Clockwork Angel - Cassandra Clare

Tessa has just lost her Aunt, who she has been staying with, and now she is on a journey to England to live with her brother, who has promised to support her. What she doesn't know is that she is about to be captured and learn about abilities that she never knew she had. She will be pulled into a shadow world that is more dangerous than she ever expected, and she will do things she never thought she would.

Commonly thought of as the prequel series to The Mortal Instruments, this was my first encounter into the Shadowhunter Chronicles and I loved this steampunk turn of events. I understood the Shadowhunter world quite well thanks to the recent film adaptation of The City of Bones, but nothing could have prepared me for the amazing way that Clare captures each setting and each character. The human elements that are weaved into this very clever story are wonderful, but really the action and the way the tension builds in the story are the best parts.

Tessa, the protagonist, is a feisty American in a thoroughly British setting, and it shows, with rather amusing consequences. She grows unimaginably as a character, and I will adore seeing her start to fight more and to use her power in ways much like in the climax of the book. Clare has a knack for making her male leads quite unlikeable, and this can easily be said for Will. I hope he will redeem himself soon because at the moment he's making a pig's ear out of it, and giving no explanation (something I can't wait to find out about). And that is the thing about Clare's writing. There are so many questions you want answered and she doesn't give them to you at once, she has played out the story and left room for it all to flow into another two books, where the stakes will get even higher.

I cannot wait to get reading the next book, and to finish the series so that I can also read the Mortal Instruments. I've been told that the world that Clare creates gets even better!

9 out of 10

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