Book Review: Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare



The Infernal Devices #3

Published by: Walker Books Ltd
Pages: 568
Rating: 5/5

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.
This book was a stunningly beautiful end to the trilogy. From the beginning it was an emotional roller coaster and all the characters were put to the test, placed in positions where they had to make decisions for better or for worse.

Much of the plot was centred around the relationships of the characters. For me this was not to the books' detriment as from the first page of Clockwork Angel it was clear that it was these relationships that made up the heart and soul of the story, and gave it reason to exist rather than Mortmain and his army of automatons. To see how these relationships have developed was truly a wonderful experience and one that lovers of Cassandra Clare's work will immensely enjoy.

The plot arcs were finished well and in many cases I was surprised with how things turned out. The ending of the first part of the book was a wonderful surprise and I loved the character dimension this brought throughout the rest of the tale. The end of the Mortmain arc I didn't see coming but loved how Clare brought everything together and showed us what had been in front of our eyes the whole time. There was one part of the book that set off my suspicion radar and I'm glad that I was right, enough said about that.

I know a lot of people will say the ending was a bit of a cop-out and it was, but by the end of the book I didn't care. I had felt so much for these characters that I couldn't help but be overjoyed and sad all at once for the characters in the epilogue. Those last few pages had such an impact that I'm still reeling from it and extremely curious about what will happen in City of Heavenly Fire to allow this ending to occur.

Book Review: Firelight by Sophie Jordan

Firelight #1

Published By: HarperTeen
Pages: 323
Rating: 1.5/5

A hidden truth. Mortal enemies. Doomed love.

With her rare ability to breathe fire, Jacinda is special even among the draki--the descendants of dragons who can shift between human and dragon forms. But when Jacinda's rebelliousness forces her family to flee into the human world, she struggles to adapt, even as her draki spirit fades. The one thing that revives it is the gorgeous, elusive Will, whose family hunts her kind. Jacinda can't resist getting closer to him, even though she knows she's risking not only her life but the draki's most closely guarded secret.

Mythical powers and breathtaking romance ignite in this story of a girl who defies all expectations and whose love crosses an ancient divide.

Looking at the premise this book it comes across as being a potentially good read. I mean it contains dragons and who doesn't love dragons! But more than that the draki (dragonesque people) take centre stange, a mythology that I haven't yet read in a book. So it should've a breath of fresh air among the vampires, angels and mermainds. Unfortunately, rather than play to this point I felt that the mythology was a bit of tack-on. Don't get me wrong the mythology is actually very well thought out and detailed, you could really believe that there are communities of draki hidden among us but what got to me was it wasn't the focus of the book. For the most part it was a bad rewrite of a Romeo & Juliet story.

The main girl, Jacinda, is a draki but not just any draki she is the first fire-breather in hundreds of years and is slated to marry the pride (draki community) prince, Cassian, and make lots of fire breathing babies. One day she decides to go flying during the day, a big no-no in the pride as you know humans might see her. And of course she is seen but by the worst type of human in a draki's eye, hunters, people who find, trap and kill her kind for money. But just when she thinks she's a goner, the hunter who finds her decides to let her live and leads the others away. Can you see where this is going? Now in big toruble with the pride her mother decides to pack her and her sister up and leave the pride for good, taking her to a small dessert town near Las Vegas in the hope that the dry, hot conditions will kill her draki. Enrolled in the high school in the town who does she come across, the hunter that saved her, Will. Boy meets girl insta-love occurs, boredom kicks in and bye bye much of the draki storyline.

Jacinda is one of the most annoying female characters I have ever read. Seriously, she is a selfish whiny biatch. All she ever thinks about is herself and how much she hates her mum and sisterr for dragging her there and trying to kill her draki. How dare they?! But lets not forget that she doesn't tell them the town in swaming with a family of hunters, that she's in love with one, and oh Cassian has found their hiding spot and wants her to return to the pride with him. You know, no biggie at all, it's not like there's any chance of you being killed....oh wait. Other than being completely whiny and selfish, she also can't make up her damn mind. I love Will and I want to be with him but I can't because he's a hunter but oh well I'm going to make out with him anyway and secretly meet up with him. I hate the pride, my lack of freedom there and I want to get away from it but I want to be there again becuase that's where I belong. I hate my mum and sister for bringing me here but I can't hate them because they like it and finally fit in. Seriously girl, make up you god damn mind becuase at this point I want to slap you over the head and tell you to get your shit together.

Will is boring and quite frankly a bit stalkerish. I cared nothing for him and didn't think he had any chemistry with Jacinda what-so-ever. Really there's not much else to say. Oh he's kinda dumb becuase he's meant to have a spidey-sense for draki but can't tell Jacinda is one when she's sitting right next to him...must be the "chemistry" between them or it could be bad chicken, my bet is on the chicken though and that's the reason he's instanly fallen in love with her without knowing a damn thing about her. Ditto to you to Jacinda.

Really, the only saving grace was Cassian. He was kinda cool and much more interesting than Will.