Review ~ Clockwork Princess ~ Cassandra Clare

Title: Clockwork Princess

Author: Cassandra Clare

Published:  March 19^th 2013

By: Walker Books.

First line: "I'm afraid" said the little girl sitting on the bed.

Last line:  Sorry, spoilery!

Fave line: Sorry, if I started adding fave lines in here, I'd end up re-writing half the book!

So Clockwork Princess has been my most anticipated book since the release of its predecessor, Clockwork Prince.  I've certainly made no secret of my affiliation to Team Jem and I have devoured every teaser and every plot theory on every website that I could get my hands on whilst I waited for its release.  To compound the anticipation further I spent hour after hour speculating further with my twitter peeps as to how things might conclude.  In the end was I disappointed? Um, that would be a huge no! Actually I got everything I wanted and more!

Clare has managed to wrap up the lives of everyone in the Infernal Devices series very neatly and I will talk about that soon. Now is not the time. We have far more pressing matters to get out in the open. I can’t really go any further without discussing what is undoubtedly the most perfect love triangle ever created! EVER! Jem, Tessa and Will. Oh. My. God. There were so many feels  in this last read I can’t even begin to explain.  Are there winners and losers in the end? I actually think there are but you have to get right to the end of the book, right to the end of the epilogue and then you have to think about it for a bit to realise it.  Or at least I did, but then I was pretty numb for about a week so it did take me a while… No spoilers here, but just to say that what with Jem being so ill and so in love with Tessa, with Will being so in love with Tessa and trying to hide it because of his love for Jem, with Tessa being in love with both of them and with Will and Tessa both fearing for Jem’s health this book chewed me up and spat me out over and over again.  I lost almost a whole nights’ sleep, partly because I couldn't put the book down, partly because when I did put the book down, when the words were starting to blur, I was so overdosed on the feels I couldn't sleep anyway!

The furore surrounding the Jem/Tessa/Will triangle does have the potential to steer readers attention away from the main plot.  Thankfully this did not happen for me.  Mortmain’s plans really start to take centre stage in this final instalment and we finally get to see just how deluded he is and how much he is prepared to sacrifice to get his own way.  The final battle scenes in this story are really well written and provide a fitting conclusion to the story as a whole.

I was pleased that the peripheral stories still stood out, even amongst the angst and the feels. Jessamine’s return to the Institute, Gideon Lightwood’s relationship with Sophie, Charlotte’s battle to keep her role as leader of the Institute and to keep her family together and Henry’s devotion to her kept me transfixed from the first page.  Magnus was a joy as ever, and I love how much softer he is in this series. He often speaks throughout both TID and TMI about how immortality and the losses one experiences hardens one over time and I can see how that has clearly happened to him over the centuries.  I will admit I was a little annoyed by Will’s sister Cecily at first and she seemed to come across as a spoilt brat but I did start to warm towards her towards the middle of the book.  Did I like her by the end? Jury's still out on that one…

There are some fab little snippets in here that tie in really nicely with The Mortal Instruments, not that I'm telling you here because that would be spoilery but when they do pop up it's like a eureka moment.  You'll see what I mean when you get there. There is also a lot of humour in this book and it stands out even more when it crops up in the most dramatic of scenes.  As ever most of the humour revolves around Will, unsurprisingly. There were also a couple of scenes that took me completely by surprise, more because of their timing than anything else but having read the rationale behind Clare’s decisions I can kind of see why she wrote what she wrote even though I may not fully agree.  We do also lose a couple of well-loved characters along the way but by the epilogue we have gained so much more.  As for the epilogue itself  Yeah, that was the final nail in my coffin.  And whatever you do, do NOT look at the family tree until you've finished the book.  It will totally spoil it for you!

Clare states that this book is about love and loss and she handles both beautifully. One day soon, once I've taken the books out of the freezer I'm hoping to sit down and read the series again from start to finish.  Until then I'm just going to sit on my sofa and sigh a lot and hope that there are other books out there that can match this one.  I don’t think they’ll be easy to find…

Rating: 5/5  Team Jem! That is all. Thank you.

Review ~ Icons ~ Margaret Stohl

Title: Icons

Author: Margaret Stohl

Published:  May 7th 2013

By: Little, Brown Books

Source: netgalley

First line: One tiny grey dot, no bigger than a freckle, marks the inside of the baby’s chubby arm.

Last line:  May silence bring her peace.

Fave line: But just because something comes from the sky doesn’t make it an angel.

If you follow the reviews on Midnight Reads you’ll know how much I’ve shipped the Beautiful Creatures series. I loved the style of writing and the warm that is held within the words that Margaret Stohl and kami Garcia wrote.  Imagine my excitement then when I discover that one of my fave authors is starting a new series and taking on the dystopian world.  That’s like Christmas in my world! Give me a preview copy for review and I’m on the verge of cartwheeling around the garden!

In writing Icons Stohl has created a world no less rich in detail than those she has built before.  The setting for Icons has the potential to be cold and bleak and yet she has created characters who, for all their in-fighting and battles against those that hold them captive, are still drenched in warmth and who still have hope.

Being dystopian Icons is not surprisingly set in the future, roughly a hundred years from now and the current situation that our main protagonists find themselves in is an event which has been called ‘The Day’. It was on the day that aliens landed on earth depositing thirteen icons in major cities around the world, wiping out all forms of energy as they saw fit and killing millions in the process. Only those that have been allowed to live are still breathing. Enter Dol and Ro, who have survived the invasion and have been raised by the Padre in the wilderness.  Both have a mark on their arms although they differ and neither knows what it means until Dol is kidnapped.  As Ro attempts to rescue her they end up hostages of the Embassy where they meet Tima and Lucas.  Tima like them is a hostage of the Embassy and has been for years.  Lucas on the other hand is the son of the Ambassador, the woman who holds all three hostage.  What links all four characters is that they all bare marks on their wrists, each is different and together they seem to hold the key to overthrowing the icons that have all but wiped out earth.

First, I loved the layout of this book.  The additional notes that were added in between chapters sent me off at all kinds of tangents which was marvellous and certainly kept me thinking until the final pieces of the plot began to fit together.  I did like the pace of this first instalment.  As with any series you need time to develop the world and the setting, particularly so with sci-fi dystopian reads as they take us further from reality.  Stohl has done this amazingly and it was easy to picture every setting and every building as she took us through them.

There are some amazing characters in this read.  Each has their strengths and their weaknesses and there is a certain fear that seems to underlie a lot of the behaviours that we read about, whether it’s fear of rejection, fear of loss or just fear of the unknown there are times when you want to hug these characters and times when you want to slap them. Dol has the potential to become a strong female protagonist and I look forward to seeing her develop over future instalments and the same goes for Tima.  I think between the two of them they could seriously kick ass!  As for the two male leads who form our triangle I find myself flitting between them which is not something I often do.  I normally join my team and that’s where I stay.  But there are pros and cons with Ro and Lucas and I think it won’t be until I read more about their characters that I’ll decide which camp I’m in.  I also liked the character Doc and his really bad attempts at humour and I hope that Fortis features more in the next instalment as he had me hooked from his first appearance in the train.

The action is this book is fast paced and as ever Stohl delivers it well, particularly as you reach the climax of the story, the ending of which sets the scene for what promises to be a pretty marvellous sequel.  I look forward to getting my hands on it in the near future!

Rating: 4/5.  It looks like we have another winning series on our hands! If you love a dystopian read then this may be the one for you!

p.s. Just in case you missed the trailer for Icons you can find it here.

Stacking The Shelves #46

 Stacking The Shelves is hosted by Tyngs's Reviews and is all about sharing the books you are adding to your   shelves, may they be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical stores or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

We love sharing our books with you each week but more importantly we loving see what you add to your shelves. All links added here will take you to goodreads.

Bungle's shelves

This week I bought two books :) My first is so very beautiful! I treated myself to Johanna Basford's Secret Garden: An Inky Treasure Hunt and Colouring Book. I actually bought two copies, one as a gift for a friend. It's so lovely and the perfect book for all the creative people out there. Johanna was a featured artist here on Midnight Reads before we concentrated solely on books. I feel like owning this book is like owning her art work, I have yet to add any colour to it! The next book I bought was Fall of Night by Rachel Caine which is book 14 in the Morganville series. I'm reading Bitter Blood and the moment and just love these characters! It will be a sad farewell once book 15 is released and the series is over!

Sally's shelves

So this has been a particularly good week for me.  I've gotten my hands on three grand finales all of which I've been looking forward to for a long time!  I received copies of If I Should Die by Amy Plum, Shades of Earth by Beth Revis and Boundless by Cynthia Hand.  Boundless has actually been out for a while and I've been patiently waiting for the paperback edition to be released. That was until I read somewhere on the intermaweb that there was no longer a UK publisher and that the American hardback was the only option.  It's a pity in as much as 1) it's more expensive and 2) my series no longer matches but what's a girl to do? I'm Team Tucker first and foremost and sometimes a girl's just gotta prioritise right?

 

Some rather fabulous books we think. We hope you got some good ones too.