Book 23- "Clockwork Angel" by Cassandra Clare

I found out about this book series because this author wrote a book series called "the Mortal Instruments", and this is the first of a trilogy of books that comes BEFORE that chronologically. So I decided to check it out. There will be 18 books total when she is done, which I am excited for because I LOVED this first one!

So Tessa Gray is a girl who lives in New York, and receives a letter from her brother in London saying he wants her to come live with him. She comes and is kidnapped by some women who seem to be connected to her brother somehow. She is taught that she has this magical power to "Change", or turn into another person when holding something that is connected to that person. She wants to escape but they said her brother will die, so she continues to do their bidding. Then she is rescued by this handsome boy named Will who has the MOST blue eyes (because you only hear about it 8,000,000 times in that book alone) and is really handsome. She finds out that the women she was with were actually warlocks, or the spawn of a human and a demon. Will is a Shadowhunter, or a Nephilim, which is a race of superhumans who are sent to protect the humans (or "mundanes") from the half breeds in the world (werewolves, warlocks, fairies, etc.).

And so Tessa's journey begins. She learns that the Shadowhunters train at a place called the Institute, where she meets Charlotte who runs the Institute with her husband Henry, the beautiful girl Jessamine, Will's "best friend" named Jem, and the various servants. 

Will, despite his first heroic appearance, is an anomaly. He is rude to everyone, and takes nothing seriously, and looks like he has something to hide. Tessa likes him throughout the book, but can't figure him out. Every time he acts nicely to her, he then finds a way to ruin the moment so perfectly that she can't actually develop feelings for him. He claims he goes out all night drinking and doing other things like that, but Tessa can tell he is never actually drunk. So she isn't sure what exactly he is trying to hide.

Jem is a boy who you discover is half Chinese (which makes sense when you see the next cover), and who has a secret of being addicted to a drug that is made by the demons. He was forced onto it when he was young and will die because he is on it, but will die without it. He is the only one who can stand Will regularly, and he is the perfect gentleman. He OBVIOUSLY likes Tessa, she is just not smart enough to see it apparently. The thing about him that is unique is that his eyes and hair are silver, and his skin is so white it's almost translucent. This is a result of the drugs.

Jessamine is beautiful and vain, and talks about how much she hates the Institute and wants to leave as soon as she turns 18. (Man, that used to seem so old!) She wants nothing more than to live a perfectly "mundane" life without all this witchcraft in it.

Charlotte is only 23, but basically runs the Institute single handedly. She loves all the people there, and even seems to tolerate Will at times. Her husband Henry is an inventor whose head is in the clouds and doesn't seem to be able to focus on the task at hand.

The servant that they focus on the most is Sophie. She is a beautiful girl who has a long scar across her face as the result of her last employers. She is loyal to the Institute and everyone there (except Will, who she hates).
Shadowhunters are able to enhance their abilities by drawing runes on themselves, which can do anything from give more energy to persuasion to directions. They are at war with a man who is only known as "the Magister", that apparently wants Tessa to marry him. He is working on an army of automatons (which I'm assuming are just primitive robots), to be able to overthrow all the Shadowhunters. Tessa changes into a female vampire named Camille (woo woo!) to see if he is at a party Camille was invited to. There she finds her brother and rescues him and brings him back to the Institute. And THIS is where it gets good.

So I won't spoil the whole plot, but there were some twists that I did not see coming. At the end Will is so rude to Tessa that she hates him again, but he goes to a werewolf for help with a mysterious problem.

The only thing I don't like about this book is how many stinking times the author must mention the color of Will's eyes. Yes, now they're the color of the ocean. Now they're the color of the night sky. Yes, now you could swim in them. They are BLUE.