oh, look, another Series of Books That ATE MY LIFE

I’m sitting at work right now. And I am not doing work.

And this is not the usual ‘not doing work;’ no, this is not me taking my 258283746th coffee break or pretending to reply to pertinent e-mail while actually e-mailing friends or uploading cds from the library onto my ipod.

This is the jittery, oh-god-why-am-I-here-when-I-could-be-reading kind of ‘not doing work.’  The kind of not doing work that is me trying to do anything–anything— to distract myself from the raw ache in my chest that demands I GO THE HELL BACK HOME AND GET BACK TO MY BOOK IMMEDIATELY.

In the last 48 hours I have blown through the first two installments of Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series, City of Bones, and City of Ashes, which I just finished 10 minutes before I had to be out the door and at work if I was going to be only 45 minutes late.

And right now, the last one, City of Glass, is sitting in my backpack at my feet, cruelly tempting me to crack it open and finish the story, and the white-hot intensity of my desire to do so is glowing reflectively from its cover.

This story kicks so much ass.  It’s hard to say exactly what it is about it that is so compelling– especially since I’m not done with it yet.  In lieu of giving anything away or misleading potential readers with half-baked plot speculation, I shall list for you my favorite perks of the story thus far:

1. Demons and Angels. Vampires, werewolves, fey, warlocks, and all manner of otherworldly characters, all hidden under the mundane skin of New York City.  And speaking of skin, the angel-descended characters, called Shadowhunters, are COVERED IN TATTOOS (note cover above).  Hottest.  Images.  Ever.

2. A character named Jace who is sarcastic, wickedly hot, and also heartbreakingly damaged– and thus my very favorite kind of self-destructive… except I get the feeling he might be indestructable.

3. An Evil Father Figure and Sibling Weirdness ala Star Wars.

4. Really hilarious banter that had me laughing out loud in the cafe as I read yesterday, garnering multiple skink eyes from other coffee-suckers.

5. Serious Sexual Tension of the keyed-up, seventeen-year-old variety.  Mmmm, my favorite!

Oh, God, I can’t take it anymore– I have to go finish the story!  I’m taking my car to get an oil change and am actually praying that my mechanic finds something horribly wrong with my car that takes forever to fix so I can sit in the lobby and read… Let me tell you, if you have anything you’re trying to forget or ignore in real life, go pick up City of Bones and have at.  You won’t be able to think about or do anything else till it’s done!

This one’s for you, Jenny.  New YA fiction to take your head off 😉