Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare Book Review (Contains Spoilers)| Carenza Bramwell

Title- Chain of Gold
Author- Cassandra Clare
Series- The Last Hours (Shadowhunter Chronicles)
Published- 2020
Page Count- 624 (UK Collectors Edition)
Publishing House- Simon&Schuster
Rating- 5/5 stars (obviously)

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.
Taken from Cassandra's website. 

Plot 

Chain of Gold is the first novel in a new trilogy that stars the Shadowhunters of Edwardian London.

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.

Taken from Goodreads. 

My notes for Chain of Gold

Opinions

It comes as no surprise to long time followers of my blog, but I am a massive fan of Cassie's work and I adored Chain of Gold. I flew through it in three days, which I regret now as I still want to be absorbed in this world. It was so nice to be back in this world that I know and love. The Infernal Devices is my favourite Shadowhunters series, so a series about their children with them still in it, it's all I could have hoped for. 

One of the things I really loved about this book was the flashes between past and present. The most we have learned about these characters is through short stories from the companion novels, so these little extracts into their lives really helped to get to know them as characters. I also loved that the cast of characters we got to meet in this novel. I was worried that they were going to be their parents in miniture, but they are fully fleshed characters. James and Cordelia are fantastic additions to the Shadowhunter world and I cannot wait to follow them in the next two books. 

As always with Cassie's novels, there is an amazing amount of diversity, especially LGBT rep. There were so many great characters that are in the LGBT community. Anna Lightwood and Matthew Fairchild are LGBT icons and I adore them. I was also shocked when it was revealed that Alastair Carstairs was revealed to be attracted to both Thomas Lightwood and Charles Fairchild, I did not see that coming at all. 

I will say that Chain of Gold felt like a slow burn novel. It took almost half of the book to get to the central action. I also felt that while we learnt a lot from this book, not a lot happened at the same time. I feel that maybe when I reread it in preparation for the next book coming out, they're might be more to it than at first glance. This might be because I read it so fast because it was quite easy to digest. The writing style was a lot different from the most recent Shadowhunter trilogy. 

It didn't surprise me that there were lots of love elements with in this book, as that is a common and classic feature of a Cassie Clare novel. I was torn between who I wanted to end up with who throughout most of the book. I really love James and Cordelia as a couple, but the bracelet clearly did something to James which meant he loved Grace. I really hope there isn't some variation of a love triangle as we've seen that Cassie can write a great, if not the best love triangle of all time, and we don't need another one. Personally, I didn't vibe with Matthew being in love with Lucie. I saw them as having a brother-sister relationship. 

It goes without saying but I am very excited for the next instalment in this series and any future Cassie Clare novel. I was disheartened for a while as I hadn't been the biggest fan of her last three publications, but this book has fully restored my faith in her. It's also making me want to reread the Infernal Devices as those are some of my all time favourite books. What did you think of Chain of Gold?

Carenza :) x   

How I discovered the Shadowhunter Chronicles by Cassandra Clare| It'sCarenzaB

Hey Guys!
How are you?

I have a different kind of post and it's all about my love for Shadowhunters (the books, not the TV series- I haven't seen it). If you saw my Top 10 Favourite Authors, then you will know I put Cassandra Clare second (under Queen JK). You can read that post here.

This is my story of how I discovered these books and how it influenced me and my life decisions (in a good way)

Bookmarks from an etsy store called Happy Hello Art

I discovered the Shadowhunters through the City of Bones movie in September 2013. I had seen a trailer for the movie and thought that it would be something I would enjoy. I'm pretty sure I bought the book before I bought the movie, but I remember watching the movie first. I fell in love straight away. I remember watching the movie on repeat over the Easter Holidays of 2014. So straight after watching the movie, I read the book. I spotted the differences between the book and the movie straight away, but it didn't bother me. I loved the movie. I actually went through a phase of trying to dress like a Shadowhunter and I dyed my hair dark red like Clary.

So I remember being in London and going to a Watertsones and looking for the next book in the series. I bought up to book 3 in The Mortal Instruments and all of The Infernal Devices just because it had Cassandra Clare's name on it. I marathoned (?) the series and started The Infernal Devices as I didn't have access to a book shop that sold book 5. One of my friends was also reading the series at the same time and she bought me book 5 from the Works as she had seen it in their on sale. We read it at the same time and spent our days fangirling over it. 

It was around this time that I began to like The Infernal Devices a bit more. I really like stories set in Victorian times so this was right up my alley. It was also around this time that I discovered that this boy I knew really liked the series too and we became really close over it. When I say obsessed, I mean that I was full on obsessed. It was all I talked about and all I thought about. It actually was what got me really into reading.

I had always been a big reader but it was The Mortal Instruments that really sparked my interest. I also discovered that there were YouTube channels all about books. I found Sasha from Abookutopia's channel and I felt like I had found someone who understood why I was so obsessed. I would google how to do my hair like Clary's and look up where to get certain props from the movie. 

I don't know how I found out there was a 6th book coming out, but I couldn't wait for it to be released. It was in May 2014 and I went into a Waterstones and I asked if they had it. They said no and the date I had been given was the American release date. I went back the next day and bought it. I spent the rest of the day reading it. At first I didn't like it, I just didn't like the idea that this series was actually over.

I remember when I got my copy of the Shadowhunters Codex in April 2014. I made my parents buy it for me as I had to go to the dentist and get two baby teeth removed and I have a very bad phobia of needles. So they bought it for me in advance to my appointment and my dad brought it with us and gave it to me straight after my appointment. I wrote all over my copy to make it look like I was a Shadowhunter as my surname is very close to a Shadowhunter compound name. 

Over the next  6 months, I read the books and watched the movie while I waited for my pre-order of the Bane Chronicles to arrive in November. I was so excited when I got my copy and read it in a couple of days as I was so happy to be back in this world.

My obsession subsided in 2015. I didn't have any new books to read and I wanted to discover new books. Again, I don't know how I heard about Lady Midnight being released but I was so excited. In February 2016 I discovered JessetheReader's channel and became re-immersed in the world of books and TMI/TID. March 8th 2016 was a good and bad day for me. I couldn't wait to get home and read my copy of Lady Midnight. So I get home and my copy isn't there. I'm not lying here when I say I had a tantrum. But it turns out having a tantrum helps as the doorbell rung and the postman was there with my copy.

I read it in a week. I love it so much. I discovered Emmabooks channel through this as well as her videos on Shadowhunters (the TV show). Every single Cassandra Clare themed video of her's, I can guarantee there's a comment of mine on it. I then discovered I had missed out on a Limited Edition copy of Lady Midnight and I was so gutted. I also discovered that there were Shadowhunter Tarot cards and a book called An Illustrated History of Notable Shadowhunters and Denizens of Downworld. But they were only available in America, which was a shame.

In August 2016, I found a copy of the Limited Edition of Lady Midnight on eBay for £10- it was one that you had to bid for. I was determined to get it, but I had set myself a limit of £15. I was winning until the last 10 seconds when someone came in and bought it for £25 plus postage. I actually cried because I was so desperate to get it.

This year I have bought new box sets of the Mortal Instruments and the Infernal Devices in the new covers because they were so pretty. I bought TID individually and saved some money using World Book day tokens as my friends had given me all of theirs. I bought TMI as a box set of eBay for £18 plus £1 postage. At the moment, they are selling the TMI box set in the Works for £12.

With two new books coming out this year, my excitement grows. We have An Illustrated History of Notable Shadowhunters and Denizens of Downworld on November 3rd (here in the UK) and Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy on  November 15th. You can bet that there will be reviews for them coming up on here soon after their release. 

I hope you enjoyed this story post, I plan on doing one for Harry Potter at some point. If you have any questions, just comment them down below.

Love,

Carenza x