update: re-read 02/15/2013 through 03/12/2013i re-read this book because i have this sudden desire to read all the books on my shelves before i go to the library and get some more to read. i know that i've read this one back in 2009 and when i purchased the first one i had also bought the second one in the series, hence me re-reading the first one again.sad to say, that even after a few years have gone by, i am still able to safely concur with the review i wrote 4 years ago. i ended up putting this book down for awhile and reading other books in between this one (i always feel like i'm cheating on a book when i do that). so in this strange predicament that i've found myself in, i'm going to continue on with this series, just so i can say "yes i've read these two books, but don't want to show them off on my shelf." i may end up giving these two books away. hopefully they will be more enjoyable for someone else...and now i see from the goodreads page that it's going to be a movie. eeeeewwwwww.end of update originally read September 24, 2009 Um, yeah, so this was a totally different world to just be plunged right into. This was the first YA book that I have read since reading the Twilight Saga, which I absolutely loved!! And because Stephenie Meyer recommended this series, Mortal Instruments, I picked the first one and the second one in the series up.I have to say that I kept constantly comparing it to Harry Potter and Twilight. Even throughout the book, I was like that's not what werewolves do, and vampires don't do that! Also all the magic and the runes it was like this COULD be a good story if she wasn't so similar to HP or Twilight.I was drawn in in the first couple of pages of reading it in the bookstore and then when I got home and read about a 100 more pages into it, it felt like it was just plodding on. I was getting bored with the short synapse of what was actually happening. The sentence structure and just dialogue overall was way too teen-bopperish for me. I felt like I had grown up from YA while reading this.It finally started to pick up around page 206 when that quote "that to love is to destroy, and that to be loved is to be the one destroyed" really hit a nerve. I was so captivated by that quote and could not stop thinking about it. That's when it started to get good. Unfortunately that was the best this book was going to get for me.I hated that I guessed the end and later was completely grossed out that Jace and Clary (hate that nickname for her btw!) had hooked up and had a completely romantic first kiss and was starting to develop a love relationship (that was totally cheering on!). They ended up being brother and sister and that incest just totally turned me off.I don't like how she left this book either. I know it's a series, but I was pissed off more than intrigued to read the next installment in this series. Oh well. I'm definitely going to wait to read the next book. I hope that Clary grows up a little bit more in the next book though.I feel like she has potential to be a great character, just stop comparing to every other "mundane" out there.