Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

Clockwork Angel (Infernal Devices #1) by Cassandra Clare ☆☆☆☆☆

This is the first steampunk novel I have ever read and I have to say I love it! London is enough to love on its own (it's one of my destination dreams), but that time period is romantic and classic. Sometimes I wish I lived in that era, but I don't think I could live without electricity and indoor plumbing.

What I loved most about Tessa is her passion for reading. It definitely isn't a trait that many women of the time have, or admit to, when they feel their purpose is to serve their future husbands and children. She learns a lot about herself in this book and what it means to be who she is, inside and out. The contradictions she finds in herself and carefully balanced between the stark contrasts of the other characters of the novel. It's a lost of "lost boys" set up, with all the orphan children, and they look to each other for support, whether consciously or unconsciously. And the differences between them, and the dark secrets them keep, are what set them apart from each other while also tying them all together.

I am extremely excited that I decided to read this series! I wasn't sure I was going to. But after finishing City of Glass, I noted that her website said she started Clockwork Angel before moving onto the originally unplanned fourth book in the Mortal Instruments series. On her website, she encouraged new readers to read in the order of publication, which is what I decided to do. So I'll be flipping back to Mortal Instruments next before I approach Clockwork Prince. Can't wait for more steampunk and Shadowhunters!

Last Breath by Rachel Caine

Last Breath (Morganville #11) by Rachel Caine ☆☆☆☆☆

My god..... After my less than perfect review of the last book I had no idea at all what to expect with this one, and it knocked me out cold and twisted me in knots simultaneously.

The main thing I didn't like about the last book was how she suddenly broke her structure of 3rd person perspective from Claire's point-of-view and jumped into 1st person Shane often. This book began with an Author's Note that she was going to do something very similar with this one. While I still didn't really like it, it had nothing to do with the character switch this time. The character switch was completely necessary for this particular story line, and structured well. What bothered me was that Claire was still 3rd person while everyone else was 1st person. She might as well have just started writing Claire in 1st person too to keep it symmetrical throughout.

This story confused me and there were times I wondered if I was ever going to pull myself out of the fog and figure out what was really going on. And then the most unexpected thing happened. The book ripped me apart and I was in tears. I never expected this book to make me cry and completely blamed my friend who read it before me for letting me walk into it without warning (which is when she reminded me that I've done that to her twice in the last month and that we enjoy the heartbreak in the end). I battled it out to the end as Morganville fell apart again, and you know what...my friend was entirely right, it was all worth it in the end. And the ending was a total open cliff hanger (the likes of the first few books of the series) and also shocked me to my core. How will I ever hold myself back from diving into the next book right away?! At least I know it's there on my shelf ready for me :)

City of Glass by Cassandra Clare

City of Glass (Mortal Instruments #3) by Cassandra Clare ☆☆☆☆☆ 

This series is just getting even better for me. I really liked this book for the ways in which the characters surprised me. I especially loved how the characters revealed themselves in no holds barred scenarios. There were things that everyone seemed to be holding back, and amidst those things were what held them up.

One interesting thing I found myself realizing after reading is that I credited Valentine with a lot more depravity than he was guilty for, but at the same time, he was guilty of a lot more depravity than I anticipated as well. And despite those depravities, I'm still not sure how I feel about him. In some ways I feel sorry for him. And I know it's the best way he could have been written, because it's easy to hate the bad guy, it's harder to doubt your hate.

My only possible complaint after reading is that things seemed a little too neat and tidy at the end. And while that's never necessarily a good way to end a story, I do appreciate snippets of what I expect will unravel those tidy endings in the next book. I love those subtle details. There were just enough of them throughout the book to let me in on what was going on before the characters figured it out, while still allowing me to enjoy it as the characters figured things out. And sometimes I did get surprised by things. But it was good to see those subtle details in the end that make me question things still.

The only other thing I can really say about this particular book is that I had to break out the Google Translate on my phone for the Romanian. It was the one time in this series that there was not a direct translation contained, or any context clues to figure out what was said (such as there were with Latin quotes often repeated by the characters and roughly explaining the meanings rather than translating). Though looking it up was fun and gave a great new element to the story. I can definitely say I was better off knowing what was said and I kind of wish that translation would have been included in some way.

The Lost Files: The Fallen Legacies by Pittacus Lore

The Lost Files: The Fallen Legacies (Lorien Legacies #0.5) by Pittacus Lore ☆☆☆☆☆

This was not what I expected at all! The first Lost Files installment to be published was Six's Legacy, which came out after I Am Number Four to chronicle the backstory of Six who appeared towards the end of that novel. The second installment, Nine's Legacy, appeared after The Power of Six where Nine is briefly introduced toward the end without much in the way of backstory. Both of these installments were great in giving a deeper look into these characters and what made them into who they became when Number Four finally met them.

It was great hearing that the story behind the three fallen legacies would be introduced before the final novel in the series, The Rise of Nine. So part of me thought there would be these three broken stories detailed where One, Two, and Three started, and where they ended up when they were found by the Mogadorians. And that's not what happened at all. The Fallen Legacies chronicles, instead, the point-of-view of a young Mogadorian that gets introduced to truths of the Loriens that his culture ignores in their quest for absolute power. I loved watching him transform, and how he often felt helpless in his own personal battles. Best of all, I'm left with the abundant hope that he'll become a central part of the final novel and I'm now eagerly waiting to see how that novel plays out. Now if only they'd finish the movie franchise instead of stopping with the first.

City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

City of Ashes (Mortal Instruments #2) by Cassandra Clare ☆☆☆☆☆

This book was aggravating...in a good way!

And gratefully, it was a lot better than the first one! There were several things corrected with this book that changed my mind about the series.

First of all, it finally veered away from the other notable storylines it was borrowing from (i.e. Harry Potter, Star Wars, and others). Valentine began to differ a lot from Voldemort/Vader. The storyline of this book became more original and much more interesting. I didn't want to put it down!

One of my other big complaints about the first one was the switching of point-of-view throughout the book. It was aggravating for me to switch back and forth, especially when most books stick with one character throughout, or they alternate chapters with characters rather than small sections. This time the POV switching didn't bother me. I want to say it's because I got used to it since the first one, but honestly, I think it was just a lot more fluid. The purpose was clear for the POV switches this time and it moved more like a movie than a book.

Speaking of which...can't wait for the movie! I love the casting for Hodge and Brother Jeremiah, and I'm sure I'll come to enjoy the rest with time. I'm so engrossed in this series now I think I'll move on to the next book now instead of what I intended to read.

Bite Club by Rachel Caine

Bite Club (Morganville #10) by Rachel Caine ☆☆☆☆

Oh my, this book has changed all my perceptions of the Morganville series. I don't believe I have ever given any of the books less than five stars, and yet, this book almost got three and a half--not even the full four stars.  And in nearly all of the reviews I have written, I've mentioned that I often don't even care about the story line because I love the characters so much. That changed here.

First thing, there was a major change in structure that entirely threw me off. The books have always been from one point-of-view and in third person. If you wanted to be in the characters themselves and in first person, you read the short stories she posts on her website. In this book, though, all that changed. The structure was mostly the same, but in almost every chapter there was an "interruption" of Shane's point-of-view in first person perspective. The change was unsettling. Yes, I did like seeing inside his head, but after nine previous books with a set structure, I didn't find myself enjoying the interruptions so much.

Second thing, I actually hated all the characters in this book. I hated each and every one of them and each for their own reason. That's why it would have gotten three and a half stars, because I still liked the world, story, and all, but the characters all pissed me off. That being said, they redeemed themselves in the end....somewhat. I still have some reservations. The end of the book is left at a point where a lot of talking needs to be done and forgiveness be made, and I couldn't yet find my forgiveness for all of them either. I couldn't believe how angry I got. (I do love Myrnin though, he's insane and had some quotable things I was gushing to my friend about as she read it before me.)

I'm definitely still hooked on the story and characters, but I'm going to consider each book more closely now. I expected to fall head over heels for this book like the others and it just didn't happen. And I even realized that suddenly the story behind the characters had become important to me because I thought things got tied up too easily in some situations. I'm looking forward to the next book, but not necessarily as anxiously as before.

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

City of Bones (Mortal Instruments #1) by Cassandra Clare ☆☆☆☆

This book started out iffy for me, where it would have been lucky to get three stars, but it won four from me int he end.

The first issue I had was point-of-view switching. I prefer stories to stay in one POV throughout, or to stick with alternating POV chapters, but POV switching several times in one chapter sets me off. This is how the first chapter starts, with several POV changes that I got pissed off. But a friend urged me to keep reading. The POV switching did diminish a lot (and in one instance of storytelling by a character I actually liked the change), but it still lost a little something for me. 

And then, my first mistake with this book was reading a negative review that highlighted similarities with several fandoms, the most obvious being Harry Potter. I can entirely see how this story spawned from Harry Potter fanfiction. I'm sure I would have eventually noticed these similarities on my own through reading, but they were all laid out for me in one shiny place. Here's the thing, for me there is a line to be crossed when it comes to being influenced by another story and flat out using elements from those stories. For example, in working on a vampire story I suddenly realized I was setting in Texas, I quickly had to rethink my choice of states because I didn't want to be compared to Morganville.

On to the good stuff. This story had one thing that guarantees a good book for me specifically: the arrogant, snarky bad boy who is secretly broken and trying to be good. Oh, how I love those bad boys! And Jace was just the guy for me! I really liked the characters, and loved them even more from how they differed from their influenced counterparts. For example, it became obvious that Clary was based off Ginny from Harry Potter, but I really loved that Clary's red hair was curly. That detail set her apart for me. I enjoyed the characters and their interactions with each other. And there was one thing I totally called from the beginning that had my friend rolling because I guessed it so soon and she couldn't confirm or deny my suspicion. That's another thing that makes a good book for me, when I figure something out before the main character of the book, and not because it's blatantly obvious, but because the writer left good clues for me to decipher.

In the end, I'm glad I gave this series a shot and I do intend to keep reading it, even though the heavy influences of other stories was a little too much for me. And I can't wait to see what happens next. The surprise ending (though not a surprise thanks to reading that bad review too soon) did not bother me at all, even though I know it upset a lot of people, but I have faith in where everything goes from here. I want to see these characters grow even further! Glad there is a movie in the works :)