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Gave this book 4 stars! This review will contain no spoilers for Clockwork Prince, but if you have not read book one, then do not read this because there are spoilers for book one!
Summary:
Clockwork Prince is the second book in The Infernal Devices trilogy. It follows up on Tessa and those in the London Institute after the big reveal of who the Magister is. Charlotte, the head of the Institute, is struggling to keep her position as others in the Clave think she is unsuited for it. Without Charlotte, Tessa will have no safe haven from the Magister who is still after her. It’s up to Tessa, Jem, Will, and the others in the Institute to find the Magister and put an end to his plans, but the Shadowhunters find that the Magister seemingly knows all their next moves.
I debated a long time doing a review for this and I feel like I need to because this book was most definitely better than the first one. I actually didn’t like Clockwork Angel all that much. I thought it was just okay, but this sequel was a huge step up. I still think it’s more of a 4 star than 5 star read, but Cassie Clare does a great job of expanding upon the plot, the histories of the characters, and the romance! There are secrets you wouldn’t expect to find out, there are betrayals to be made, there is tons of action just waiting to happen. I’m glad I read this book because now I’m actually excited to finish this trilogy.
Sid note: Is that supposed to be Jem on the cover? He is super adorable!
*Also, I read this book using Audible! The narrators for this book, Ed Westwick and Heather Lind, were pretty good! I enjoyed their voiceovers more than the narrator for book one.
Plot:
First things first, if you’re into this trilogy for the romance, then you will be very very happy. This one was much steamier than book one. The love triangle gets all the more entangled. Jem is as sweet as ever, and Will is as brooding and dark as ever, but they both have their appealing sides…Who do you choose? I couldn’t personally pick a team. This is probably one of the first love triangle I’ve encountered where not one single side seems to have more sway than the other.
Away from the romance now, we get to the actual finding of the Magister. This proved to be an extremely difficult task when literally every single place they thought to look showed hope, but was really a dead end. I feel like in regards to actually finding out more about the Magister and the automatons, we didn’t get too much information. I was really hoping to get more from this part of the plot like plans to defeat the Magister or something like that, but nope. This was most of the reason why I couldn’t give this book 5 stars.
Although, just because the Magister remained allusive, doesn’t mean NOTHING happened. I mean we get to meet and interact with both of the Lightwood brothers. We get to know WAY MORE secrets about Will. The important ones! And we also get a whole lot of history about Mortmain, Tessa, Nathan, and Will. There is a betrayal in this book that I was just NOT expecting.
This book had a good amount of and twists, and turns, and action! I definitely enjoyed the action, especially the ending. You all know, most of the big battles happen towards the end of the book and just so you know, be prepared to be screaming at the book and going oh my god oh my god. Or maybe that was just me. Not even just the fighting had me doing that though. There are many many things that happen right in those LAST pages, and I do mean the last couple of pages, that make you want to drop that book and pick up the next one right away. Cliffhangers man. They always make me jump out of my seat.
Characters:
Will makes a definite comeback for me in book two! I really could not see his appeal at all in the first one, but now I do guys. Now I do. Such a tortured soul. Nothing seems to work out for him. Usually I do go for the dark and broody types, but I mean there’s also Jem.
Jim is so kind, and gentle, and thoughtful, and delicate. You just never want to make him unhappy. I have NO IDEA what I would do in Tessa’s position. She was just all over the place with both of them in this book.
There is this part of Tessa’s personality that I really like. It’s that she can hold her head high in a place that’s full of people who look down on her, and she can still put them in their place! She’s strong and mostly level-headed.
Magnus… Oh Magnus. He’s such a sweetheart. And his weakness for blue eyes remains true in TMI. I love how his character is immortal so he never leaves the story. When you get towards the middle end, there’s this thing that he does to Will. And I just laughed so hard. When you read it. You’ll know.
Henry and Charlotte are the adults in the book that I crave a happy ending for. If anything, I am hoping they live happily ever after.
Lastly, here are the characters that disgust me: Jessamine (duh) and Nathan (of course). Jessamine has always made me want to punch her in the face. I just can’t stand her. Nathan, too.
Overall:
I liked this book more than Clockwork Angel because we got way more back story on the characters and certain things in the end happened that made me smile. I wish more was revealed about Mortmain and his plans, but I guess that’s being saved for book three. I’ve heard many many wonderful things about Clockwork Princess and how it’s the best in the series. Fingers crossed it blows me away even more than the first two combined!
Thank you for reading! :)