Review: City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments #6) by Cassandra Clare

Title: City of Heavenly Fire

Series: The Mortal Instruments #6

Previous books in this series: City of Bones (#1) | City of Ashes (#2) | City of Glass (#3) | City of Fallen Angels (#4) | City of Lost Souls (#5)

Author: Cassandra Clare

Genre: YA, urban fantasy

Publication date: May 2014

Published by: Margaret K. McElderry

Source: Purchased hardcover

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Synopsis: 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!

My rating: ★★★★★

“Heroes aren't always the ones who win,” [Clary] said. “They’re the ones who lose sometimes. But they keep fighting, they keep coming back. They don't give up. That's what makes them heroes.”

Here we are—the end. I was not ready, but I did it. And I loved it! As I knew I would, but I just didn’t want it to end 😩

We start the book off with some new characters—the characters that will be in The Dark Artifices! At first, I was like, "Really?" I thought it was gonna be a set up for the next series, and it might be, but it didn’t feel that way, thank god! It was all definitely relevant to the main plot in this book and series, so I was okay with all the introductions. Plus, it will be nice going into The Dark Artifices knowing a little bit about them already. I mean, I already think the Blackthorn kids are super cute 🥰

I know I said this already in my review of City of Lost Souls, but boy, am I glad Jace is back! I missed him so much! And I was just loving him and Clary together in this one! They were super cute and I was totally living for it! 😍

Another thing I was living for is Brother Zachariah AKA Jem! He's actually back! 😭 And it was really interesting HOW he became human again. After Jace got hurt, Jem tried to help, but I guess the heavenly fire in Jace did a thing to Jem and now he’s human? I don’t know, but it was so cool and I am just so happy! And I love how he just keeps helping Jace out because of Will. Jem is so sweet and I've really missed him. I'm just so happy that he's human again. And apparently I’m not the only one appreciating his non-Silent Brother form 😏

“Brother Zachariah,” Isabelle said. “Months January through December of the Hot Silent Brothers Calendar. What's he doing here?”
“There's a Hot Silent Brothers Calendar?” said Alec. “Do they sell it?”

Honestly, same, Alec. I would buy TEN 😂

So in order to stop Sebastian, our heroes will have to travel to a demon realm. Yup, that happened. This place they go to is basically a mirror world of their own, but that one was overtaken by demons. It was pretty cool. I mean, not for the world 😅 But this whole thing with alternate realities was very cool. Anyway, they all had a conversation before they left, and I’m not gonna go into it too much cause you should read it for yourself, but it was just so sweet! All of them working together and having each other's back... I loved it! I just love these characters and all their interactions 🥰 One of my favorite parts was Clary speaking with little Emma... that quote I put at the beginning of my review about heroes is something Clary said to her and I just love it! I also enjoyed the talk Alec had with Emma about parabatai...

Emma’s gaze went from Alec to Jace, curious. “Do you worry about him?” she asked Alec, surprising a laugh out of him.
“All the time,” he said. “Jace could get himself killed putting his pants on in the morning. Being his parabatai is a fulltime job.”

I love this sassy Alec! 🖤 There was one point when Jace asked him to do something, but Alec was having a bad day and he basically told Jace to do it himself because he was not his bitch and OMG, I loved that! 😂 It was the best! But also, Alec and Jace do have their moments. They had a really sweet heart-to-heart that I always love seeing. And even Simon had a really sweet moment with Alec. Now I don’t remember if it happened before or after Alec walked in on Simon and Izzy... again 🤔

“WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING?” There was a sound of shattering glass, and they both sat up to see Alec glaring at them. He had dropped the empty bottle of wine he had been carrying, and there were bits of sparkly glass all over the cave floor. “WHY CAN’T YOU GO SOMEWHERE ELSE TO DO THESE HORRIBLE THINGS? MY EYES.”

Like I said, Alec was having a bad day (which is a total understatement if you’ve read the book 😬) Poor guy 🤣 I do love Simon, though, especially when the Shadowhunters don’t know what the heck he’s talking about, what with his Mundane ways. Lol.

“In D&D, my first move, when you're dealing with an opposing army like that, would be to lure away a group of them—say five—and take their clothes.”
“Is this so they have to go back to the fortress naked and their embarrassment will negatively affect morale?” said Jace. “Because that seems complicated.”

Ah, yes. The ever-effective embarrassment maneuver 😂 I’ve come such a long way from despising Simon way in book one and two, to actually really liking him in these last couple of books. Especially after the ending in this book because OMG!

So they’re in the demon realm and during the final battle, they finally get the upper hand and Clary stabs Sebastian... who very briefly turns into Johnathan, the brother Clary never had. A non-demonic Johnathan was awake for a second and it was torture! 😩 He seemed so... not evil. I felt so bad! You guys, I cried. I legitimately cried over him! Who would've thought that I'd be crying over freaking Sebastian? But this boy that was laying in Jocelyn's arms, that was Clary's real brother, and it made me so sad to see what Clary and Jocelyn would've had had Valentine not tampered with the poor kid 😞

Oh, but my tears did not stop there. No, they did not 🙃 This demon realm they’re in? Yeah, you’ll never guess who’s in charge of it... Magnus’s father, a prince of freaking hell!! 😲 And in order to finally get out of the realm, Magnus had to make a deal with his father. Naturally, Magnus tried to sacrifice himself to get his friends out of the demon realm and I cried. I love Magnus, so this was awful! His immortality would basically be taken away and he would die 😩 BUT THEN Simon offered himself up instead and I was like, "Okay, this is gonna work out better. He won't die!" But what happened instead was that the demon took his memories of the Shadow World! 😩 He was no longer a vampire, but now he wouldn’t remember his friends or anything that happened in these last couple of months! So yeah, you bet I started crying again... and over Simon, no less! Like I said, in the first two books of this series, I was NOT a fan of Simon. I kind of hated him. But here we are 4 books later and I'm crying over him now. I really love Simon and it just sucks that the demon did this to him 😩

However, the end of the book hints that he's somehow getting snippets of his memory back?? I mean, I don't know how that works cause I thought the memories were gone permanently. As in, the demon took them and ate them or whatever. But no? I’m not gonna complain though! Lol. Especially because we’re gonna get more Simon in Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy! I’m sad that this wont be the same Simon, but I'm excited to read this book and have more Simon in my life! I'm gonna be honest, when I first bought this book and took a peek at the synopsis, I still had only read the first 3 books in the series, so I was kinda meh about it. But now I can’t wait to read it! Lol.

But, yeah, that end was brutal! And not just what happened in the demon realm, but what happened after with the Blackthorne kids and the betrayal that was uncovered... Oh my god. Yes, things have wrapped up in this series, but things are just getting started for the Emma and the Blackthrones 😬 I'm excited to read that series though! I hear that Tessa and Jem will make an appearance or two, which I am very happy about!

This was such a good but heartbreaking ending. I’m not ready to say goodbye to these characters! I know they’ll make appearances in TDA, but this is it for their story and I’m not ready to let go 😭 I just love this world and the story and the insanity with Sebastian. I adore the characters and I am so happy for the time we got to spend with them on this crazy journey in this amazing world 🖤

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a link to your review or comment below! 😊