Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare

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 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.

Rating: 4 stars

Don't read this review if you haven't read Clockwork Angel and Clockwork Prince yet.

Alright, it's no secret that I love all of Cassandra Clare's books. She is one of my all time favorite authors, and the Mortal Instruments series and the Infernal Devices series are definitely some of my favorite books. Every personality in her books is unique and special and lovable. Even Will at his most jerky and douche bag moments was understandable. You could sympathize with his reasons if not his actions, and the same with all her characters. The villains, too. They had their reasons for doing the things they did, and you could understand that, even if you hated them.  There were no loose ends on her characters.

That aside, Tessa is back! Trying to find out what she really is, avoiding being married to a psychopathic bad guy, and torn between the mysterious and alluring Will, and Jem, her fiance, she's got a lot on her plate.

The 'infernal devices' are back and they won't stop until they have Tessa. The Magister is getting impatient as he is raising his Clockwork army, and he's got some new and horrifying tricks up his sleeve.

Basic overview:

As Tessa and the Shadowhunter's at the Institute find out about Benedict Lightwood's dealings with demons, things get really bad. Gabriel and Gideon Lightwood are forced to move into the Institute when Benedict catches 'demon pox' (much to Will's delight) and turns into a giant worm and eats his daughter's husband.

While Will is busy calling the Lightwood boys 'Lightworms' Tessa, Cecily, and Sophie are still training with them, and Jessamine is going to move back into the Institute. Consul Wayland is trying to keep the Council from electing Charlotte as the next Consul, as well as trying to get her thrown out of the Institute. And on top of fighting off demons and the Clockwork army, Tessa is trying to get ready for her wedding while ignoring her ridiculous feelings for Will, who confessed in Clockwork Prince that he was in love with her.

On top of all this, the Magister has taken all of the opium drug, which Jem needs to survive. As Jem's supply gets lower and lower, the Shadowhunter's and Tessa are working hard to find him a cure before he runs out.

While this is all well and complicated, the incredible amount of information that my brain was having trouble processing was not why I took the one star off. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved this book, as well as the rest of the series. But, I thought the ending wasn't as, well, satisfactory as I was hoping. Especially because no matter what team your on (Will or Jem) you get your way. As well as the fact that her great victory (that was not a spoiler, it had to be a victory or else The Mortal Instruments wouldn't exist) wasn't as dramatic and epic as I was hoping for.

I wasn't really decided on Team Will or Team Jem, I was on both, but I favored Will just a little bit more, he was just so sassy, and I've always loved sassy boys. Although I did love Jem for being there for her, and I'm just so torn between the two!!

I just can't--

All in all, Cassandra Clare has made yet another absolutely stunning series, with an amazing and beautiful ending, even if it didn't quite make up to my expectations. I absolutely cannot wait to see Tessa and Jem in City of Heavenly Fire (Which is coming out next year *squeals) and I'm hoping to see Will in it, although judging by the end of Clockwork Princess I don't know how that's possible.

So many intermingling series!!

xxAvalon

Cover Reveal: House of Hades by Rick Riordan

 

At the conclusion of The Mark of Athena, Annabeth and Percy tumble into a pit leading straight to the Underworld. The other five demigods have to put aside their grief and follow Percy’s instructions to find the mortal side of the Doors of Death. If they can fight their way through the Gaea’s forces, and Percy and Annabeth can survive the House of Hades, then the Seven will be able to seal the Doors both sides and prevent the giants from raising Gaea. But, Leo wonders, if the Doors are sealed, how will Percy and Annabeth be able to escape?

They have no choice. If the demigods don’t succeed, Gaea’s armies will never die. They have no time. In about a month, the Romans will march on Camp Half-Blood. The stakes are higher than ever in this adventure that dives into the depths of Tartarus.

House of Hades by Rick Riordan is the fourth installment in his new series, Heroes of Olympus starring Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Jason Grace, Piper McLean, Leo Valdez, Frank Zhang, and Hazel Levesque.

At the end of Rick Riordan's other series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Percy was (finally) with Annabeth and the next Great Prophecy had been spoken. Now, Percy's back and he's in trouble.

Gaea is rising and she has plans for Percy and the rest of the seven. From what I've gathered so far, she either wants Percy to be her pawn, or dead. Sacrificed and his blood drained on certain stones, to be more specific. Although any of the seven will do, I'm getting most of her evil controlling vibes are directed toward Percy, Jason, Frank, and Leo. And what's worse, she is the ultimate evil psycho lady. We're talking mother of Kronos. Remember what a wack-job Kronos was?

And to make matters worse, Percy and Annabeth have fallen into Tartarus. Nico and the rest of the seven are supposed to meet them at the Doors of Death. In the mean time, Percy and Annabeth have to make it through Tartarus, together. As long as they are together.*Begins dramatic sobbing*

The thing I am most excited for in this book is actually Nico. I know, Percy and Annabeth are probably going to be going through a Hell of a lot down there in, well, Hell. But I am and always was a die-hard Nico fangirl (Not the one who turns his hair and eyes brown, because he is the son of the Lord of the Underworld, and therefore should look like such, not like a puppy)

I love Nico, I love his personality, his powers are EPIC and he's always been my favorite character in the series. And I really can't wait to see how he acts with the rest of the group. I wonder if he's going to step up and try to be a leader. I hope he doesn't, it doesn't seem like it's in his personality to. As long as he stays dark and intimidating, I will love him :D (Yeah, I'm a bit morbid)

But OMIGOSH this cover is so beautiful and it's got Percy and Annabeth in it, running from bad guys and this is just *explodes* It rivals Son of Neptune as my favorite cover in this series, and all in all, it's insanely gorgeous. (It also looks like Annabeth still's got that broken ankle)

xx Avalon

Fallen by Lauren Kate

There’s something achingly familiar about Daniel Grigori.

Mysterious and aloof, he captures Luce Price’s attention from the moment she sees him on her first day at the Sword & Cross boarding school in sultry Savannah. He’s the one bright spot in a place where cell phones are forbidden, the other students are all screw-ups, and security cameras watch every move.

Even Daniel wants nothing to do with Luce – he goes out of his way to make that very clear. But she can’t let it go. Drawn to him like a moth to a flame, Luce has to find out what Daniel is so desperate to keep secret...even if it kills her.

Dangerously exciting and darkly romantic, FALLEN is a page-turning thriller and the ultimate love story.

The description is a lie.

Rating: 2 stars (only because I must congratulate it on the fact that I actually finished it without ripping it apart)

What a dreadful book. The characters were awful, the one I did like died, the plot was sketchy and stupid, and the entire book I was just thinking "What the heck's wrong with you? And you? And you? AND YOU WHAT THE????" and that pretty much sums up this book.

First off, I just need to say:

Dear Luce:

I hate you

I don't even care about spoilers in this review, because everything was so freaking predictable.

The book starts off with Luce Price, who is a girl who lacks character. She is transferred to a school for troubled teens when she accidentally sets her boyfriend on fire. Who turns out not to be her boyfriend...wut? I don't know, it was rather unclear on her feelings towards him. At first she felt awful, and then she was going 'Well, I didn't like him that much.' She was positively infuriating, and I have no idea what was so special about her.

Except maybe the fact that she had no wit or sense of humor. At all. In fact, when someone passed her a note saying (something along the lines of): Luce...Lucifer...coincidence? Most people would reply with an evil grin and: Maybe ;) But no, she writes out a freaking paragraph about the way her mother and father met, and how her name was superior to Molly's. WTF Luce?


And her obsession with Daniel was so annoying. This book had no insta-love. It was insta-obsession, later morphed into insta-lust (when Daniel starts liking her back), NOT insta-love. There were no deep emotions going on in this book, only shallow, selfish feelings centered around whether or not Luce got her way. She was like a 17 year old with manipulative, subtle, and tear filled temper tantrums, whose parents will eventually cave and go, okay, we think you're remarkable even though you've done NOTHING to prove that you are, and give you the jack-ass hot boy who flipped you off, called you a stalker, and proceeded to screw with your emotions until he eventually caved into his DESIRE(not insta-love) and made out with you on a bridge after another jackass boy tried to force himself on you. But at least he's REALLY hot.

 No. Just no. Daniel was a jack-ass, I hated him. Which is unusual for me, I usually love the jack-ass sorts, but Daniel crossed a couple thousand lines line and there is nothing he can do in future books to make up for it.

Cam was...bipolar. First he was all nice and sweet and protective, and then he went all picking fights. I could even look over this, except for the fact none of this seemed a little bit off to Luce. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised at that point.

Penn was the one character in the book I liked, she was smart, supportive, didn't stab Luce in the back (She was like, the only one)...and she died. Of course she died, because this author has a knack for killing off everything funny and awesome in the YA genre doesn't she?

I didn't like any one of the characters, except Penn. They were all bipolar, not nearly as funny as they thought they were, and plain out jerks. (Strong words, I know)

If you dislike everything about me, my opinions, my blog, I don't care. Just don't burden yourself with the absolute patheticness in Luce's character, jack-assness in Daniel's, and just I am warning you, don't.

xxAvalon

Mini Review: Destroy Me by Tahereh Mafi and What Really Happened In Peru by Cassandra Clare

Destroy Me by Tahereh Mafi

Perfect for the fans of Shatter Me who are desperately awaiting the release of Unravel Me, this novella-length digital original will bridge the gap between these two novels from the perspective of the villain we all love to hate, Warner, the ruthless leader of Sector 45.

In Tahereh Mafi’s Shatter Me, Juliette escaped from The Reestablishment by seducing Warner—and then putting a bullet in his shoulder. But as she’ll learn in Destroy Me, Warner is not that easy to get rid of. . .

Back at the base and recovering from his near-fatal wound, Warner must do everything in his power to keep his soldiers in check and suppress any mention of a rebellion in the sector. Still as obsessed with Juliette as ever, his first priority is to find her, bring her back, and dispose of Adam and Kenji, the two traitors who helped her escape. But when Warner’s father, The Supreme Commander of The Reestablishment, arrives to correct his son’s mistakes, it’s clear that he has much different plans for Juliette. Plans Warner simply cannot allow.

Set after Shatter Me and before its forthcoming sequel, Unravel Me, Destroy Me is a novella told from the perspective of Warner, the ruthless leader of Sector 45.

Rating: 5 stars

After Julliette, Adam, and Kenji escape from Warner's compound, Warner immediately seeks revenge on Adam for stealing the girl he loves, and works to find her.

Wanting Julliette back with an incredible need, and a hatred for Adam that grows relentlessly, Warner goes on a warpath, accidentally drawing his father into the mix. Warner's father views life very differently than most people. He believes that everyone who disagrees with him should essentially burn and die. Painfully.

I think this is what Warner's father thought everytime he looked at someone who disagreed with him.

And he had the power to do it, too. All throughout this story, I was scared for Warner. Who knew what his crazy-wackjob father was going to do to him? We find out more about Warner's personal life in this book, and his feelings for Julliette are so deep and real. There's no way you can be on Team Adam after reading this, Warner is just so bold and spontaneous and new and interesting. What is Adam besides a tatted up soldier with daddy issues? He's got no abnormal personality, nothing to make him stand out like Warner does.

And when Warner finds Julliette's journal just the way he finds everything she says so important and interesting and beautiful is enough to make me die. In a good way though.

I, personally, would read Unravel Me first, just so you have a better idea what's going on in Julliette's world as Warner does all of this. (TEAM WARNER!! TEAM WARNER!! ALL THE WAY!! sorry just had to get that out there)

xxAvalon

The Bane Chronicles: What Really Happened In Peru by Cassandra Clare

Fans of The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices know that Magnus Bane is banned from Peru—and now they can find out why. One of ten adventures in The Bane Chronicles.

There are good reasons Peru is off-limits to Magnus Bane. Follow Magnus’s Peruvian escapades as he drags his fellow warlocks Ragnor Fell and Catarina Loss into trouble, learns several instruments (which he plays shockingly), dances (which he does shockingly), and disgraces his host nation by doing something unspeakable to the Nazca Lines.

This standalone e-only short story illuminates the life of the enigmatic Magnus Bane, whose alluring personality populates the pages of the #1 New York Times bestselling series, The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices series. This story in The Bane Chronicles, What Really Happened in Peru, is written by Sarah Rees Brennan and Cassandra Clare.

Rating: 5 stars

Question: How does one give a less than five star rating on anything from Magnus's point of view? I don't care if the ending wasn't satisfactory, the point is that the rest of the book makes up for it ten fold and all you other people are stupid.

Magnus was just full out sass and guano in this little series of adventures he has in Peru with his companion(s) Ragnor and Catarina. I won't tell you what, because everything I say will never be able to compare to the complete and utter awesomeness Clare has crafted that is Magnus Bane's point of view.

And that's all. The end is a bit disappointing, but I guess it suits the mystery. I loved it to pieces, though. It's not everyday you get to hear about a drunk warlock beginning his life as a cactus.

xxAvalon

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

Orphan Tessa Gray, sixteen, crosses the ocean from New York to find her brother Nate in Victorian London, her only possession a clockwork angel necklace from her mother. She is ignorant of her power to transform; the Dark sisters are not. They kidnap her for the Magister, who wants to marry Tessa and claim her power.

Shadowhunters, warriors of angel blood, battle demons and keep the peace in the Downworld of vampires, warlocks and other supernaturals. Orphan teen Shadowhunters Jem, Will, and Jess rescue Tessa and agree to help save Nate. Vengeful vampire Lady Camille Belcourt and her current lover, warlock Magnus Bane provide entrée to the Magister's secret Pandemonium Club.

Rating: 4 stars

Way to go Cassandra Clare! 

One series of ripping everyone’s hearts out wasn’t enough for you, so you decided to make another one, with of course, the first one’s ancestors. (And I hear of a certain third series that will be coming out soon) As you can see in my other reviews, I have written up a few on a couple of the books from The Mortal Instruments, and I have loved them. Particularly Jace.

I don’t know if I can say the same about Will.  Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love all of the Herondale’s sass and sarcasm, and I love Will all the way up to end. This sudden change of opinion will be revealed at the end of the review, as it is, in fact, a spoiler and I shan’t want to ruin a perfectly good heartbreak for the rest of you.

I know, you’re totally grateful for that.

But if you read the Clockwork Angel and haven’t read the rest yet, you’d agree with me that Will’s little bit there while he’s talking to Tessa completely freaking ruins his character. Never mind, I’m ranting now, more on this subject later.

So at the beginning of this book we have Tessa, a girl who has been abducted by two women: Miss Dark and Miss Black—known as the Dark Sisters. They demand Tessa to hold objects of dead people and transform into them (the dead people, that is, not the objects) and tell them who they were, how they died, yada, yada, ya.  Eventually they decide that Tessa is ready to marry a dude called the Magister. Who, is remarkably less cool then the name would suggest. But he wants to marry her, and she is so not cool with this. So she starts working on busting herself out. To no avail.

But this all changes when Captain Sassypants—erm, Will, that is, bursts through the door and hauls butt to get her out of there. But not without a few smart remarks, of course, we are talking about Jace’s ancestor, here.

Tessa finds out that these people are called Shadowhunter’s, and she is most likely something called a warlock. As if this weren’t enough, the Magister has her brother captive, and he still wants to marry this chick. And Tessa and the Shadowhunter’s don’t know who, exactly, the Magister is. Which would probably put a damper on everything, except she, Will, and Jem got along swimmingly. (Not with ducks, of course) Well, she and Jem got along swimmingly. Will was kind of an overenthusiastic downer the entire story. But he did it with flare. Combine that with his charming good looks, and I was sold. I was also sold to Jem as well, because he was always so sweet and understanding and there for her when Will was being a sarcastic bastard.

Which brings me to my little SPOILER fest, in which I shall rant about Will being horrid and awful and so help me it better be okay in the next book I mean he did go to Magnus's and what was that all about but that's beside the point.

You see, Will was just becoming sweet and caring and trying to save her and being all cute and emotional and then BAM!!!!!!

Yes, as with most hot characters, they're either douchebags or dead, and guess who went down complete douchebag road. That's right, folks, William fucking Herondale went and smashed my emotions. He left me alone and crying and not sure whether to favor him or Jem and I love them both but he was so mean and uncaring and then--

He freaking asked her to be friends with benefits. As if she would say yes to that. What the heck was he trying to accomplish there? Push her away so he can play lonely and heartbroken lover, then blame it on her? Is that where this is going? Would Clare really stoop that low? I hope not.

Anyway, the point is this book was absolutely amazing as well as dreadful, as most of Cassandra Clare's books are. If you love sassiness and the Mortal Instruments, read this book. It's awful good for your well-being.

xxAvalon