City of Heavenly Fire | Cassandra Clare

In this dazzling and long-awaited conclusion to the acclaimed Mortal Instruments series, Clary and her friends fight the greatest evil they have ever faced: Clary's own brother.

Sebastian Morgenstern is on the move, systematically turning Shadowhunter against Shadowhunter. Bearing the Infernal Cup, he transforms Shadowhunters into creatures out of nightmare, tearing apart families and lovers as the ranks of his Endarkened army swell.

The embattled Shadowhunters withdraw to Idris - but not even the famed demon towers of Alicante can keep Sebastian at bay. And with the Nephilim trapped in Idris, who will guard the world against demons?

When one of the greatest betrayals the Nephilim have ever known is revealed, Clary, Jace, Isabelle, Simon, and Alec must flee - even if their journey takes them deep into the demon realms, where no Shadowhunter has set foot before, and from which no human being has ever returned...

Love will be sacrificed and lives lost in the terrible battle for the fate of the word in the thrilling final installment of the classic urban fantasy series The Mortal Instruments!

This book was absolutely phenomenal. It concluded everything in the most perfect way possible. And even though I'm upset that the series is over and my time with Clary, Jace, and all the other characters is over, I don't think there was a better way to end this wonderful series.

Spoiler-Filled Review

So we open the book to a prologue, a really really long prologue, that I may have sort of lost interest in. We're introduced to Emma Carstairs and Jules Blackthorn, two of the main characters in TDA (The Dark Artifices), and then all of the Blackthorn children. I really love Emma and Jules's relationship throughout this book, they remind me a lot of Simon and Clary. I ship them together, but they're going to be parabatai, so technically they can't be together. Maybe they find a way to get around that law? I can dream right?

I really liked Jace in this book. For once, besides the heavenly fire, he was himself. He wasn't having horrifying dreams nor was he possessed, and I really like the normal Jace who can freely love Clary. His sarcastic and funny self was back and I love him.

“I think they’ll probably put that on my gravestone. ‘He Was Heterosexual and Had Low Expectations.” 

As per usual, the Clave is so stupid and falls for Sebastian's tricks. First of all they mistaken the number of Sebastian's army, and secondly they refuse to send through Jace, the one person who can actually kill Sebastian and his army. 

But of course, Jace and Clary sneak through. Jace gets stabbed by Sebastian and starts bleeding fire, actual flames. Brother Zachariah, who we all know was Jem, comes and saves the day. He transfers the fire from Jace to him, which burns all the bad demon powder and poison in him, bringing him back to his own self without the sickness.

“Temper us in fire, and we grow stronger. When we suffer, we survive.” 

Jem was also a pretty big part of this book. The epilogue of Clockwork Princess takes place after City of Heavenly Fire but before the epilogue of COHF. His interactions with both Emma and Jace were so adorable.

“Herondales." Zachariah's voice was a breath, half laughter, half pain. "I had almost forgotten. No other family does so much for love, or feels so much guilt for it.

Then we open to the scene with the Faerie Queen and we learn she's been sleeping with Sebastian.

The Fair Folk are no longer on the good side and this again is shown when Meliorn drugs Raphael, Magnus, Luke and Jocelyn when they go to his house for dinner. Isn't there a rule to not eat the food of the Fair Folk? What made a meal with them a good idea?

Of course Sebastian took these four in order to get Clary and Jace, who set out with Alec, Isabelle and Simon to the demon realm where Sebastian's headquarters are. I knew a really intense Clace scene happened in a cave, so every time a cave was mentioned, I got super excited. But a lot of stuff happened in these caves, including the transfer of the heavenly fire to Heosphoros and Simon biting Alec for blood.

“It wasn’t sexy,” he said.“It was a little sexy,” Simon said…
“It wasn’t,” said Alec.
“I had some feelings,” said Simon.”

The ending was one of the reasons I loved Clary so much. Once they all got into Sebastian's headquarters, Sebastian gives Clary a choice: she can either stay with him or he'll destroy all of the worlds. Clary decides to stay with him, and they're making it "official" she pulls out Heosphoros and stabs him. And since the blade has the heavenly fire in it, the demon parts of him were destroyed. Right before he officially died, Jonathon was alive, Clary's real brother. It would have been interesting if he had stayed alive, but because the bad overpowered the good in him, he died as well. 

I will admit, as much as I hated Sebastian, I did feel bad for him at some points. So much of this book was him trying to get Clary so he could be less alone. That need and want to be loved and appreciated and admired fueled his need and want for power. He had the same wants and needs as everyone else in the book, but because he went about it the wrong way, he didn't get it. But he was also really really creepy. 

“So what's their plan, hitting Sebastian over the head with Jace until he passes out?” 

Since Sebastian closed off the border between the demon world and the regular world, everyone was trapped and the only way to get out was to call Magnus's father, the greater demon Asmodeus. He wanted Magnus's immortality, and I honestly thought that was what would happen. If Magnus's immortality was taken, he and Alec could be together without problems. But then, Simon was like: 

And I'm like "aight aight, that's fine. He's still seventeen and it'll all be good." THEN Asmodeus was like "Yeah I also want your memories lol" and I'm like: 

Then in the epilogue, Clary called him and went up to him to talk to him and he didn't recognize her. 

At this point I was openly crying. Throughout the rest of the book I was fine, I shed minimal to no tears, but this broke me. 

BUT THEN, Simon gave Clary a flyer for his concert and his new band name was 'The Mortal Instruments' 

AND THEN THERE WAS TALK OF ASCENSION FOR SIMON. This makes me so happy because what if Clary and Simon become parabatai and I want more books for them. 

I also want to talk a minute and talk about the different relationships of this book. 

Most importantly we have Clace, thankfully in this book Clace wasn't affected by anything like possessed Jace or demons. And they finally had sex. We were all waiting for it, and finally it happened..in a cave, suspiciously similar to Will and Tessa. Did anyone else also question the fact that Jace had a condom in the pits of Hell? Because that seems like a slightly unusual thing to have on a packing checklist. 

I loved Sizzy in this book. The entire Lord Montgomery role-playing scene had me cracking up and Alec walked in on them pretty much every single time. Him and Magnus don't exactly have luck when it comes to timing on couples. Simon drunk is also the best thing ever, yelling his love for Isabelle outside her window, while the whole town watches. Ah I love him. 

“Straight people,” Alec declared. “Why can’t they control themselves?” 

Malec took a while to get back together, since they were apart for a majority of the book, but they finally got back together. Both of them are so snarky when they're apart, but I still love both of them. Alec especially had some of the best lines in this entire book. 

“You're pining," said Jace.

Alec shrugged. "Look who's talking. 'oh I love her. Oh, she's my sister. Oh why, why, why—” 

One thing I love about Cassandra Clare's writing is how she gives each character enough time in the book. We do skip around a lot within the book, from Maia to Maureen to Sebastian to the Blackthorns, and even though it does get confusing at some points, each character is built up so well and we love all of them. 

Before this book was released, it was said that six named people were going to die, one being a boyfriend. 

1. Jordan (the boyfriend) 

2. Raphael

3. Praetor Scott or Amatis? 

4. Maureen

5. Meliorn

6. Sebastian

I feel like more named people died, but I think these were the "main" ones. For some reason, I couldn't actually believe that Jordan had died. I honestly thought he was going to be saved, but I wasn't too sad when he wasn't. I got over his death pretty fast. Raphael was somewhat surprising because the way he died was so sudden. BAM a knife in the heart. I wasn't attached to either Praetor Scott or Amatis so it didn't hurt me when they died. Maureen, Meliorn, and Sebastian all had to die. They were all scary, annoying, creepy or all three and they had to go. 

I really really enjoyed this book! This entire series is perfection and I just want more, so of course I will be read The Dark Artifices, The Last Hour, and the Bane Chronicles when they come out! 

Let me know in the comments what you thought of this book! I definitely forgot to discuss some things int this book so if there's anything else you guys want to discuss, let's discuss in the comments! I could talk about this book forever. 

“Because the world isn't divided into the special and the ordinary. Everyone has the potential to be extra ordinary.”