Clockwork Princess - Cassandra Clare

!SPOILER WARNING! Reading the synopsis of Clockwork Princess will give spoilers of the previous two books and the review itself will contain spoilers for Clockwork Princess. I don’t feel I can properly get across my feelings about this novel without talking specifically about its contents. Read at your own risk!

Pages: 568

Publisher: Walker

Release Date: 19^th March 2013

Edition: UK trade paperback, review copy

Other Titles by this Author: City of Bones, City of Ashes, City of Glass, City of Fallen Angels, City of Lost Souls, Clockwork Angel, Clockwork Prince

Danger and betrayal, secrets and enchantment in the breathtaking conclusion to the Infernal Devices trilogy.

Tessa Gray should be happy – aren’t all bride 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 clam to Tessa’s heart, will do anything to save her.

When the postman finally handed over my copy of Clockwork Princess I felt like I’d been waiting for it for years. It had a lot to live up to, and apart from one single element of the novel, it did.

I went in to Clockwork Princess with my heart still in bits over Will’s discovery of Tessa’s engagement to Jem in Clockwork Prince and his handling of it over the course of both novels made it even worse. I just fell even more in love with him which I didn't think was possible. Then he appeared on the page with his witticisms and jokes at inappropriate moments and I was convinced that Tessa had to end up with Will.

This conviction was so much easier to maintain as Cassandra Clare allowed us glimpses in to the thoughts of most of the characters in the series so when we got to Will I just, now words. His conviction that he’d blown it with Tessa and that she’d never love him while she was furiously trying to make herself ignore her feelings for him was so frustrating! The way he spoke about her though made me die inside. That boy really has a way with words! The other burgeoning love stories between Sophie and Gideon and Cecily and Gabriel were some light, swoon-worthy relief and although I muddled up the Lightwood brothers in the beginning, I was championing them all the way.

Among the tangled relationships was the ever present threat of Charlotte losing the Institute because of the meddling of the dastardly Consul Wayland and the underlying knowledge that Mortmain was after Tessa. Predictably, Tess and Will’s relationship took precedence for me and the entire time Will was riding to Cadair Idris to rescue her, I was hoping for an epic reunion. I got everything I bargained for and more. It was utterly perfect and I loved it. I’m not sure that die-hard Jem-lovers would have had the same reaction, however...

Speaking of Jem, that poor beautiful boy. His death was touching and made me tear up but it was Will’s reaction that got me; he just gave up and my heart broke for him. It was a very visceral reaction and I thought Clare did it beautifully. I was so surprised to see him back as a Silent Brother and while I thought it was very clever, it jarred me a little bit. It almost felt like cheating to me.

Jem is also involved in my only real negative feeling about Clockwork Princess: the epilogue. I had heard there was an epilogue and that it was perfect so I was expecting to end this trilogy with a smile and exhausted tear ducts but instead it left me a little cold. The modern setting for it jolted me out of the story and it didn't feel a part of the trilogy at all. To then have Jem return human and for Tessa to go off with him, I was officially annoyed. It made so much of the anguish and support of the triangle in a novel a little redundant and I just have a feeling it happened that way in order for Tess and Jem to appear in either City of Heavenly Fire or the Dark Artifices trilogy. It ended perfectly when we were still in 1879 and I wish I could unread that epilogue.

As I have the collector’s edition, a family tree of the Lightwood and Herondale family’s was included and I loved it. It was a fantastic way to connect Clare’s three series’ through the years and I was so pleased that Jace was descended from Tessa and Will – it made me smile and I could really see Jace’s connection to Will. I’m very glad I waited until the end of the novel to study it though as some things would have been ruined and others completely confusing! It’s a addition for any fan of the novels.

Ignoring the epilogue, Clockwork Princess is a heart-breaking and pulse-pounding conclusion to a stunning trilogy. Cassandra Clare holds her crown as the Queen of Emotional Trauma with ease.

Thank you to Walker for providing me with a review copy.

Sophie