CLOCKWORK PRINCESS OMG!! (spoilers)

So a couple of days ago I finished Clockwork Princess, and perhaps I should have written this right after, but all the feelings were still to raw.  First off I am going to be posting spoilers so if  you haven't finished or want to read at some point and don't wish to be spoiled you should probably not read any further.

On to the review (I might try and do one of these for ever "fun" i.e. not assigned college reading book I do)!  To start of I think one of my favorite things about this series is the time period it is set in. I absolutely love steampunk type things and historical fiction/fantasy novels, especially if they are set around Victorian/Edwardian era (Samantha was my favorite American Girl), especially, especially, if they are set in England, maybe it should be the other way around, but I think you get the point. So on that front I like TID more than TMI just on personal book preference (not saying I don't like TMI, just like TID better).  Another thing I love about these books as a whole compared to I guess TMI or a lot of other books, is the intricacies. Just like Harry Potter I feel I will go back and be the OMG it (something, whatever) was there the whole time!

I was really surprised how little Mortmain was in this book.  A little, but mostly it was character focused which is some thing that I love!

Fact going into CP2 I was a Will/Tessa shipper.  Not a super crazy I-will-rip Jem's-balls-off-if-he-touches-Tessa-or-even-looks-at-her-lustily-engagement-be-damned, but a I-get-Tessa-and-Jem-are-engaged-but-Will.....  So I just want to through that out there Wessa over Jess before I read Clockwork Princess.  After... OMG SQUEEE!  But I will come back to that with my discussion of the epilogue.  So at the beginning:  A character that kind of surprised me but not really (and was one of my favorites) was Gabriel Lightwood (also Cecily Herondale, but we will get to her in a minute).  Oh Gabriel how you make me want to hug you for being so stupid one minute, then punch you the next minute for being stupid and a jerk, the huggle you because you weren't a jerk after all and are really a sweet caring guy.  Side note: I think another reason I love TID so much is the character depth.  It's not just Jace and Clary and googly eyes and fighting.  All the characters seem so multifaceted, sometimes good, sometimes jerks, only one character is really bad and even he has hidden depths and secrets you just can't wait to find out.  And mysterious pasts and backstory! God how they give me women reading boners.  I LOVE them!

Anyway... back to people; Cecily Herondale, so kick ass! I mean she has been at the Institute two months and she goes to fight Benedict Lightworm ( :D ) and jumps and his damn back!!!! Like how bad ass is she! (Sometimes I think more bad ass than even Will ;) ) Um... more character gushing... Charlotte still kicks ass even when she's pregnant also I love her stick to your guns no matter what a man says attitude.  Which reminds me of another thing I love about this book, Shadowhunters are supposed to be all "Girls can fight just like men" and "We are all equal and carry the bad ass blood of the angel in our veins" and still because of the time period they are in (and to an extent the place) Charlotte is seen as an inferior because she is a woman, she is seen as weak and easily manipulated by the (don't get me started, but I will probably rant about him later) Consul.  Just like mundane women at the time would be.  And both Charlotte, and Tessa, and even Cecily are like "You know what Victorian propriety and whatnot, you, you can go fuck yourself."

Another character "couple" I love the interaction between is Henry and Magnus.  Now by themselves they are fucking awesome!  I mean Henry is all adorable and in CP tries not to upset Charlotte when they both loved each other for real but didn't realize it.  And I just love him and also the ties between what he makes and you can see how they are incorporated into TMI and I just think it's really awesome.  And then Magnus by himself is just well Magnus.  He has a witty quip for everything and snark and love of cats and just MAGNUS (if you don't love Magnus, you are lying to yourself. Just sayin').  But when Henry and Magnus get together and start working on the portal it's so amazing and cute.  I mean Magnus is basically like: I bet among the Shadowhunters you are considered a genius and Henry is like: Well... yeah... no, not so much.  And this is pretty much Magnus:  O.O ('cept you know with cat eyes) And the Clave is stupid.  And you Henry sir are awesome, also what is this shiny thing that makes me sparkle I could coat is all over my body and shine forever! :3

Also SOHPIE AND GIDEON and awwwwwwwwwwwwww and yes yes yesyesyesyes!!! (That is all I will say on that topic for now).

So up to main characters.... Well I think Jem is a good place to start.... maybe... are you ready for a spoiler filled rant/gush (probably long) paragraph?  So first off I think I will start with about half way through the book with Jem because this is what comes to mind.  Will riding off to save Tessa 50% in and Jem DIES!  I just sat there in shock for a second and was like... um... but Jem... rest of book... dead ALREADY?!  It just really through me for a loop, I mean I had the feeling going in that he was brother Zachariah so when he died I was like... well that it.  And then they completely clean out his room I was really upset.  I couldn't believe they had completely cleaned out his room and he was their friend and gah!  I was just so angry at everyone for that!  But then Brother Zachariah showed up and was all silent and just like all the other brothers and my heart dropped because that was supposed to be Jem, but he was dead and then wham!  It was Jem and I did a happy dance because JEM!  And I was right and he was back and yay!

Which brings me I guess to Will and Tessa my favorite characters.  They are just amazing!  I love Tessa’s intelligence and her determination to do whatever no matter what any one else says.  I love her (and Will’s) love of literature an books.  And Will… I love that boy.  He is head strong and courageous and he loves with all of his heart.  He loves Jem as more than brother (which made me think of Will/Jem… which I would totally ship) they are something even greater and Will conceals his own desire for Tessa from Jem just so Jem can be happy.  He is selfless and amazing and I would totally steal Will from Tessa in a heartbeat.  I love his witty quips and I knew there was know way he was a total jackass.  Much as he tried to pretend to be one.

So on to my favourite and last part.  The epilogue.  So this epilogue got me much like the Harry Potter epilogue did and I imagine that much like that epilogue it will be hated by some.  I absolutely loved it!  I mean she gets both boys in the end.  I am such a sucker for happy endings and this one has two!  It was so said both Tessa and Will’s goodbye to Jem, but they knew it was for the best.  And the flashbacks at the party of how Tessa helped Will move on and it was like watching them fall in love all over again.  I’ve seen some post from Jessa shippers about how Tessa going to meet Jem is like her cheating on Will.  Seriously?!  Absolutely not.  One, I’m sure Will knew Tessa was going to see Jem and I have a feeling that seeing Tessa is what kept Jem sane and from completely turning into a Silent Brother.  And the fact that Tessa and Will got to grow old together and have children and ah!  It just makes me squee and fangirl on the inside.  (and want to write fics about it).  Which as I understand it Cassie will be writing about it herself.  Anyway when Tessa sees Jem in the epilogue and he is himself and cured again it just makes my heart melt.  She gets to spend two life times with the boys she loves.  The fact she had to chase Jem down made me smile because even after being a Silent Brother and having lived through god knows what and almost 200 years he is still the same shy Jem who sees Tessa as his parabatai’s love even if will has been dead 80+ years.  It’s just so beautiful.  I want to just keep reading it over and over and over again.  Brava Cassie.  Can’t wait for more.

Day 21 Nail Challenge: Inspired By a Color

This is going to be the hardest week for polish.  I need to get my inspiration flowing.  I really loved the Water Marbling from the day before so I decided to try it again only this time with a varient of colors.  I was inspired by my favorite colors, pink and blue.  My nails just happened to turn out like baby shower nails.

I forgot to tape up my hand for a couple of the nails.  Oh well lesson learned.  For the pinks I used Orly's "kiss the bride" China Glaze's "Dance Baby" Julep's "Eva" and O.P.I.'s "Kiss Me on my Tulips"  For my blues I used China Glaze's "Frostbite"  Julep's "Annie" and "Melanie" And my only and first Butter London "Scouse" I loved doing these the blue hand gave me a lot of problems.  The polish seemed to dry so much faster than the pinks and so when I tried to make designes I would take away whole colors, but I love how they turned out.

Day 20 Nail challenge: Water Marbling

So I want to get these back log post out of the way and the pics off my desktop before I do my book post so with out further ado these are my water marbling nails.

These were sort of Captain America Shield inspired nails.  My girlfriend showed me how to water marble and tape up my fingers so they wouldn't become a mess.  I really liked the fact the blue and red had a shimmer.  The blue was China Glaze's "Frostbite" and the red Julep's "Sharon"

Day 19 Nail Challenge: Galaxies

Hi everyone!  Sorry I haven't been posting it has been pretty busy.  I have been working and yesterday I spent the whole day reading a very special book (post on that soon!)  I have 4 challenge days worth of material in the back log.  So much for keeping up and finishing on time.  Anyway, I did this mani a quite few days ago and I really like it.

I used two different purples for my hands because I couldn't decide which I liked better.

On the left hand (top) I used O.P.I. "Black Onyx" China Glaze's "Man Hunt"(Blue), "Creative Fantasy" (Purple) and Sinful Color's "Snow Me White"  On the right hand (bottom) I used O.P.I. "Black Onyx" China Glaze's "Man Hunt" Julep's  "Anne"(purple) and Sinful Color's "Snow Me White"  For the top coat of Glitter I used China Glaze Fairy Dust"  I like them both but I think I like the lighter purple because it creates more dynamic.  I should have perhaps used a lighter blue because this one blends in a bit too much for my tastes.

Day 18 challenge: Half-moons

So I totally meant to do a completely different mani, but I forgot and did these... oh well.

So yeah... my cuticles got really really bad. :(  I am trying to fix them...  Anyway the colors I used were chosen by my girlfriend and are Julep's "Morgan" on bottom and "Eva" on top.  They are pretty and the Morgan underneath turned turned the Eva darker than normal I think.  The only problem I had with this mani is I had to put on so much polish.  Each at least was three coats to make opaque.  You can see on my pinkie in the bottom picture the sort of bulbling from the polish.

Day 17 challenge: Glitter

So I procrastinated and put this off till St. Patrick's day because I really wanted to wear my add-on from Julep, "Lucky".

I tried to get this in as many lights as possible.  Lucky is very pretty and not as hard to get off I some glitter polishes I've encountered.  The concept was a leprechaun and his pot of gold which is the silver gold on my pinkie.  The color is Julep's "Sienna"   I really liked these and was glad I could do them for St. Pat's.  Also they were a happy birthday to my Nana.  Sorry about my cuticles they are so dry, and that I didn't get good light for Sienna.  It is amazing.

Day 16 Nail Challenge: Tribal nails

So right now I am all kinds of behind on this challenge.  Today is suppose to be inspired by a movie, but I've been all kinds of busy as a result I am a week behind.  Anyway, I wore the base polish for this design for 2 or 3 days before I could find time to pur the design on and then I only did one hand because that had looked terrible, but here they are:

Before design and as best clean up as I could do.

I used the same sponge technique as my other gradient nails, but this one looks better (so about my cuticles.  They are super dry and ratty lately).

Here's the nails with the design

The colors I used were Julep's "Anne" and "Annie" I love those colors.  And O.P.I. "Black Onyx"

day 15 challenge: Delicate print

So today I did my delicate nails!  They were really cute I thought so I wore them all day.  I meant to do my tribal ones and everything and catch up, however, my nails are getting chipping and flaky so nil treatment time.

Anyway here's the mani:

I just kind of started drawing random designs. this was the left hand.  My ring finger made a face!

Right hand

The colors I used was Julep's "Demi" for the base, "Helen" (After Helen Hunt makes me giggle- NERDFIGHTERS!) And Orly's "Kiss the Bride"

Looking for Alaska

Saturday I went to Barnes and Noble with my best friend, her mom, and step-sister and bought another John Green book!  This time it was:

I already started and I can't wait to read more!  Yay Spring Break time!!!

Day 14 Challenge: Flower nails

These nails were actually from this book.  I started trying to do some antique roses but, I didn't like how thick the lines were coming out do I switched and did '80's floral nails instead.

The first two are in sunlight and the last is in artificial light pre-clean up.  These were really fun to do, but took a lot of work, but I'm proud of them.

Colors I used, from left to right: China Glaze, "Custom kicks"; Julep, "Melanie", "Barbara"; O.P.I. ""Black Onyx"; China Glaze "Westside Warrior"

Special Post!

So I went to Sephora today with my girlfriend and her mom and I saw this:

Pre clean up

Post clean up

This is the Julep polish "Wendy" which is part of the new Rock Candy nail glaze line.  This is it over "Pippa"  I like it on it's own, but my nail looked icky do I put a nude under it.  I love it.

Day Thirteen: Animal Print

So this is my first ever time doing any sort of animal print.  I choose leopard, because they seemed the easiest and after my fail at stripes I wasn't ready to tackle striped animals anytime soon.

This in a daylight lamp

This is approaching dusk (but natural sunlight)

The colors I used were Julep's Eva (because I received it that day in my secret store purchase yesterday and couldn't wait to try it), China Glaze's Glistening snow for my spots, and O.P.I.'s Black Onyx.  I am having a really time wanting to take this off.  I want to because I want to move on, but at the same I love it so much!

#nailpolishproblems

Day twelve Challenge: Stripes

So this was  my pathetic attempt at stripes.  I dis liked these so much I actually just did polka dots on my other hand.  The colors I used were Julep's Annie and Lynn.  I have nothing more to say other than I hated them.

Day eleven: polka dots

Polka dots! These mani colors were picked out by my cat and I really liked this mani. I'd never done polka dots before but I really really liked them. The colors I used were China Glaze's Frostbite and Dance Baby. I liked these so much better than the gradient nails.

Day ten nail challenge: Gradient nails

So these are my first ever gradient nails... I used a sponge method I found a tutorial for on youtube... yeah... I think the white underneath over powers the colors especially the purple that I used... so... I wore them for all of 10 minutes.  Maybe.  Anyway, the colors I used were Sinful Color's Snow Me White and from O.P.I.'s Euro Centrale collection, the pink "Suzi's Hungary Again", Blue "Can't Find My  Czechbook", Purple that you can't really see "You're Such a Budapest", and for the glitter accents (on the most messed up nails, of course) "Polka.com"  One problem I had when I started this mani was that tiny bits of the sponge came off on my nail, which I then couldn't pick off because it would smudge everything else.  I might try these again later, perhaps with darker/more jewel tone colors and or the same colors with no base coat.  That's all for now.  Ta.

Day Nine: Rainbow nails

Here are some rainbow nails!!

I don't know why I couldn't get my thumb in focus....

I do not know what happened to this hand but I feel the need to show.  I let this dry for a good 30 minutes before even putting my hand anywhere near my jacket while I was reading and my thumb and more importantly index finger happened... What the f**k?

Anyways the colors I used starting from thumb were O.P.I. Vodka and Caviar, O.P.I. He's My Boo, China Glaze Happy Go Lucky, Julep Annie, and Julep Anne.  Lately a lot of people have been talking about nails looking like chalk if you put on a matte top coat, so I decided to try and besides the "who knows" smudges I quite like the result.  Sorry for the extra special bad clean up job I was rushed and had to get to work and I did the actual painting at Starbucks so I didn't have a bottle of acetone with me at the time.  Also my cuticles are starting to get really bad so I apologize in advance for the state of those in my next few days of pictures.

Barnes & Noble, new book and William Shakespeare

My dad came to visit so we eventually end up at B&N where my room mate and I bought this!

Can't wait to read it! Maybe I will buy a bucket to catch all my tears.

On another book related note I must read Titus Andronicus. So far it looks good the intro starts out with "Human sacrifice. Gang rape. Mutilation. Ritual butchery. Mother-son cannibalism." So hopefully it will be awesome.

More nail pics to come tonight. Got a little behind. Rant on my many phone calls later.

Day eight Challenge: Metallics

So today was metallics.  I only did one hand because I was really not felling metallics today and I could tell when I took off the newsprint nails that I needed to use my Julep oxygen nail treatment.  These two colors that I used were both China Glaze's duo chrome.  The purple one is No plain Jane and the green is Unpredictable.  Supposedly when you move your hand in the light the purple flashes to a tannish/gold color and the green turns either blue or gold.  I really don't like how these apply they are super super thin so it take many coats to just get them opaque and even when the base is opaque I have a super hard time getting my tips opaque.  I might get rid of these soon because as pretty as they are in the bottle I hardly wear them and they take forever to apply and work with.

Day seven Challenge Nails: Black and white

So at first I had no idea what I was gonna do for black and white nails and I thought they would be really boring, but then I started flipping through my roommate's nail art magazine and saw nails that looked liked they had writing on them and I remembered over the summer when I did a newspaper mani. So this was this time.

I used Sinful Colors' Snow Me White... and the Greensboro yellow pages.  I realized I didn't have a newspaper and we just had these lying around and the yellow pages are like a newspaper... right?  I thought it was an interesting take on black and white and didn't have to use but one polish color but did have to find b&w pages in the yellow pages... more difficult than I thought.  They are[t kidding about yellow pages.  Anyway I really like it.  I'm pleased on how it turned out.  I'm kind of sad I have to take it off, but oh well.  Tomorrow metallics.