Review: Clockwork Prince (The Infernal Devices #2) by Cassandra Clare

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: December 6, 2011

Pages: 497

Source: For Review from Simon and Schuster Canada (Thank you!)

Rating: 4.5 Stars

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.

In short: Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare is an exciting sequel featuring heart-wrenching story developments that make for a truly addictive read.

Cassandra Clare has a true talent for messing with her characters' emotions, putting them through hell just when you think they might get a happy ending. This in turn causes the reader to be put through hell too as she also does such a good job at making us fall in love with her characters that it is all the more heart-wrenching when terrible things happen to them. Heart-wrenching sums up my feelings for Clockwork Prince pretty well. And I loved every second of it.

I know I say this in every review of Cassandra Clare's books that I write, but I am terribly fond of her characters. Somehow, Cassie has managed to come up with a whole slew of enigmatic characters just waiting for us to read about to uncover their secrets and mysteries. Every character, main and side, have their own unique and well defined personalities and their own intriguing back stories. It's addictive, this need to uncover the new additions to the seemingly endless backstory reveals for each character. From the moment I opened Clockwork Prince, it was a race to the finish.

The plot progresses nicely in this sequel. Not only are characters changing and developing (in Will's case, drastically), but the plot line surrounding The Magister, his clockwork creatures, and the mystery behind what sort of magical being is Tessa, continues in a rather intriguing way, with lots of action and surprises. It still came off as the second book in a trilogy in that there was a definite building up of even greater things to come, but at no point did the plot seem like unimportant filler as is often the case in second books.

My one quibble is the introduction of the love triangle. I find that they mess with my mind too much, and not in a good way. I find them a bit stressful, to be honest. I would have preferred to have seen more action scenes in the stead of all the love triangle drama that crowded the end of Clockwork Prince. Despite this, Clockwork Prince was an exciting and addictive sequel to an amazing series. I would highly recommend giving The Infernal Devices Series a try if you haven't yet, and checking out Clockwork Prince when it's released December 6, 2011!

Also, check out the newly released (and amazing!) book trailer!

In case you missed it, my Clockwork Angel Review and my Clockwork Prince Teaser Review.

Other Reviews:
Mundie Moms
Planet Print

Author Links:
Website
Blog
Twitter
Goodreads
Fansite - MortalInstruments.net
Fansite - Mundie Moms

In My Mailbox (13)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi of The Story Siren (and inspired by Alea of Pop Culture Junkie) to showcase any books that I have received for review, bought, borrowed, or won to read.

For Review from Simon and Schuster Canada

Fever (The Chemical Garden #2) by Lauren DeStefano

Thanks so much to Simon and Schuster Canada for sending me this ARC! I loved Wither, the first in The Chemical Garden Trilogy, and I'm interested to see where Rhine's story is going to go from where Wither left off.

Bought On Sale

Vampire Academy (Vampire Academy #1) by Richelle Mead

Heist Society (Heist Society #1) by Ally Carter

I broke my Book Buying Ban again to buy these books, but we're talking hard covers for $7 here, so I figured it would be okay. Get I get a "Whoop Whoop" for the Sales Shelf?

Review: Matched (Matched #1) by Ally Condie

Publisher: Penguin

Published: November 30, 2010

Pages: 366

Source: Won from Ally Condie (Thank you!)

Rating: 5 STARS

Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate... until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. 
The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.

In short: Matched by Ally Condie is a captivating dystopian read due to its impeccable writing and perfectly developed world building.

It seems like everyone was initially in love with Matched before it was released, hyping it up and raving about it, and then at some point people were let down from that high and started to find fault with it. They seemed to be legitimate problems, too, from what I read. However, after having read Matched myself (finally!), I have to say that these faults didn't bother me. The following are, to my eyes, the most common problems that people found with Matched and my reasoning behind why I didn't see them as weaknesses (please allow me this unusual review format):

The pacing is very slow. This is very true. Matched is a quiet novel, one without any intense action or earth-shaking events, that people more inclined towards fast paced novels may find boring. Fortunately for me, I seem to have a very high tolerance for slower paced novels as long as the writing is impeccably done (which is why I also adored Beautiful Creatures and Delirium). I was completely swept away in Ally Condie's writing, always held captivated and interested. The flawless incorporation of poetry and symbolism into the text was genius. Consequently, I wasn't bothered the least bit by the lack of action.

The world building wasn't original. The dystopian world in Matched was derivative of other dystopian novels, particularly The Giver. Lucky for me, I've never read The Giver (The shame! I know, I know. I will read it eventually.). I can't say with complete confidence that Matched had a never-before-seen literary world, but among the sea of dystopians I've read this year, it definitely stands out as being the best described and most intriguing (along with Divergent). I loved reading about Matched's perfect-on-the-surface dystopian world that was slowly revealed to be anything but as Cassia discovers disturbing truths about the Society that she has felt safe in her entire life.

So, there you have it: the reasoning why I loved Matched but can understand why other people didn't. I would love to know in the comments how you felt about Matched and if you had similar thoughts regarding the above common issues.

Other Reviews:
Books: A True Story
IceyBooks
She Known As Jess

Author Links:
Blog
Website
Twitter

Review: Dark Inside by Jeyn Roberts

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Published: November 1, 2011

Pages: 336

Source: For Review from Simon & Schuster Canada (Thank you!)

Rating: 2.5 Stars

Since mankind began, civilizations have always fallen: the Romans, the Greeks, the Aztecs…Now it’s our turn. Huge earthquakes rock the world. Cities are destroyed. But something even more awful is happening. An ancient evil has been unleashed, turning everday people into hunters, killers, crazies. Mason's mother is dying after a terrible car accident. As he endures a last vigil at her hospital bed, his school is bombed and razed to the ground, and everyone he knows is killed. Aries survives an earthquake aftershock on a bus, and thinks the worst is over when a mysterious stranger pulls her out of the wreckage, but she’s about to discover a world changed forever. Clementine, the only survivor of an emergency town hall meeting that descends into murderous chaos, is on the run from savage strangers who used to be her friends and neighbors. And Michael witnesses a brutal road rage incident that is made much worse by the arrival of the police--who gun down the guilty party and then turn on the bystanding crowd. Where do you go for justice when even the lawmakers have turned bad? These four teens are on the same road in a world gone mad. Struggling to survive, clinging on to love and meaning wherever it can be found, this is a journey into the heart of darkness – but also a journey to find each other and a place of safety.

In short: Dark Inside by Jeyn Roberts is an intense post-apocalyptic read, but unfortunately lacks distinct character development for its four narrators.

An ancient evil threatens to destroy the world. Countless people are turned into mindless killers and brutally murder the leftover good people one by one. Dark Inside follows four survivors - Mason, Aries, Clementine, and Michael - in their quest to stay alive, find their families, and fight their darkness. Needless to say, Dark Inside is a pretty intense read. It was very fast paced with lots of action and lots of close-calls. Unfortunately though, it just didn't work for me.

My main problem with Dark Inside was there were too many perspectives to keep track of. The four main characters had different backgrounds but ultimately did not have as fully fleshed out personalities as I would have liked, making them difficult separate and difficult to relate to. Also, it did not make for a fun reading experience to have each character's chapter end on a cliffhanger only to return to them finally three chapters later. And often the promised action at the end of the chapter was completely skipped over by the time that character's story was returned to, making the experience even more frustrating.

If there was one interesting aspect that having four perspectives provided though, it's the differing outlooks and actions taken by each character and using this to evaluate what would be the best course of action for me should I ever find myself in a post-apocalyptic setting. You never know. It could happen. What's best: not risking it and staying hidden in a secret hideout or not being a sitting duck and never staying in the same place for more than a night? Grouping together with many people to have safety in numbers or going it alone so that it's not as easy to be tracked? These are important questions that we should ask ourselves in case the world ends tomorrow.

Overall, I can appreciate the intense plot and psychological undercurrents that debut author, Jeyn Roberts, created for Dark Inside. But ultimately, Dark Inside needed more in depth character and world building to keep me interested. I'm confused as to whether this one is a planned series or a standalone, but there were certainly a ton of unanswered questions leftover.

Other Reviews:
Books of Amber
The Bursting Bookshelf
Cheezyfeet Books

Author Links:
Twitter
Goodreads

*Read as part of the 2011 Debut Author Challenge

Winner!

It's time to announce the winner of my Clockwork Prince ARC Giveaway! There were a total of 305 people who entered and 1067 entries. And the winner, according to random.org, is:

Hafsah @ IceyBooks!

Congrats Hafsah!! I hope you love this book! Please email me with your address within the next 48 hours at ayleejaine(at)gmail(dot)com.

Teaser Review: Clockwork Prince (The Infernal Devices #2) by Cassandra Clare

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Published: December 6, 2011

Pages: 497

Source: For Review from Simon & Schuster Canada (Thank you!)

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 plan on posting my full review for Clockwork Prince closer to the release date but I thought I would post a teaser review consisting of my thoughts page by page. Sorry if this is considered cruel for those of you who have been dying to read this book...  my goal is just to make everyone excited to read it (as if you weren't already)!

Page 24: Excited for Tessa to get some Shadowhunter training! She is way too much of a lady.

Page 71: Oh, how I've missed Cassandra Clare's trademark humour.

Page 98: Victorian England is my favourite setting ever.

Page 143: Will's secret revealed! Holy crap.

Page 173: I love bookish heroines.

Page 195: Ha! Will totally deserved that. Good one Jem.

Page 206: Wow. Cassie sure knows how to write racy kissing scenes. That was hot. I am once again impressed by Jem.

Page 210: Oh, Henry. I like eggs too.

Page 218: Go Sophie! She is fast becoming my favourite character.

Page 250: I think I love Will and Jem's bromance even more than Tessa's relationships with Will and Jem.

Page 254: Again, Sophie?! She's fierce.

Page 278: Who knew Benedict Lightwood was so kinky.

Page 292: Love triangles are confusing and mess with my mind.

Page 318: Teehee. You so silly, Magnus.

Page 386: Cassie has a true talent at writing action scenes. So intense.

Page 423: Aw! So happy for them. Very sweet.

Page 428: !!!!

Page 439: Heehee. I quite like giddy Will.

Page 474: Again, this love triangle is messing with me.

Page 498: Grrr... what a way to end this!

Hope you enjoyed that tease. I strongly urge everyone to read this series if you haven't yet! Interested in getting a chance to read Clockwork Prince early? Enter my Clockwork Prince ARC Giveaway!

Also, check out this amazing book trailer: