Author: Cassandra Clare
Series: Infernal Devices, Book 2
Publisher: Walker Books
Published: December 2011
502 pages

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.

Cassandra Clare is officially an evil genious! I had high expectations for this book and I had presumed that I was going to enjoy reading it. But I ended up enjoying it far more than I expected. It simply is a superb follow up to Clockwork Angel!

Warning – Clockwork Angel spoilers ahead!

At the end of Clockwork Angel, the shadowhunters and Tessa were betrayed by Tessa’s brother Nate and failed to capture The Magister. In Clockwork Prince, it is decided by the Council that Charlotte is on her last chance at running the Institute and is subsiquently given 2 weeks to prove her worth by finding The Magister. A task which proves to be very difficult. And this is the main plot of the book. They follow leads which take them to various places such as Yorkshire and which introduces us to new characters. As with Clockwork Angel, this story has a nice steady pace to it and I was again really pleased with this. Cassandra has written in just enough action and adventure to keep the story from being too slow but we are also not overwelmed by too much of it.

There are some very good side plots woven into this installment too. Jessamine is noticably absent for much of the proceedings and is found to be sneaking out in the dead of night, Will is hiding a huge secret about his past and his family which gave us a few refreshing chapters from his point of view, and we are also introduced in more detail to the Lightwood brothers who are given the task of training Tessa and Sophie to fight (should the need arise). I very much enjoyed all these sub plots and felt they added great variety to the story line.

The love triangle is another great point to this book. We saw the beginnings of it in Clockwork Angel but Clockwork Prince kicks it up to a whole other level. On the one side we have kind, caring and fragile Jem who Tessa has become very close to and is starting to think that there may be more between them. And then on the other side there’s Will. After the horrible things he said to Tessa at the end of Clockwork Angel Tessa decides to keep out of his way and not get involved with him, but for some reason she is drawn to him and can’t seem to shake the feeling that he is keeping something from her about his true feelings. I wont say who she ends up with becuase I don’t want to spoil it but personally I was very pleased with her choice!

I think that I now definitely prefer this series to The Mortal Instruments. As much as I love The Mortal Instruments, I don’t think the characters in it are as good as The Infernal Devices characters. I feel more connected to Tessa, Will and Jem and I feel like I care more for the side charcters of this series than I do for The Mortal Instruments’ side characters. And also I think that the Victorian time period and the London setting of these books is a bit more interesting than that of the current day New York Mortal Instruments. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed Clockwork Prince. More than I thought I would given that it is a ‘middle’ book of a trilogy and I’m really looking forward to seeing how this all ends in Clockwork Princess next year. I have full faith in Cassandra Clare that she will bring this amazing series to an eipic conclusion!

Author: Cassandra Clare
Series: Infernal Devices, Book 1
Publisher: Walker Books
Published: August 2010
476 pages

Magic is dangerous–but love is more dangerous still.

When sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London’s Downworld, where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets. Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos.

Kidnapped by the mysterious Dark Sisters, members of a secret organization called The Pandemonium Club, Tessa soon learns that she herself is a Downworlder with a rare ability: the power to transform, at will, into another person. What’s more, the Magister, the shadowy figure who runs the Club, will stop at nothing to claim Tessa’s power for his own.

Friendless and hunted, Tessa takes refuge with the Shadowhunters of the London Institute, who swear to find her brother if she will use her power to help them. She soon finds herself fascinated by–and torn between–two best friends: James, whose fragile beauty hides a deadly secret, and blue-eyed Will, whose caustic wit and volatile moods keep everyone in his life at arm’s length…everyone, that is, but Tessa. As their search draws them deep into the heart of an arcane plot that threatens to destroy the Shadowhunters, Tessa realizes that she may need to choose between saving her brother and helping her new friends save the world…and that love may be the most dangerous magic of all

When I first heard that there would be a prequel series to the Mortal Instruments, I was very skeptical. I had my doubts as to whether it would work and therefore I was very surprised to find that Clockwork Angel was very very good. A breath of fresh air in fact!

This series is set in Victorian era London and so this provided a nice change of scenery from the current day New York setting of the Mortal Instruments. I think this alone gave the book a whole different vibe becuase it seemed to go at a slower pace (but not too slow) than the Mortal Instruments. Don’t get me wrong, I love the quick paced, action filled scenes of the Mortal Instruments but I did like the fact that Clockwork Angel unfolds at a bit more of a manageable pace. We still get some awsome action scenes but the theme of the book just seemed gentler. And I truly loved this.

The characters, though a little similar to those of the original trilogy were also unexpectedly good. Tessa (our protagonist), after being kidnapped upon arrival in London from New York finds herself thrown into the world of the London Shadowhunters. They offer to protect her from her kidnappers in exchange for use of her unusual powers. Powers she did not know she had until her kidnappers brought them to the surface. Sound familiar? As I said, there are some similarities between characters from Mortal Instruments and characters from Infernal Devices and I fully expected to be annoyed by this but happily, that never happened. Eventually I forgot about that, mainly because Cassandra Clare is such an awsome writer and she seems to have this ability to draw me in whether by an action scene or a simple conversation scene, it doesn’t matter what she writes, it just completely blows me away!

I must also take a moment to talk about Will and Jem. Both Shadowhunters. Both potential love interests. Personally I’m team Jem. Mainly becuase I would like the underdog to ‘get the girl’ for a change. But I do like Will too. I look forward to seeing what happens with these 2 chaps in the rest of the series.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed Clockwork Angel. It far exceeded everything I was expecting of it and I enjoyed it just as much as any of the Mortal Instruments books, if not more!