The magic continues...

I picked this book up the second I finished its predecessor, Clockwork Angel, and may I just say that this series has not yet given me a reason to be disappointed. This second installation to Clare's The Infernal Devices has me hooked and invested in the welfare and love lives of her characters in a way that I have not encountered in a series in a very long time. The love triangle within this story is so well-crafted and complicated to the point that all of the relationships feel perfectly raw and realistic. I can't count the amount of times that I either swooned, teared up, or felt some combination of both while reading some chapters. And the sophisticated writing level and description are not absent from but rather enhanced in Clockwork Prince as Tessa and the other members of the Institute attempt to locate the whereabouts of the missing Magister before they lose the Institute to the suspicious Benedict Lightwood and his sons. Tessa also attempts to navigate her feelings towards both Jem and Will (love triangle!) as well as to learn more about just who -- and what -- she is and what her Changing power means. We learn so much about Will, his background, and the motives behind his behavior in this book that I absolutely adored; he may be one of my favorite literary characters of all time, as well as one of the most well-written and developed I have ever come across. I really can't say whether I'm on Team Jem or Team Will right now, if that's even a thing!
As I am currently writing this at 10:50pm on Christmas Eve, I won't be reading a whole lot of the third and final book in this series, Clockwork Princess, right now, but I certainly can't go to bed without peeking at the first chapter. :)



Some of my favorite quotes from Clockwork Prince:

"Jem put the full force of himself into each smile, so that he seemed to be smiling with his eyes, his heart, his whole being."

"Just the way he said her name undid her, loosened something tight and knotted underneath her rib cage, making her breathless."

"His eyes were as blue as lakes; she felt as if she were falling into them."

"... entangling gazes with Will was confusing at best, dizzying at worst."

"His beauty did not blaze like Will's did in fierce colors and repressed fire, but it had its own muted perfection, the loveliness of snow falling against a silver-gray sky."

"I had come to think I would never love anyone, but I love her."

"Jem smiled at her, that smile that was like a light suddenly being turned on in every room of a house."

"He wanted to sit and listen to her talk about books until his ears fell off."

"'My Tessa,' he said, and this time she did not tell him that she was not his."

"I can offer you my life, but it is a short life; I can offer you my heart, though I have no idea how many more beats it shall sustain."

"These were the boys she loved. For better. And for worse."

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