Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

Tessa, a young lady traveling to Victorian England, has no one left. Her parents both died when she was young. Her aunt just recently passed away and her brother, Nate, has been in London, working and has just sent her a ticket to meet him. But when Tessa arrives things are not how they should be. Her brother is not there to meet her. Instead two strange ladies meet her insisting her brother sent them, but Tessa is wary. With good reason too. The Dark Sisters are holding her against her will, threatening to harm her brother if she disobeys them and also forcing her to confront a power deep within. After six weeks of strange, monotone servants and dark musty basements, a mysterious stranger appears in her room claiming to be her to rescue her, but it seems much too like her romance novels to be concrete. Tessa is thrust into a world of Shadowhunters, demons, and fighting, betrayal, regret and self-discovery. She must learn to cope with her new found power in order to save her brother from enemies she’s only heard about in nightmares.

The Good: Clare’s writing is just beautiful. It is so sophisticated and a pleasure to read. I think she could make gibberish readable. Tessa was also such a strong heroine, which I love. She had an appropriate amount of sadness and despair without being whiney and annoying. She really drove the book. Will is so much like Jace. They really could be twins in personality. He’s cocky, arrogant, and aloof. But he provides a dynamic that is funny and angering at the same time. I really loved the setting of this novel, which is not something you hear very often. But it was so interesting to learn about and I really love this time period. I sometimes wish I could go back in time to that period and go to balls and dinner parties and have to ride in carriages. So naturally reading about all of this stuff made my day.

I had very high expectations of this book. Lately I have been comparing books to The Mortal Instruments and how perfectly all the details fit together and how really great books are kind of average compared to The Mortal Instruments. So I am really sorry to say that I was not impressed with Clockwork Angel.

The Bad: First, Clare’s descriptions are wonderful but at times they are just too long. They drag on and I sometimes felt myself drifting away from the story because of them. There were also many similarities to The Mortal Instruments, which left me kind of upset. I was really expecting sometime very different from the other series. It was also predictable, unfortunately. Overall, I really wanted to adore this book but I was disappointingly disappointed. And just for the record I will be reading Clockwork Prince & Princess. I love Clare too much not too! 

Ugly Updates: Clare has written The Mortal Instruments series including; City of Bones, City of Ashes, & City of Glass. Also recently announced there will be The Mortal Instruments Cycle 2 including;  City of Fallen Angels, City of Lost Souls, & City of Heavenly Fire. Set to be released April 5 2011, May 2012, & September 2013 respectively. Clockwork Prince, book 2 in the Infernal Devices trilogy, is set to be published September 2011 and Clockwork Princess, November 2012.
Check out Clare's Website, Facebook, Twitter, & Google Groups (One & Two). I use the google group it is a good way to get  up to date info on the books and discuss all things Mortal Instruments as well as other book/movie/music related things. Subscribe the first if you want just important notices from Clare. Join the second if you want to hear what everyone is talking about. Clare is also very good about getting back to questions you post on her Twitter so ask away.
Also for the countdown to all the books listed above check out the amazing widget at the very bottom of my blog.
(Books link to Goodreads)

Rating: B- 

ARC received from publisher.