"Love cuts deeper than any blade."
Title: Chain of Gold
Series: The Last Hours #1
Series: The Last Hours #1
Author: Cassandra Clare
Publisher: Walker Books
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Format: Paperback
Publication Date: March 3rd 2020
Pages: 624
Synopsis (Goodreads): Welcome to Edwardian London, a time of electric lights and long shadows, the celebration of artistic beauty and the wild pursuit of pleasure, with demons waiting in the dark. For years there has been peace in the Shadowhunter world. James and Lucie Herondale, children of the famous Will and Tessa, have grown up in an idyll with their loving friends and family, listening to stories of good defeating evil and love conquering all. But everything changes when the Blackthorn and Carstairs families come to London…and so does a remorseless and inescapable plague.
James Herondale longs for a great love, and thinks he has found it in the beautiful, mysterious Grace Blackthorn. Cordelia Carstairs is desperate to become a hero, save her family from ruin, and keep her secret love for James hidden. When disaster strikes the Shadowhunters, James, Cordelia and their friends are plunged into a wild adventure which will reveal dark and incredible powers, and the true cruel price of being a hero…and falling in love.
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My rating: 5 / 5 ★
How do I start this review? From where do I even start? My love for Chain of Gold is too immense that I can hardly come up with decent coherent words to write this review. I don't usually go for thick books, but if it's from Cassandra Clare, I feel that the thicker the book is, the better it is. I never want it to end honestly, even if it's painful (oh the bitter joy of reading any of the Shadowhunter's series).
I'll have to admit that I have yet to read The Infernal Devices trilogy, which took place before Chain of Gold. But I've read the manga/graphic novel of Clockwork Angel (the first book from TID) and have enough friends that are fans of the Shadowhunter series, so I know almost enough about Jem, Will and Tessa to not make my progress of reading Chain of Gold to be confusing. In case you haven't known, Chain of Gold takes place after TID, about their friends' and their own children.
Honestly, I just love everything about Chain of Gold. The plot, the characters, the twists, the romance (oh yes, the romance is almost intense but not too intense), the frustration—as much as I love this book, I'm also absolutely frustrated with it. Since the book reached 600+ pages, there are bound to be a LOT of things going, and certain times I literally forgot what had happened in the several previous chapters, but they never bore me and I kept flipping the pages forward eagerly. All the fights and actions are fleshed out in details that I can almost see them. And the ending? Oh the ending. It definitely left me screaming agonisingly for more.
What I like about Clare's writing style is that it's very easy to read; it wasn't overwhelming at all. The characters are mostly witty and interesting enough for me to want to know more about them. Despite being told from the third person point-of-view of more than one character, I don't think it made the story messy at all. In fact, I had wanted to know the feelings of each of the main characters without being influenced by them (I'm easily influenced by the characters when the story is written through a first person point-of-view), so the writing style of this book is absolutely perfect for me.
I fell in love very easily with the characters in Chain of Gold, especially Cordelia Carstairs. From the moment she first appeared in the book, I knew she's going to have a special place in my heart, and she did! She has the sweetest and kindest heart, yet at the same time her courage is probably so much bigger than the rest of her friends. She wouldn't hesitate to help those in need, and when she's in action with Cortana, she absolutely slays everything. Literally. I just love this girl too much (°◡°♡).:｡
I kinda have a love-hate relationship towards James Herondale. He's a wonderful person, calm, mostly rational, pretty much the leader of his friends, a protective brother, gorgeous—he's almost perfect. Almost. The fact that he has some dark powers related to his origin of being the grandchild to a demon, and the way he struggled to work with his newfound power made me love him more. But every single time he's with Grace Cartwright, I hated him. I know for a fact that there was a reason as to why he acted the way he did whenever Grace was present, but I still felt like smacking some senses into him. That one particular scene during the party where James did something to Cordelia because of Grace, I was absolutely fuming. Despite my frustrations over James, he's still a good person and I'm looking forward to have more of him and Cordelia in Chain of Iron soon.
Other characters that I loved are Matthew Fairchild, Lucie Herondale and Anna Lightwood. Matthew is James parabatai, and oh man, I just love this boy. There's something mysterious about Matthew; he's often found to be drunk without actually appearing to be drunk, but I felt like there's more to him than meets the eye. He's very protective of his parabatai, which is a given because that bond is closer than anything else, but I just appreciate his presence a lot. Lucie is the sweetest little soul and I loved her more for being a passionate writer. Just like James, Lucie is learning about her own power as well and I'm curious to see how she's going to use it. As for Anna, I don't actually know how to describe her, but I love her personality a lot. She wears menswear all the time and only date girls, and her personality is very fun and interesting. I like how fond she is of James and his friends, including Lucie and Cordelia. She reminds me of Magnus Bane, in a female form.
I could go on and on about how much I love Chain of Gold, but I would love to leave this review spoiler-free and urge you to read this book to experience the intense journey yourself. If you're a fan of the Shadowhunter series, what else are you even waiting for? But if you haven't read any books from the Shadowhunter series, I'd still recommend Chain of Gold if you're into young adult fantasy. That's the fun thing with the Shadowhunter series, despite having multiple trilogies/series in one huge series, starting any of them not in the right order will not affect your reading at all. Cassandra Clare is good in writing the world in details in each trilogy/series, so you won't miss out anything!
This review is honestly a mess, but that's exactly how I felt after reading Chain of Gold. A good and satisfying kind of mess that leaves me wanting so much more.
Thank you Pansing for sending me this review copy in exchange for an honest review. Chain of Gold is now available in all good bookstores!
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“Do not let those who cannot see the truth tell you who you are. You are the flame that cannot be put out. You are the star that cannot be lost. You are who you have always been, and that is enough and more than enough. Anyone who looks at you and sees darkness is blind.”
Till next time ♡ Love, Aishah Humaira'
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