The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices series (TID being the prequel series to TMI)by Cassandra Clare have climbed into the list of my favourites this past year. Here are some of the reasons why.

• Jace's snark. Jace is a sarcastic, arrogant Shadowhunter (demon hunter) who's really the biggest softie ever with a huge heart for his adopted family and his love (who he thinks is his sister) Clary.
• the suggestion of incest with Jace/Clary. because really, what would a book be without some scandal like that?
• Isabelle and her whip. Isabelle Lightwood is Jace's adopted sister, also a Shadowhunter. one of the more powerful female characters i've yet to see - i wouldn't want to get in the path of her whip but i'd be equally afriad to mess up her hair. the term femme fatale comes to mind.
• Magnus' sparkle. because what can be better than a fantastic, sparkly, quirky, bisexual, colourful warlock? (who just happens to develop a majour
  
  crush on Jace and Isabelle's brother Alec)
• the supernatural/urban setting. imagine a whole underground world of demon hunters, faeries, warlocks, vampyres, and werewolves running around brooklyn and nyc. fairly awesome, right?
• the amazing writing and imagery. CC is an incredible writer, and you can tell she knows what she's doing here. the descriptions are heartwrenchingly perfect.
• Valentine's evylness. the main villain of the TMI series, Valentine Morganstern is supposedly Jace and Clary's father, and raised Jace until the Lightwoods adopted him. Valentine's very cool, collected, 'nyc businessman' type evyl is perfect. combined with being an amazing Shadowhunter, this is one dude you do not want to cross. not to mention he has a horde of demons at his disposal at one point.
• Jem's sweetness. Jem is Alec's alter ego in TID, but with more depth. Jem is a Shadowhunter, but he's also dying and very very sick. he was tortured by a demon and is now forced to take demon powder to have any amount of strength, but the stuff is slowly killing him. maybe because of this, everything Jem says is ultra sweet and insightful and generally brilliant. you want to hug him.
• the absurd amount of quotable lynes. with these fantastic sets of characters, it's impossible *not* to get memorable, laugh out loud lynes whenever you stick any two of them in a room together.
• the epigraphs. in TMI it's mostly Inferno quotes, which are amazing and make you want to never let go of Jace and tell him everything will be ok. in TID it switches to lots of Tennison and other 19th century British poetry, which is also very cool and gives you some limited insight into Will.
• Will's 'That's What She Said' to gabriel Lightwood. gabriel lightwood hates Will, supposedly for Will having a relationship with his sister. when gabriel stupidly makes fun of Jem's illness, Will responds with a 19th century 'that's what she said'.
• Malec. Magnus and Alec. forever.
• Clary and Tessa's kick-butt attitude. Clary and Tessa are not your typical defenseless female leads and are both extremely stubbourn and awesome and able to stick up for themselves, although Tessa is more helpless than Clary just because she still has some sense of 'i-have-to-be-a-proper-lady' that comes with living in 19th century England. it happens.