I Heart Romance

Clockwork Prince is the second book in the Infernal Devices series and continues right after Clockwork Angel ends.  This book is part of the series and cannot be read as a stand alone.

The story picks up right after the battle at the Institute and Charlotte and the group are picking up the pieces.  At this point, the Enclave is involved  and so is Consul Wayland.  He is now regretting his decision to appoint Charlotte as the head of the London Institute and Benedict Lightwood is pushing the Consul to remove Charlotte and appoint him instead.  Nasty secrets are revealed and a shocking betrayal is exposed (to which I will not share).  A love triangle between Tessa, Will and Jem comes to light and another romance is waiting in the wings.  In this book, Mortmain’s family and his reasons for vengeance are revealed.

There is not much action happening in this book but there are a lot of surprises.  We also meet the two Lightwood boys: Gabriel and Gideon who play important roles in the third book.  Loyalties are also put into question here and I love that Ms. Clare keeps us guessing throughout the whole book.

We also see a closeness between Jem and Tessa, more revelations of Jem’s feelings for Tessa and Tessa’s longing for Will.  Will’s secret will not be revealed in this book but we see glimpses of what he may possibly be hiding.  Will also forms an unusual friendship with Magnus Bane who is shown as an important character (we know he will be because he is in the Mortal Instruments series).

I love the elements that Ms. Clare adds in this book.  Although we won’t see much of Mortmain here, we still see his powers and influence at work.  We also see the strong relationship between Parabatai (Jem and Will) and their unusual bond.  The book quotes and references are amazingly accurate and I love that it adds to the whole story.

The battle in the end is thrilling and heart breaking at the same time.  We meet Tessa’s brother Nate at last and despite him hating her, he still reveals that he still loves her. Although Nate’s real mother is revealed, Tessa’s is still in question.

Overall, I love this book, so much so that I gave it 5 hearts.  It has all the mixture of romance and action that I just could not stop listening to it.  This is a definite must read and MUST listen!

THE AUDIOBOOK

Surprisingly, this audiobook is read by two narrators: Heather Lind and Ed Westwick.  Although I haven’t heard any of the books they have narrated, I find no issues whatsoever in the way they delivered the story.  Both narrators read well, with good pacing and expressions, both using distinct voices for different characters.

That being said, I found no reason for this book to be read by two narrators.  Although both narrators are good on their own, together I see no sense in it.  Naturally when I saw that this would be read by a male and female, I expected the female voices to be read by Heather Lind and the male voices read by Ed Westwick.  This was not the case.  It felt like they read randomly throughout the whole book with no order at all.  Although this did not deflect on the whole listening experience, I just felt it odd.

Originally posted on my blog I Heart Romance.

Audibook purchased at Audible.