Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare

Release Date: March 19, 2013
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Age Group: Young Adult
Format: E-book
Source: Purchased
Series: Infernal Devices #3
Pages: 568
Buy: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Google
Description: Goodreads
Tessa Gray should be happy - aren't all brides happy?Yet as she prepares for her wedding, a net of shadows begins to tighten around the Shadowhunters of the London Institute.A new demon appears, one linked by blood and secrecy to Mortmain, the man who plans to use his army of pitiless automatons, the Infernal Devices, to destroy the Shadowhunters. Mortmain needs only one last item to complete his plan. He needs Tessa. And Jem and Will, the boys who lay equal claim to Tessa's heart, will do anything to save her.

I am not going to write a typical review of Clockwork Princess.  In fact, if that’s what you’re looking for, then here you go: Run, do not walk, to your nearest bookstore, buy all three books in The Infernal Devices series, and read them immediately.  Read them as you’ve never read before.  Ignore everything and read with reckless abandon.

Okay, so we got that out of the way.  Now, I know in my Clockwork Prince review, I said that I didn’t want the series to end.  In a manner of speaking, this is still true.  I adore these characters so—not only the core trio of Tessa, Will, and Jem, but the rest as well from Charlotte and dear Henry to the Lightwood brothers to Sophie and Cecily and always Magnus—and I would love to spend years and books and lifetimes with them.  However, I also truly love a satisfying finale, and that is exactly what Cassandra Clare gives her readers with this last installment.  By the Angel, what a thrill ride! 

This entire series overflows with action and adventure, but this book in particular is nonstop.  It’s got training, fighting, torture, revenge, giant metallic monsters, chases, escapes, true love… doesn’t sound too bad, eh?  It’s an incredibly visual book as well.  Many of the scenes explode from the pages, as if they happen right before your eyes.  It’s hard to write this without spoiling it for everyone, but there are many scenes with Will on a solo mission that really stuck with me.  He has a brutal sequence that ends with a fight with a band of werewolves that is described in vivid, exquisite, see-it-all-playing-out-in-your-mind detail.  Gah.  It’s really good, is what I’m saying.

 And for all its action and suspense, this is a story to be savored, not devoured.  I took my sweet time reading this (hence, the review appearing weeks rather than days after its release).  Like Steven Tyler, I didn’t want to miss a thing.  Believe me, I am usually a quick-as-lightning reader, so it was often a struggle to take my time with this, but I’m so glad I did.  Fans of Clare’s other series know that even the smallest detail can find its way back into the story when you least expect it, and I suspect there are many details from this story that we will hear again.

Finally, there’s that love triangle.  I’ll only say that it is resolved in an entirely fitting manner.  However, as invested as I am with these characters, it’s so interesting to me that the relationship I cheer for most is the parabatai relationship between Jem and Will.  Almost every moment that moved me, that affected me, that caused me to shed tears involved these two broken boys.  To use a phrase of Tumblr speak, I can’t even with those two.  They make me lose my ability to even.

Again, I implore you to run to the bookstore and buy these books already.  The Infernal Devices easily earns a spot as one of my all-time favorite book series.  It’s not perfect, but it’s perfect for me.  I wish I could read more of them, but I am so grateful to have this ending, just as it is.

City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare

Release Date: May 8, 2012
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry
Age Group: Young Adult
Format: Kindle
Source: Purchased
Series: The Mortal Instruments #5
Pages: 536
Buy: Amazon / Book Depository / IndieBound
Description: Goodreads
The demon Lilith has been destroyed and Jace has been freed from her captivity. But when the Shadowhunters arrive to rescue him, they find only blood and broken glass. Not only is the boy Clary loves missing–but so is the boy she hates, Sebastian, the son of her father Valentine: a son determined to succeed where their father failed, and bring the Shadowhunters to their knees.

No magic the Clave can summon can locate either boy, but Jace cannot stay away—not from Clary. When they meet again Clary discovers the horror Lilith’s dying magic has wrought—Jace is no longer the boy she loved. He and Sebastian are now bound to each other, and Jace has become what he most feared: a true servant of Valentine’s evil. The Clave is determined to destroy Sebastian, but there is no way to harm one boy without destroying the other. Will the Shadowhunters hesitate to kill one of their own?

Only a small band of Clary and Jace’s friends and family believe that Jace can still be saved — and that the fate of the Shadowhunters’ future may hinge on that salvation. They must defy the Clave and strike out on their own. Alec, Magnus, Simon and Isabelle must work together to save Jace: bargaining with the sinister Faerie Queen, contemplating deals with demons, and turning at last to the Iron Sisters, the reclusive and merciless weapons makers for the Shadowhunters, who tell them that no weapon on this earth can sever the bond between Sebastian and Jace. Their only chance of cutting Jace free is to challenge Heaven and Hell — a risk that could claim any, or all, of their lives.

And they must do it without Clary. For Clary has gone into the heart of darkness, to play a dangerous game utterly alone. The price of losing the game is not just her own life, but Jace’s soul. She’s willing to do anything for Jace, but can she even still trust him? Or is he truly lost? What price is too high to pay, even for love?

Darkness threatens to claim the Shadowhunters in the harrowing fifth book of the Mortal Instruments series.

If you are reading this review of the fifth volume in the Mortal Instruments series in order to decide whether to read the series, here is my heartfelt recommendation: 

Step away from the computer, go pick up a copy of City of Bones, open to page 1, and begin.  

Once you’ve flown through all five books in a matter of days and are left bleary-eyed from a mind-bending combination of uncontrollable sobbing and lack of sleep, return here to participate in the commiseration known as Shadowhunter Feels.

City of Lost Souls is full of all the aspects we’ve grown to expect from this wild and unpredictable series: there's sweeping romance, pulse-pounding action, and an exceedingly complex and creep-tastic villain.

WARNING: FROM HERE ON OUT, MILD SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE SERIES MAY ABOUND. 

Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare

Release Date: December 6, 2011
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Age Group: Young Adult
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
Pages: 528
Buy: Fountain Bookstore / Amazon
Description: Goodreads
In the magical underworld of Victorian London, Tessa Gray has at last found safety with the Shadowhunters. But that safety proves fleeting when rogue forces in the Clave plot to see her protector, Charlotte, replaced as head of the Institute. If Charlotte loses her position, Tessa will be out on the street and easy prey for the mysterious Magister, who wants to use Tessa's powers for his own dark ends.

With the help of the handsome, self-destructive Will and the fiercely devoted Jem, Tessa discovers that the Magister's war on the Shadowhunters is deeply personal. He blames them for a long-ago tragedy that shattered his life. To unravel the secrets of the past, the trio journeys from mist-shrouded Yorkshire to a manor house that holds untold horrors, from the slums of London to an enchanted ballroom where Tessa discovers that the truth of her parentage is more sinister than she had imagined. When they encounter a clockwork demon bearing a warning for Will, they realize that the Magister himself knows their every move and that one of their own has betrayed them.

Tessa finds her heart drawn more and more to Jem, though her longing for Will, despite his dark moods, continues to unsettle her. But something is changing in Will; the wall he has built around himself is crumbling. Could finding the Magister free Will from his secrets and give Tessa the answers about who she is and what she was born to do?

As their dangerous search for the Magister and the truth leads the friends into peril, Tessa learns that when love and lies are mixed, they can corrupt even the purest heart.

I cannot stop thinking about Clockwork Prince. Quite literally. I keep thinking about what an amazing series The Infernal Devices is turning out to be, how much I adore these characters, and what new twists and turns Cassandra Clare has up her sleeve for Clockwork Princess. It will be quite difficult to post a spoiler-free review, but I’ll do my utmost.

This is the first time I have ever cheered for all sides of a love triangle before. I am totally Team Everybody. Will is so freakin’ tormented all by his own volition, Jem is physically falling apart but mentally and emotionally strong and brilliant, and Tessa… well, I am so fond of Tessa. She’s strong-willed and opinionated and romantic and literary and about 400 other awesome things. This love triangle works for me because I feel Tessa is worthy of Jem& Will’s affection, and they are equally worthy of hers. It’s not simply about physical attraction (though that obviously plays a part) or something supernatural that affects them. It’s sincere and beautiful.

What truly makes this love story work for me is that as a reader of The Mortal Instruments series, I have the curse of knowledge so I know certain things to be true for the future of these characters. However, even if you haven’t read TMI, you can still guess what’s coming up ahead. No combination of this triangle can end in blissful skipping into the sunset, so it’s utterly heart-breaking either way. This kind of story is what I personally call sad/happy, and it’s my very favorite. I love anything that makes me smile and breaks me down at the same time. Call me crazy, but it’s true. Both of Clare’s series have aspects of sad/happy in droves, but I think it’s perfectly displayed in the Jem/Will/Tessa relationship.

The Mortmain plot is also veryfascinating. The Shadowhunters of the London Institute delve into his background in a way that’s very Voldemortian (is so a word). They receive answers but from those answers only spout more questions. Some of those questions deal with Tessa’s background as well and what she is exactly. Clare has this innate and incredible talent of giving the reader just enough to keep them sated while still withholding important details. It’s a mix that not every author can successfully accomplish, but Clare can, and how. She answers the right amount of questions but creates more in the process without being exasperating. I hope she’s writing fast, because this rabid fanbase will be quite ready for Clockwork Princess just as soon as they read the last page. And OH, what a last page it is!

I basically knew I would love this before I even received it, but I am so pleasantly surprised by how much I loved it. Even though TMI was my gateway into the Shadow World, I really wish Clare would write more of this series. I really don’t want it to end. I have already recommended this series to many of my friends, and I will continue to do so. Clockwork Prince is an excellent second book in an equally excellent series. Team Everybody.