One of my most anticipated books for the past year has been Cassandra Clare’s Chain of Gold. Funny, I was so concerned about reading all the March 3 releases and I end up getting two of them as ARCs. Once again, thank you to Bookish First and Margaret K. McElderry Books for providing me with an advanced reader copy! If you’d like to join Bookish First, you can use my referral code: 56cf541090ca608b4. We both get points if you use it!
When we first start Chain of Gold, two people are moving to London: Cordelia Carstairs, who has few London friends because her family has been living abroad for years, and Grace Blackthorn, whom James Herondale loves. Or thinks he loves. The city has seen very few demon attacks recently, but things are about to heat up in the supernatural realm.
If you’ve read “The Midnight Heir”, then you know that Grace’s adoptive mother, Tatiana Blackthorn, doesn’t approve of James. She hates the Herondales because of what happened to her parents in The Infernal Devices. Going into this story, I had seen the Shadowhunter found family tree, but if you haven’t seen it, I won’t spoil the end for you. But Tatiana’s disapproval of Herondales and Lightwoods does propel some of the storyline.
Cordelia’s dad is in trouble. After an expedition went wrong, he was put under house arrest in Idris. Cordelia wants him to be found innocent, so she feels she needs to make influential friends. The friends she makes just happen to be the children of the characters from The Infernal Devices. While she is getting adjusted in the new city, all hell breaks loose. In some ways, literally. Cordelia and her new friends have to save the Shadowhunters from this new threat.
What I Liked
Chain of Gold is another outstanding Shadowhunters novel. I loved the characters, especially James and Cordelia. Cordelia’s future parabatai and James’s sister Lucie is a budding novelist and is a sweetheart. Then there’s Matthew, who drinks a little too much and has a troubled past. If you read “Cast Long Shadows” from Ghosts of the Shadow Market then you’ll know what happened. Anna, Christopher, and Thomas are also main characters that Cordelia spends time with that all have their own personalities.
The setting of Chain of Gold is different from that of The Infernal Devices. The book is set in 1903 (with some flashbacks to previous times) and Ms. Clare did a great job making it feel like a different time than that of her previous series. Technology has advanced as well as the clothing and slang the characters use. Tessa and Will, who are now in charge of the London Institute, have updated the Institute, so the decor is correct for 1903. If you read The Dark Artifices, then you’ll probably guess they were the last people to remodel the place. Clare is a master of worldbuilding and it is one of the things I love about her books.
If you’ve seen the Shadowhunters’ found family tree, then you might wonder as you start reading the book “how does X end up with Y?” I’m trying to avoid spoilers here. You find out why these two people end up together at the end of the book, and it makes a lot of sense.
Anything I Didn’t Like?
I have to wait until March 21, 2021 to read Chain of Iron. I want to find out what happens next! It doesn’t end on a huge cliffhanger like Lord of Shadows does, but I still want more.
Conclusion
Chain of Gold is another excellent book in the Shadowhunters universe. I loved the characters and the setting, and I highly recommend it. If you’ve never read any Shadowhunter books before, you can still read this one, but the other books are worthwhile. You might like the books better if you read The Infernal Devices along with some of the companion short stories that go along with this book. However, if you want to dive into this book without reading the others, you can, but you’ll probably want to go back and read the others while waiting for Chain of Iron next year.
I pre-ordered this book with my Christmas money in 2018 and it was worth the year+ wait.