke. “Mom, this is ridiculous! Let me in! It’s me, Simon!”
The door juddered, as if she had kicked it. “Go away!” Her voice was rough, unrecognizable with terror. “Murderer!”
“I don’t kill people.” Simon leaned his head against the door. He knew he could probably kick it down, but what would be the point? “I told you. I drink animal blood.”
He heard her whisper, softly, several words in Hebrew. “You killed my son,” she said. “You killed him and put a monster in his place.”
“I am your son—”
“You wear his face and speak with his voice, but you are not him! You’re not Simon!” Her voice rose to almost a scream. “Get away from my house before I kill you, monster!”
“Becky,” he said. His face was wet; he put his hands up to touch it, and they came away stained: His tears were bloody. “What have you told Becky?”
“Stay away from your sister.” Simon heard a clattering from inside the house, as if something had been knocked over.
“Mom,” he said again, but this time his voice wouldn’t rise. It came out as a hoarse whisper. His hand had begun to throb. “I need to know—is Becky there? Mom, open the door. Please—”
“Stay away from Becky!” She was backing away from the door; he could hear it. Then came the unmistakeable squeal of the kitchen door swinging open, the creak of the linoleum as she walked on it. The sound of a drawer being opened. Suddenly he imagined his mother grabbing for one of the knives.
Before I kill you, monster.
The thought rocked him back on his heels. If she struck out at him, the Mark would rise. It would destroy her as it had destroyed Lilith.
He dropped his hand and backed up slowly, stumbling down the steps and across the sidewalk, fetching up against the trunk of one of the big trees that shaded the block. He stood where he was, staring at the front door of his house, marked and disfigured with the symbols of his mother’s hate for him.
No, he reminded himself. She didn’t hate him. She thought he was dead. What she hated was something that didn’t exist. I am not what she says I am.
He didn’t know how long he would have stood there, staring, if his phone hadn’t begun to ring, vibrating his coat pocket.
He reached for it reflexively, noticing that the pattern from the front of the mezuzah—interlocked Stars of David—was burned into the palm of his hand. He switched hands and put the phone to his ear. “Hello?”
“Simon?” It was Clary. She sounded breathless. “Where are you?”
“Home,” he said, and paused. “My mother’s house,” he amended. His voice sounded hollow and distant to his own ears. “Why aren’t you back at the Institute? Is everyone all right?”
“That’s just it,” she said. “Just after you left, Maryse came back down from the roof where Jace was supposed to be waiting. There was no one there.”
Simon moved. Without quite realizing he was doing it, like a mechanical doll, he began walking up the street, toward the subway station. “What do you mean, there was no one there?”
“Jace was gone,” she said, and he could hear the strain in her voice. “And so was Sebastian.”
Simon stopped in the shadow of a bare-branched tree. “But he was dead. He’s dead, Clary—”
“Then you tell me why he isn’t there, because he isn’t,” she said, her voice finally breaking. “There’s nothing up there but a lot of blood and broken glass. They’re both gone, Simon. Jace is gone. . . .” ’

Dun, dun, dun!!

The Mortal Instruments/Infernal Devices Convention.

Being a fan of both of Cassandra Clare’s 2 series, I (Dayna) frequent the google group for them quite often. Just recently there has been talk about how awesome it would be to have a TMI/ID con. Where? You might ask. Well, in the home of TMI itself, New York of course! Thanks to Mina and Eileen, this may well be possible. I personally think this is an absolutely amazing idea -it even has the backing of Cassie herself- and if I can help in some way and/or can get myself to New York then I am SO there. After fans discussing it during the YA Crush Tourney thread, a new thread was set up specially for it and here’s the post about it:

“Hello Everyone,

I’ve been talking with Mina Blak, and we came up with a crazy idea for
starting a convention for all people who are interested in Cassandra
Clare’s TMI/ID Universe. We were thinking of holding it in New York
City sometime next year, hopefully around the time that City of Lost
Souls is being published.

We’d like to see how many people would be legitimately interested in
an endeavor like this. We’d like to know if you’re interested in
attending, organizing, or anything of the sort. Any feedback is
really appreciated, since if we were to actually come up with
something, we’d have to start working very soon.

I currently live in Wisconsin, USA. This means that organizing
something on the East Coast wouldn’t be the easiest thing for me, but
I’d be willing to try if there’s enough expressed interest in
something like this.

I’m asking everyone to make this go viral. Post something about this
on your Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and anywhere else you can think to
see what kind of feedback we could get.

If you’re interested in getting a hold of me personally, here’s my
contact information. Please no spam, just legitimate questions and
feedback only, and put something in the subject line about
“convention” here:
thewisepenseuse@hotmail.com
cornerchairseat.tumblr.com

https://twitter.com/#!/thewisepenseuse

Thank you
~Eileen Kelm”

So….what do you guys think?? Since that post there has been talk about maybe having it around the release of the City of Bones movie (how would it be if it coincided with the movie?!?!) or maybe for the release of the last book, City of Heavenly Fire. I think to have it then would be the perfect way to say good bye and fairwell to such an amazing series. There are bound to be some tears shed.

So, what I’d like you to do is help us TMI/ID fans spread the word. Post about it anywhere you can, tell all your friend’s. Let’s get this news going global. We need as much interest as possible to make this awesome event really happen for reals.

If you have experience in organizing events/conventions (or even if you don’t but may have a brilliant idea) please put your suggestions forward on how we could raise the funds for such an event as this. My own suggestion would be to see if any organisations would be willing to sponsor the event (maybe even Simon & Schuster would be interested)? Or even a fan or 2 who could contribute “x” amount of money towards funds (a bit like a producer of a movie I suppose) where they would then earn a percentage of the profits if the convention is successful? Just an idea or 2 there.

Thoughts?

Clockwork Prince news by Dayna

It has been quite an exciting week for fans of Cassandra Clare (including myself). On Wednesday, Mundie Moms exclusively revealed the cover of Clockwork Prince (Book #2 in the Infernal Devices series a prequel to The Mortal Instruments series):

On the front of the cover we have Jem in front of the Temple Bar, Fleet street, London. I think it’s absolutely beautiful! Cliff Nielson (who designed the covers for both The Mortal Instruments and Infernal Devices series) is so incredibly talented. If I was an aspiring author I’d be honored to have him design the covers of my books.

So what do you guys think to the cover?

Also, yesterday Mundie Source exclusively revealed the chapter titles for Clockwork Prince and their meanings. Go here to check them out! After reading about them, December 6th can’t come soon enough! I can guarantee there will have been plenty of deciphering going on amongst the fans trying to figure out what could be in store for each chapter. I know I’m itching to find out!

City of Fallen Angels – By Lauren

Below are my thoughts on Cassie Clares CoFA.

Dayna was actually the person who recommended this series to me. I completely fell in love with the story. I    bought the first 3 as an EBook and had them on my Iphone so it meant that I read them all in a week. I think I must   have charged my Iphone 4 times a day!

I won’t go into detail about The Mortal Instruments as Dayna has already done so. However I wanted to put a few of my opinions forward.  So, I loved Clary and all the twists of her family, the story was very unique. This series will always be one that got me back into believing paranormal romance stories. However we are now on the 4^th book with various pre sequels I am slightly bored.

Yes I love the stories but I am starting to get a bit bored of it. There are far too many characters in this, which is getting confusing as their stories don’t always match from book to book. Jace is forever whining and complaining. Yes we know about his life and past but seriously he just needs Clary to shake him and say “Grow up Jace!!”.

However the bit of this book that I love is, Maia and Kyle. I am intrigued by this story line. I want to know more about their past and I want to know if the will ever be together again? I want it to be the City of Maia and Kyle! I also love Simon, no one could ever not love him. I have loved following him from City of Bones where he was a small part in this huge story but now he has evolved and I absolutely adore him! Alec and Magnus are still so funny. These two really make me laugh so hard. So this also now going to be a movie. I am pleased because I actually think Clare is out of her depth a bit now with the amount of people wanting her to carry on this story quickly I feel like it has been rushed and it is going downhill. I actually think this is one instance where the movie will be better than the book. Let’s wait and see.

I would have rated City of Bones, City of Ashes and City of Glass 4/5

Unfortunately I can only rate this 3/5.

City of Fallen Angels – Review By Dayna

 City of Fallen Angels, Fourth Book in The Mortal Instruments Series by Cassandra Clare

I am a huge fan of this series. It has felt like forever waiting for this book (although truthfully not that long. A    year is nothing compared to some) so you can imagine my excitement when I finally had it in my possession.  Admittedly, I squeed just a little. I even took a photo of it and posted it on Twitter to show my friends! Yes,  the series is that awesome that I had to take a photo of the book!

As has already been said, City of Fallen Angels is the fourth installment from the TMI series. Simon is still trying to  come to terms with becoming a vampire. Clary is training to be a Shadowhunter and her and Jace couldn’t be any more in love….or so she thought. Jace is acting weird and distancing himself from her. What could have changed since being back from Idris and what exactly does Camille want with Simon?

The Mortal Instruments series is well known for its’ twists and turns and Cassie has not let us down as CoFA certainly has plenty of twists and turns and keeps us guessing right to the very end. It is so beautifully written. Cassie keeps us constantly on the edge of our seats. She can inject the perfect amount of detail into a scene making it incredibly interesting rather than long winded. When recapping on events in the series prior to this book it is done in such a way that it doesn’t bore the fan but is enough to fill in a new reader on what has already happened if they haven’t read any of the other books before.

I love the new characters that have been introduced and the camaraderie that goes on between Jace, Simon and Kyle/Jordan had me in stitches.

I’m still in shock at the ending and worried about what the future may hold for certain characters. I sooo hope it’s a happy ending. I like my happy endings! City of Lost Souls is the next in the series. I don’t wanna have to wait. I wanna read it NOW.

So to sum it up, CoFA is awesome! Go buy that and the rest of The Mortal Instruments series if you haven’t already. Well? What are you waiting for? Go, go, go!

I gave this 5 out of 5!

Why not check out Lauren’s review?