Autumn Leaves and Heartbreak Dreams : CITY OF LOST SOULS

'I was in the dark, he had said. There was nothing there but shadows, and I was a shadow. And then I heard your voice.'

This is one of those exquisite quotes that has as much beauty as a Smiths track. You read it and re-read it, and then you want to engrave it into your mind so that you are incapable of forgetting it.

When the series protagonist Clary says this, she is remembering the words that Jace (her boyfriend) said to her- before he lost his soul due to being linked to a demon's child. (It's a long and absolutely brilliant story.)

She is looking up at this 'not Jace' and recalling her memories of him, of the 'beautiful boy she'd met first, reckless with himself and others, learning to care and be careful.'
Jace is an enthralling character when it comes to understanding love. His father taught him, when he was a child, that
'to love is to destroy, and that to be loved is to be the one destroyed.'
Another stunningly beautiful quote (Cassandra Clare can wield these like weapons) - and it is the basis to their endearing story as, through Clary, he learns the way to love.

To spoil the book for you - but to save your curiosity. Clary manages to save Jace - *oh how romantic* - with a sword containing heavenly fire that they are given (albeit unhappily) by an angel.

City Of Lost Souls, alike the rest in the The Mortal Instrument series, is rather wonderful - I avidly advise you read them.