The story pretty much picks up where City of Bones left off. I liked this book slightly better then the first basically because of the battle scene in the book. The story seems to starts off a little slowly for me. I didn't have any problem putting down the book in the beginning. (My scale of telling how good a book is) Luckily, it picks up with a few surprises (or maybe not so much because I totally saw the vampire thing coming.) I enjoyed the visit with the faeries because I really haven't read any stories as of yet that has any of the faerie folk in them. I also enjoyed learning of Jace and Clary's "special" powers and I am hoping the third book touches more on their parentage because I am starting to think that they are not really brother and sister as we have been lead to believe. All in all, I liked the book and will continue on with the series.