From #1 New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Cassandra Clare comes the first novel in a brand-new trilogy where evil hides in plain sight and love cuts deeper than any blade. Chain of Gold is a Shadowhunters novel. Cordelia Carstairs is a Shadowhunter, a warrior trained since childhood to battle demons. When her father is accused of a terrible crime, she and her brother travel to … crime, she and her brother travel to London in hopes of preventing the family’s ruin. Cordelia’s mother wants to marry her off, but Cordelia is determined to be a hero rather than a bride. Soon Cordelia encounters childhood friends James and Lucie Herondale and is drawn into their world of glittering ballrooms, secret assignations, and supernatural salons, where vampires and warlocks mingle with mermaids and magicians. All the while, she must hide her secret love for James, who is sworn to marry someone else.
But Cordelia’s new life is blown apart when a shocking series of demon attacks devastate London. These monsters are nothing like those Shadowhunters have fought before–these demons walk in daylight, strike down the unwary with incurable poison, and seem impossible to kill. London is immediately quarantined. Trapped in the city, Cordelia and her friends discover that their own connection to a dark legacy has gifted them with incredible powers–and forced a brutal choice that will reveal the true cruel price of being a hero.
more
Another great book in the Shadowhunters world, and of course I loved it.
I think Cassandra Clare gets better with each book she writes. And to write them all in the same world but still each single one is different and surprising is a real talent.
To no ones surprise I loved this book, I loved that we get to go back to Will and Tessa and their kids. I loved the relationships and friendships and new issues the “new” generation if shadowhunters faces. The clave of course are still a bunch of Dicks and never listen until its to late.
I also love that this book is set in the past but still feels super modern and they not only face demons and monsters but also very mundane problems.
Overall there is not much more to say, except you probably should read The Infernal Devices before this one, It’s not a must but helps with people we meet and prior events that are mentioned here.
Cant wait for the next book in the series and see what trouble out gang can get into next
I rate this book 4.5
Oh my god! I was so excited to see that Cassandra Clare is releasing a new series, especially since it was going to be a sequel of my favorite series of all time, The Infernal Devices. This book was utterly amazing! You fall in love with the characters so quickly, and the world building is incredible. I’ve always loved the Shadowhunter universe, but this extends it to an entirely different level. The introduction of new dimensions and demons is so fascinating to read about! This book kept me so on my toes that I should’ve counted how many times I audibly gasped. I loved to see the return of some of my favorite characters from the Infernal Devices, and I could see how their children follow in their footsteps, but still manage to have their story be completely different from their parent’s. Though I know Tessa, Will, and Jem will always have my full heart, I fell in love with Cordelia and James within minutes, and I can’t wait to seen what their adventures will look like in the rest of the series!
I loved the plot and how the story worked into the other parts of the Shadowhunter Chronicles. There was suspense but I was annoyed at the some of the characters.
Reread in prep for Chain of Iron! Clare is excellent at wrapping our emotions around her fingers with these characters. I feel like these characters are even more complex than the ones in other series, and I’m both terrified and excited to read the next one.
//~There is no better distraction in this world than losing oneself in books for awhile.///
Name: Chain of Gold
Author: Cassandra Clare
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Adventure, Drama, Romance
Rating: 4.1/5
Review:
Chain of Gold is a fast-paced gripping YA novel about romance, drama and adventure.
The story is set in 1903’s London, it starts with the arrival of Carstairs family in London. Cordelia Carstairs has spent her whole life traveling around the world along with her family. In London, she wants to socialize and find friends, but when her father is being tried by the Clave, she needs help and support for her father’s case. She reunites with her friends, Lucie Herondale and her brother, James.
But everything changes when a sudden demon attack terrorise London, and it has spread a plague among shadowhunters. Cordelia, Lucie, James and his parabatai, Matthew Fairchild have to discover the origin of this attack. Especially when it could lead James to his ancestors, to his grandfather, to the Prince of Hell! What would Cordelia do to protect the ones she loves?
Cassandra Clare has blown mind away. This book is perfect combination of classic romance and YA fantasy. The characters are so well developed and diverse, I love it how Clare creates a story so inclusive and unique. The story is strong and plot driven. The plot is grilling and immersing, it is full of action and romance. I liked the chemistry between Cordelia and Matthew much more than Cordelia and James.
If you are already familiar with Shadowhunters Universe, you will find some familiar characters as well. It was nice to see Magnus Name once again in this story, can’t help but secretly hoping to see romance between Matthew and Magnus.
It is a pretty good read, which will be enjoyed by lovers of YA fantasy as well as YA romance.
Wonderfully written.
I’ve read many books by Cassandra Clare. I love her command of dialogue, scene work, and the tight prose. I also love it that she uses third person past, and makes great use of alternating point-of-view.
What I find unique about Chain of Gold is that, while it excels at what Cassandra Clare is usually great at, it’s the first book that didn’t have a single scene, character, situation, trope, that I didn’t like. OK, maybe I didn’t like some characters, but they were meant to be unlikeable.
In The Mortal Instruments, I don’t really like it how Clary has such few female friends. It’s a lovely entertaining series, though.
In the Dark Artifices, some younger characters read younger than they are and their POVs progress slowly. Again, I really enjoyed the books, but I wouldn’t call them perfect landings.
I didn’t see any of that in Chain of Gold.
The only small issue is that sometimes I was overwhelmed with the amount of characters and references to families, but that was just at first. But because of the amount of characters, I think readers shouldn’t start with this series, but read The Infernal Devices first, so they know some of the families and characters in it.
So, back to Chain of Gold, there were female friendships, and the female characters were likeable and heroic without being over obsessed with fighting. I think they felt “normal”, in a good way. The male characters were flawed and interesting.
The story progressed well and was interesting at all times, and I never got disappointed with a pov change. You know, sometimes you’re reading your fave, then the pov changes, and it’s disappointing? It’s normal, right? But it never happened here. I was always interested.
I know that some people complain that the story continues after the big boss fight, but I thought it was engaging all the way through.
So, in my opinion, this was a masterfully crafted novel!
You have to admire a writer who only keeps getting better with time. I believe it’s a result of serious dedication to her craft, and it shows.
This is my first read by Cassandra Clare!
It was a great story, very detailed. By looking at other reviews. I need to read other books that pertain to this one.
Very action packed, filled with drama. Very long read!!
I didn’t like Grace from the start!
James needs some mental cleaning
Will and Tessa are sweet
The fights they were in were very detailed, some families seemed to feel more entailed than others. I understand these are the children from previous books and that I need to read about the parents. You do see them in this book. Knowing their background might have helped understand a few things for me. Cordelia really showed who she was and what she wanted to do besides getting marries. In the time era that is what happens, woman get married and start a family. Not in these books! They do get married however they can be demon hunters too!
Now I’m off the look for the other books.
Cassandra Clare is back! After my disappointment about her last installment of the Dark Artifices series, I’m over the moon that her wonderful storytelling and great characters are back in force. No more of this confusing and rather forced “everything but the kitchen sink” character cast and plot. This is the writing I fell in love with when I discovered the Mortal Instruments. Cassandra does historical PNR/urban fantasy really well and her characters are again likable (or not) and well-developed. I am totally in love with James and Cordelia and all their friends and relations. Great start for this series.
Awesome
Cassandra Clare has been a favorite author of mine for years. Sooo many years. I was even lucky enough to meet her at a book event once so whenever she has a new book out I need to buy it as soon as possible. I have absolutely loved every single book she’s written before and Chain of Gold wasn’t an exception at all.
I was especially excited for this book because it’s set at the London institute during the Edwardian era and the history geek inside me can’t get enough of that. Also, I will always jump at the chance to read more about Will (who’s a sexy silver fox now) and Tessa’s married life even though they were secondary characters in this book. They’re forever my faves and nothing will change that. I really lived for their appareances, especially the scenes together they had. Jem also appeared quite a few times and it took everything in me not to cry. I should really re-read The Infernal Devices at some point.
But this time around the story is more about Tessa and Will’s children, James and Lucie Herondale. It’s also about Cordelia Carstairs who has traveled to London with her older brother and mother. I knew beforehand that I would love James and Lucie. But I absolutely adored Cordelia too. She was just so awesome and badass with her sword Cortana.
I also loved the Merry Thieves, which along with James was a group of his friends. In the group were his parabatai Matthew Fairschild, Chrisopher Lightwood and Thomas Lightwood. They were awesome. How could I not love them. Especially Matthew, who is precious and needs to be protected at all cost.
Aside from all the characters that I loved (and some I didn’t because there need to be villains of course) there was a lot of action, humor, unexpected twists and romance. But oh the romance… Cassandra Clare really knows how to write good kissing scenes. I may have totally melted at one and god I need more!
What else can I say? Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare actually blew me away. It’s definitely one of the best Shadowhunter books I have read and I’m already absolutely dying for the next one. The wait will be so horrible because I couldn’t get enough of the characters, setting and just everything!
This is one of my favourite books by Cassandra Clare. It is the first in a series and a book that I’ve read three times in the last few months. It is filled with amazing characters and relationships. It is definitely worth the read and is a book that I did not want to put down at all. I recommend reading this book however you probably want to read the trilogy that comes prior to it, The Infernal Devices.
Let’s start off with the actual plot itself. Of course, Cassie Clare would always give us a good plot to dig into, and in the world of the Shadowhunters in the 1900s, the plot was just thickened by the setting and the culture and the people.
The characters: I think this is my favourite cast of characters so far in the Shadowhunters. I love Shadowhunter stories set in this era, and what was different this time is that all these characters grew up with each other, they are one big group and family, and I just loved the witty banter, the jokes, and the bravery and courage they all share. They’re all young, and love adventure. They all have their own problems but all have each other’s back. Obviously with the exception of Grace, Titania, and other characters that I (we all) have minor (huge) problems with.
The romances: okay, let’s be honest, we all knew James and Cordelia (or Daisy) were going to get together. I truly loved their romance, because, well, James is such a die-hard romantic, and it was nice to see him move on from Grace (ugh). It was so heartwarming to see him return Cordelia’s affections. (view spoiler) I enjoyed the romance between Jesse and Lucie less, mainly because I get a small headache reading Lucie’s dialogue and being in her head. But that’s just because she’s a bubbly, cheery and energetic person, so screw me for getting headaches.
The ending: Such a cliffhanger – I sense danger and I cannot wait for book two.
Also, why is this series called The Last Hours. Please can that not be foreshadowing something, please please please.
Sadly, I wrote a long review and there isn’t enough space on GR, so, to read the full review, go here:
Chain Of Gold by purplebass https://purplebass.wordpress.com/2020/05/26/chain-of-gold-the-last-hours-1-by-cassandra-clare/
A couple of weeks ago I decided to re-read The Infernal Devices series, which is one of my favorites. Plus, who knows me is aware that as much as I like almost all of the characters, I love Will and Tessa as a couple, thus I was ecstatic to be reading about their son and daughter. I was happy with the interactions we got and I absolutely loved the bonus short story at the end, about their wedding. It made my heart melt. I decided to buy a first hardback cover edition of this book just to have that.
On to the book.
BEWARE: SPOILERS.
Before I blabber about romances and stuff like that, I wanted to say what I think “Chain of Gold” means besides what CC told us. It is a reference to Great Expectations, of course, and in TID also Magnus says that:
“We, who are immortal, we are chained to this life by a chain of gold, and we dare not to sever it for fear of what lines beyond the drop.”
Clockwork Prince, page 299
so it is a reference to the fact that gold survives time and it’s linked to immortality, power, but it is also connected with evil in religion.
Besides the reference, there’s a lot of gold in this book: James’ eyes, Cordelia’s sword Cortana, Jesse Blackthorn’s necklace that then becomes Lucie’s, Matthew’s golden hair and golden retriever dog Oscar, Herondale manor was made of golden stone, Christopher’s golden spectacles, Grace’s pale gold hair. It doesn’t have to mean something in all of these occasions, but who knows. Gold is also the color of the sun and the light, and if you think about it, if we see it on these characters, James has golden eyes but dark hair and he is drawn to the dark side because of his heritage, while Cordelia has strikes of gold in her hair and has black eyes and her sword, like I have already mentioned, is gold, and we saw not only let her pass into the shadow realm, it was also the “beacon” James saw when he tried to go there voluntarily and didn’t know how to get back. Also, Lucie’s name means “light”, as Jem points out towards the end.
Besides gold, there is another color that stands out, which is grey. Not only the next book is called “Chain of Iron”, but it is also the color of the silver bracelet James stole for Grace and wears – I talked about this in my review. I guess James is going to be on the cover, but who knows. Silver is also the color of James’ grandfather’s eyes and the color of his mother’s eyes, as Grace’s eyes. Grey/silver is the color of the moon and it is believed to be the mirror to the soul. In this case, however, it seems like silver may be the color of deception, of darkness, since if it’s linked to the moon and the goddess Artemis, the moon is always in the sky, but it is also connected with the night, the dark. James also says this to Cordelia, after they fall from the sky after visiting his grandfather, and he also recalls what Will tells Tessa in TID:
“You saved my life,” he said. “Just as you saved my sister’s all those years ago. We should have given you a more warrior-like nickname. Not Daisy, but Artemis, or Boadicea.”
Chain of Gold, page 498
So, he does indeed see her as a goddess. And he could be inspired by a God too, maybe Apollo, the god of poetry and of the sun, even though he and Artemis were twins. Anyway, this is just a thought.
Hence, there are a strong light/dark, gold/silver, appearance/reality and more references. This doesn’t mean that the characters with these two colors are strictly light or dark characters. It just means that each one of us is not completely good or bad and we have darkness and light inside of us and we shouldn’t let what other think get to us. In the end, it’s how we decide to live that matters. In the beginning of the book, in fact, there is this line carved at the Devil Tavern:
It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. S.J.
The very first 50 pages or so of this book (that has almost 600 pages) were introductions to the various characters of this new series. Of course we already knew about James and Lucie Herondale, Will and Tessa’s son and daughter, and also about Cordelia Carstairs, Jem’s cousin, but I for example didn’t know much about the other sons and daughters of the shadowhunters who also appear in TID, so I had to get used to it because it was confusing at times because there were many characters. Many as compared to TID, for example, where the story was focused on a small group of people. Passed these pages, though, I got used to it. Maybe this was a silly issue for me, but since it is a new series, it’s normal to feel confused because one is not acquainted with the characters yet.
Even if there are a lot of characters, it is evident that despite most of them have a POV (even one-page long POV), but James, Lucie and Cordelia and maybe Matthew (even if he has less POV than them) are the main characters. Well, some reasons you’ll find out along the way, others are known.
I have loved this series since high school and this new addition does not disappoint. Really enjoy seeing the newest generation that came after Will, Jem and Tessa.
This book had a lot to live up to. I loved The Infernal Devices series and I enjoyed the first three books of The Mortal Instruments Series. We won’t talk about the last three books in that series. I was so angry that I said I would not read any more of these books. So yes I have missed the whole The Dark Artifices Series and to be honest, I don’t know if I will read those. Well as you can see I caved and picked up this book because I mean Jem, Will, and Tessa. I just loved that throuple so much. Yea I went there.
This book is about Will and Tessa’s kids and I am living for it. This book was everything I wanted from it and more. If you have not read any of the other shadow hunter books I am going to say you can pick this one up and read it. Just know that you will be spoiled for the Infernal Devices series since this happens less than 20 years after those books end.
I am at a loss for words I just want to gush about this book.
If you have even the smallest want to read this book just do it. No really read it. I will be waiting for the next book and I am already trying to figure out how to get an ARC lol.
A trip back in time… Getting to go back and revisit some of the characters that first introduced me to the world of shadow hunters was such a thrill. Then we have their children and the adventures they are starting. Every character is brilliantly crafted. You feel for them every time something happens, and the ominous ending has me dying for more.
I have loved all of the Shadowhunters series and this one is a new favorite. I’m excited to see where this series goes
This book doesn’t wander from the typical Cassandra Clare model. Similar characters (developed VERY well), wonderful dialogue, and enjoyable, entertaining plot that fits in with the world she’s created. I wasn’t crazy about the anachronisms.
Cassandra Clare does not disappoint. This first book in her new series is amazing! I couldn’t put the book down until the end, and didn’t want to even then.
I absolutely loved this book. The world building was amazing and turn of the century London made for an atmospheric and evocative setting. I loved the characters and became attached to them quickly. I particularly liked the characters of Cordelia, Lucie and Anna. The plot was engaging and complex with a chilling and clever enemy. I whipped through this 582 book like lightning. I couldn’t put it down. There is no doubt that Cassandra Clare is a major talent in the fantasy genre. You don’t have to read the Infernal Devices series first to understand Chain of Gold although I’m sure it would enrich your reading experience. I can’t wait for the next installment in the series as there are definitely some unresolved problems.