So at this point, if you just ignore the fact that Clare is drawing liberally from Star Wars and a few elements from Harry Potter, you might find there is a fairly entertaining book underneath. Enough so that you definitely want to continue to the next chapter even when you should be trying to get some much needed sleep.

City of Ashes picks up right where City of Bones left off and runs (hard) to a somewhat predictable conclusion (see below). Clare and Jace struggle with their "relationship", Simon get's an "upgrade", and Valentine is up to no good. We find a bit more about the Clave, but less about the Circle than I would have hoped (there are deeper things Clare could delve into that she doesn't, perhaps because of the YA audience).

A few irksome things continue. First, her story is incredibly predictable. Characters never feel in danger because she hasn't killed anyone off (or shown a willingness to evoke fear in the reader). Plot twists follow cliche tracks (especially the diner conversation at the end of the book... Wow. Didn't see that one coming). I've made predictions on what I think will happen in the last book and I will be exceptionally surprised if I'm not correct on most of them.

Second, she never develops a sense of scale. Rowling is actually also guilty of this. All this power, in what... 20 people? Huge armies of bad guys fought by two protagonists? You never get the sense there is much of anything outside the little band of heroes, which is unfortunate, because I think the mythos is begging to be expanded.

However, I do appreciate the villain, Valentine. In a twisted way, I understand his motives and his calm charisma adds enough nuance to be interesting. Unfortunately, the same at the moment can not be said of our group of "heroes," but perhaps that will change (to Clare's credit, they have shown small signs of character development and evolution).