City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

When I found out that Ms. Clare was coming out with three more books in the Mortal Instruments series I was excited. Then when I started thinking about it I got scared. I loved her first three books and I liked the way the trilogy ended. I had closure. The bad man had been put down and love was in the air. Jace wasn't Clary's brother and you knew Simon might be getting his groove on with Isabelle or Maia. So for me to read three more books and have my beloved characters thrown back into chaos I wasn't sure about that. All I have to say after reading the fourth book is that everyone better have a happy ending by the end of the sixth book.

Then I was curious as to why Ms. Clare decided to write three more books and I found the answer on her website.

Taken from Ms. Clare's FAQ page:

"How did you go from having decided to write the Mortal Instruments as a trilogy, to deciding that it would be four books and then six?

I had indeed initially planned not to write more Mortal Instruments books after City of Glass. Two things happened to change that: One, I had written a plot for a graphic novel about what would happen to Simon after the events of Glass. When the graphic novel didn’t work out, I was left with this storyline and nothing to do with it — it wasn’t enough for a whole book on its own. However, while I was writing the first book in The Infernal Devices, Clockwork Angel, which deals with Jace, Clary, and the Lightwoods’ ancestors, the way events played out in it gave me the idea for a new villain and conflict that might beset the cast of characters from The Mortal Instruments, and connect up to the plotline from the planned graphic novel. I’ve always liked stories where the distant past comes forward to affect the future, so, without being spoilery, when I realized I could connect the events of Infernal Devices to the few loose ends left at the end of Glass, I realized I wouldn’t want to pass up writing that story, especially considering how much chaos I knew it would bring to the lives of Jace, Clary, Simon, Alec, Magnus, Isabelle and the rest!

Then, in October of last year, I sat down to start writing the story of City of Fallen Angels. I had a detailed outline based in part on the graphic novel idea I had had, but when it came to expanding the outline and writing the story, it just wasn’t working for me. I was on a writing retreat in Mexico with a number of other writers, and when we sat down to go over the issues I was having, I realized that the story I had thought I was telling was really a much bigger story — that my smaller, Simon-centric story had morphed into something much bigger, much more epic, and deeply involving the whole cast of characters from the first three Mortal Instruments books. I realized that what I had on my hands was not a single book that would wrap up the story begun in The Mortal Instruments, but rather the beginning of a new trilogy about these characters. (The fun part was calling my agent and editor to explain “You know that one book I was going to write? Well, actually, it’s three books!” I like to think I could hear heads hitting desks all through Simon and Schuster. But when I submitted the outlines for the new Fallen Angels, City of Lost Souls, and City of Heavenly Fire, they were thrilled with the idea of the new trilogy — and I hope readers will be as well!"

These three new books in the series have a lot more to do with Simon but the rest of the cast of characters are present. I am excited to read more about these characters but there is something nice about a series ending and then as the reader you can just fantasize about what happened to your favorite characters. Fans of Ms. Clare won't be disappointed. City of Fallen Angels was an excellent read.