Waiting on Wednesday: Clockwork Angel (Infernal Devices #1)

Cassandra Clare, author of the hugely popular Mortal Instruments series (City of Bones, City of Ashes, City of Glass and the forthcoming City of Fallen Angels), is set to release the first in a related series Aug. 31. The new series, Infernal Devices, begins with Clockwork Angel and it looks fantastic.

The Infernal Devices series is set in the same world as Mortal Instruments, but a century earlier and in London this time out. The fact that it’s by Cassandra Clare would probably be enough for me to pick it up anyway, but the details of the novel and the excerpts dripping with wry wit and the types of self-depricating characters I adore have me constantly nudging Clockwork Angel farther up the to-read list.

Read on for the official description:

Magic is dangerous—but love is more dangerous still.

When sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London’s Downworld, where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets. Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos.

Kidnapped by the mysterious Dark Sisters, members of a secret organization called The Pandemonium Club, Tessa soon learns that she herself is a Downworlder with a rare ability: the power to transform, at will, into another person. What’s more, the Magister, the shadowy figure who runs the Club, will stop at nothing to claim Tessa’s power for his own.

Friendless and hunted, Tessa takes refuge with the Shadowhunters of the London Institute, who swear to find her brother if she will use her power to help them. She soon finds herself fascinated by—and torn between—two best friends: Jem, whose fragile beauty hides a deadly secret, and blue-eyed Will, whose caustic wit and volatile moods keep everyone in his life at arm’s length…everyone, that is, but Tessa. As their search draws them deep into the heart of an arcane plot that threatens to destroy the Shadowhunters, Tessa realizes that she may need to choose between saving her brother and helping her new friends save the world…and that love may be the most dangerous magic of all.