Review: Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare

Title: Chain of Gold
Author: Cassandra Clare
Series: The Last Hours #1
Publication: March 3rd 2020 by Simon & Schuster Export
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Historical
Purchase it on: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Google Play | Kobo
Rating: 5/5★

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 the only thing more dangerous than fighting demons is falling in love. 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 Edwardian 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 an dark legacy has gifted them with incredible powers--and force a brutal choice that will reveal the true cruel price of being a hero.

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!

About the author:
Cassandra Clare was born to American parents in Teheran, Iran and spent much of her childhood travelling the world with her family, including one trek through the Himalayas as a toddler where she spent a month living in her father’s backpack. She lived in France, England and Switzerland before she was ten years old.

Since her family moved around so much she found familiarity in books and went everywhere with a book under her arm. She spent her high school years in Los Angeles where she used to write stories to amuse her classmates, including an epic novel called “The Beautiful Cassandra” based on a Jane Austen short story of the same name (and which later inspired her current pen name).

After college, Cassie lived in Los Angeles and New York where she worked at various entertainment magazines and even some rather suspect tabloids where she reported on Brad and Angelina’s world travels and Britney Spears’ wardrobe malfunctions. She started working on her YA novel, City of Bones, in 2004, inspired by the urban landscape of Manhattan, her favourite city. She turned to writing fantasy fiction full time in 2006 and hopes never to have to write about Paris Hilton again.

Cassie’s first professional writing sale was a short story called “The Girl’s Guide to Defeating the Dark Lord” in a Baen anthology of humor fantasy. Cassie hates working at home alone because she always gets distracted by reality TV shows and the antics of her two cats, so she usually sets out to write in local coffee shops and restaurants. She likes to work in the company of her friends, who see that she sticks to her deadlines.

City of Bones was her first novel.
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