Book Reviews: Between Shades of Gray and The Maze Runner

Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare / Book Review

Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices #3) by Cassandra Clare

☞ SPOILERS ☜ 

Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Historical Fiction, ParanormalSource: Own - hardcover

Summary: "Danger and betrayal, secrets and enchantment in the breathtaking conclusion to the Infernal Devices trilogy.

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 Shaodwhunters 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. "

✰ REVIEW ✰

“We live and breathe words. .... It was books that made me feel that perhaps I was not completely alone. They could be honest with me, and I with them."

-Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Princess

When I started out on booktube, Cassandra Clare's books were always recommended to me so I bought The Mortal Instruments series, which I loved so much. Then I found out about The Infernal Devices and though I was very excited to read this prequel series, I initially thought that it cannot be better than TMI. 

Boy was I wrong.

▪PLOT, SETTING AND TMI CONNECTIONS▪


Whilst TMI books were very fast paced and action packed, TID is a much slower series, with action scenes scattered sparingly throughout the three books. However, I did not find this a disadvantage as it leaves more space for character-reader connections, character relationships, and background information.

I love, love, love the setting of this book! I, myself, live in England and to read about it from an earlier time period is so interesting and fun. Hearing names of places  that I've personally visited - such as Tenby in Wales - is really exciting. Also, the way the Shadow world is executed in this series was a lot clearer than the way it was done in TMI. Having said this, there is very little explanation about Idris and other aspects of the Shadowhunter history. 

There are many plot twists and surprises in this book including Jem becoming part of the Brotherhood and Tessa changing into angel Ithuriel (which if you have forgotten, is the angel that Valentine locked up in TMI) and these had such huge impacts on me and kept me reading all through to the early hours. 

Having mentioned angel Ithuriel, I have to credit Cassie for her connection of the two series: TMI and TID. From little to connections such as the white, star shaped mark Tessa's clockwork angel left on Will (later on appearing on Jace in TMI as he is a descendant of Will and Tessa) to big connections such as the portal being made by Henry and Magnus (which was annoyingly altered in the movie).  
There is no way magic was not involved whilst writing this series.


FAVORITE PARTS:

• Battle with Mortmain
• Magnus walking into Will and Tessa 

• Consul dying.
• Jessamine's fairwells
• The creation of the Portal
• "Oh him," he said. "This is Cecily's friend, Mr. Gabriel Lightworm."

▪CHARACTERS AND RELATIONSHIPS▪


My heart ached for the characters and I understood why they decided to do what they did - even the villains. Except Mortmain, of course.
Charlotte and Henry are so perfect for each other and I love the fact that men are not always the stronger ones in a relationship. In CP2, you could really tell that Charlotte and Henry loved each other and I just love their relationship.
Cecily reminded me a lot of Isabelle - the way she fought and how proud she was to be a shadowhunter. I loved her kick ass decisions and I was so happy that her and Gabriel's relationship worked out. 
Sophie and Bridget were very loyal and also bad ass characters and when Sophie ascended it brought tears to my eyes because that was what she had always wanted but felt that she could not ask for more than she was already getting. Charlotte and Sophie were very close and they felt almost like sisters; another great minor relationship Cassie decided to incorporate. 
Magnus. Magnus fricking Bane. Was he awesome or was he awesome. Loved how sophisticated he was and also how close he was to the shadowhunters. As glamorous as ever, Mr Bane;)
Jessamine! Her death was such a tear jerker. I missed her character throughout the rest of the book and kept imagining what she would have thought of Cecily and the Lightwood brothers.
Mortmain, Mrs Black and the automatons were so creepy. That's all there is to say.

So now let's move on to our amazing trio. These three characters are just amazing and I cannot imagine the book being written with any other character in their place.
Tessa. Will. Jem.
Will. Jem. Tessa.
Jem. Tessa Will.

Unlike the Twilight Saga or THG, I could not side with any of the love interests. The love triangle in this books is so unique. Those of you who hate love triangles will definitely not hate this one!
I loved Will as much as I loved Jem and vice versa. I wanted the best for both of them and I thought it was impossible and only one could be with Tessa. 
Jem was a darling. He was sweet and caring and reminded me a lot of Peeta (minus silver hair). I now have a slight obsession with learning Mandarin now! 
Will was snarky and cheeky but also very loving an vulnerable inside! After reading this series, Will has suddenly become the most sexy name on the planet. 
Their relationship with Tessa were both unique and they both had different connections to her.
Will through books. Jem through music.

"Wo ai ni." - Jem, Clockwork Princess

"Marry me and stay with me and never leave me, for I cannot bear another day of my life to go by that does not have you in it." - Will, Clockwork Princess

My favorite relationship in this book is actually the Jem-Will parabatai relationship. I cried a LOT during their scenes together!


"If there is a life after this one, let me meet you in it, James Carstairs." - Will, Clockwork Princess


"The world is a wheel. When we rise or fall, we do it together."
"Wherever we are, we are as one" - Jem, Clockwork Princess  

▪THE END▪

THE EPILOGUE. WHO EXPECTED THAT?

My heart after:

The epilogue was beautiful.
The epilogue was heartbreaking.
The epilogue was phenomenal.

The series could not have ended in any other way. Will had lived and died with Tessa by his side. A cure for Jem had been found, therefore enabling him to be freed from the Brotherhood, allowing him to finally be with Tessa after over a century of meeting up annually on Blackfriar's Bridge (which actually still exists now). 

The ending just blew me away and made me cry, laugh, smile and die all at the same time.
THE FEELS. THE FEELS.

"Come with me. Stay with me. Be with me. See everything with me. I have traveled the world and seen so much, but there is so much more, and no one I would go rather see it with than you. I would go everywhere and anywhere with you, Jem Carstairs." - Tessa Clockwork Princess 

Overall, Clockwork Princess was truly amazing and I enjoyed everything about it. It was sad, humorous, quirky, amazing and you are left speechless afterwards.
The characters and the story will remain forever in my heart and I wish I could somehow bring them to life so I can meet each one of them!



"Zhe shi jie shang, wo shi zui ai ne de." - Jem, Clockwork Princess 

In all the world, you are what I love the most.

RATING:✰✰✰✰✰

The War Inside by M. Kircher | Book Review

The War Inside (The Horizons Trilogy, #1)

The end of the world is only just the beginning. So eighteen-year-old Thea discovers when her solitary life on a dying Earth is shattered by a mysterious dream, a devastating choice, and a strange gift that propels her on a journey towards the restoration of all mankind.

Thea is bitter and alone; eking out her miserable life on the sunless, cloud-covered Earth she inhabits. A terrifying dream convinces her to save the life of an injured girl, and despite her misgivings, Thea decides to rescue sixteen-year-old Viviana. She soon learns that gentle Viv has a life-threatening infection, as well as a freakish patch of glowing skin over her heart. When this light spreads to Thea, causing her palms to glow, she is forced to trust Caden, an arrogant, lazy, and annoyingly handsome boy she utterly despises. Caden has a map to the last city on Earth, and the only place that might have a cure for both Viv's infection and the strange light on Thea's hands. As the trio embark on a journey through the barren wilderness, Thea and Caden discover, and try to fight, their mounting attraction to each other. Along the way they are joined by Rain, Naomi, and Enoch who explain that the light is not a curse, but a powerful gift meant to heal the polluted Earth and reconnect the remnants of humanity. When the group learns that Viv is the key to this planet-wide redemption, and that there are deadly shadows who will do anything to keep humans in the darkness forever, they each must make the difficult decision to help Viv fulfill her destiny...and save the world.

▪PLOT▪

I feel that the plot of this book started off very slow and it took me a while to get into it. I picked it up and put it down for a more fast paced book. However, I did push myself to pick it up again and I'm glad that I did because the pace did pick up after a while.
I would have liked a lot more action and since the title is "The War Inside", I thought there was going to be some kind of physical war. 
Also, the plot got a little confusing at times and the author contradicted a few facts that I tried to overlook because the writing was so beautifully done. There was so much description and it made me feel like I was looking at all these things in real life. Even the little things were described amazingly and I definitely credit the author for that.

▪CHARACTERS▪

The characters were a problem to me. They were really good characters, don't get me wrong. You could see that the author really spent time on these characters; developing and fine tuning them. 
However, I didn't feel them. I did not feel close to them and I couldn't relate to anything. The characters to me were just people I read about and for a book to be really good, I have to feel for the characters and suffer with them. In this book I just couldn't do that.
The reason for that is there was nothing of the character that I could grab and hold on to. Nothing that stood out. 
In a few month's time I will probably forget Thea and Caden. They are not the sort of character I would remember because of the lack of connection with the reader.

Overall, I give this book 3 stars. If the characters had more connection with the reader, I would have given it 4 stars. The writing was beautiful and overall a good read.

---- This is the first read and review I've ever done and found it really fun to do and definitely pushed me to read more books that aren't popular ---