Review of "Chain Of Gold" - The first book of "The Last Hours"

 

Cassandra Clare, the New York Times bestselling author of The Mortal Instruments and creator of the Shadowhunter universe, published in October 2020 the first book of the new trilogy "The Last Hours" called "Chain of Gold". 

I have a special relationship with this book and with Cassandra because her books were one of the first in my bookworm addiction. I met her story in 2013 and since then I'm a huge fan; actually in 2014 I went to the Bienal do Livro in São Paulo, Brazil and I met her and got a signature (it was magic)

Anyway, even loving this universe a lot, I stopped reading her books in 2017 when I started Dark Artificial but never ended ( I thought it was kind of lazy but a friend told me it's amazing so I'm goanna give another chance). So since then I never read anything from her again... until last year. 

I was addicted to this story and my favorite trilogy is Infernal Devices — and the favorite book is Clockwork Princess — so I've been waiting to see Tessa’s and Will's child since 2013!!!! When I saw on Galera Record Instagram they would release the book I freaked out! It's like realizing my teenage dream. And here I go, 8 years later buying these books and traveling into the Shadowhunters world again. And here I'm telling you about my view and my reaction of Chain of Gold.

First of all the design is amazing, I loved the cover of Cordelia and I think it's the most beautiful of all. Here in Brazil we had special gifts with the book for those who bought early, we got a beautiful bag with the quote "People are just invincible in the books", cards with the main character and a poster of the cover. 

Even in the beginning of the book I already felt my soul being trapped for the story. Cassandra has this special power that makes you so involve with the drama that you can’t stop talking or thinking about it. 

Chain of Gold re-introduce us to the Victorian London  — in 1903  — after the Mechanic War that we saw on Infernal Devices. All of the characters of that time are now the fathers, the mothers or even the villain of this new story and that's why I warn you its kind of hard to read CoG without reading TID because you'll see a story being followed. We meet James Herondale, Tessa's and Will's son, and the summer Herondale house which is side-by-side to the Blackthorn house, where Tatiana lives with her daughter Grace (and the spirit of her son Jesse). The Blackthorn family is already weird and creepy, most of all because Tatiana lost her father and husband in the war and she blames the Herondale for the tragedy. I think you can imagine how bad this relationship is. 

Besides the James - Grace story, which is completely weird and he loves her but we find out its not really love..., we are introduced to Lucy Herondale, James’ sister and here is my first disappointment with the book. As a fan of TID and of Tessa, I have imagined her daughter as strong as she's, so my expectations were really high about her because Tessa is my favorite feminine character. But it turns out that Lucy is underestimate and innocent. Comparing to Cordelia, who has the same age, Lucy acts like a child. I understand why she's so innocent but I know she's able to do more. James and Lucie has some power because of Tessa but all the focus go to James and I felt that Lucie's power is less important but its not, actually I think its more important. Anyway I want to see a stronger Lucy with more relevant in Chain of Iron, I really felt she was playing the hole time.

Lucie and James are one of the main characters but Cordelia, in this book, showed more than I had imagined. She's a strong and mature woman that knows what she wants and fights for it, I admire her a lot. At some point, Matthew asks her if she wants to be a muse and she says she wants to be heroin. But like most of the girls (including me) she's silly when she's in love. She took stupid atitudes because of her love and i wanted to kill her for this, but i understand because we really are fool when we're in love. Despite this, Cordelia surprised me with a good point and I'm happy to see more about her and her relationship with Lucie - they're parabatai. 

Anyway, this feeling about Lucy really borders me but the book is still amazing. We also have the group of James and his friends: Christopher, Matthew, Anna and Thomas. They don't have a lot of focus on this book (because its more about Cordelia, Lucie and James) but they do have a story behind, a life and they are not dropped in the story without importance, no! All of them has his own way and it was showed to us. I really hope we see more about them, specially about Mathew and his secret.. 

I think the story and the way Cassie told it was incredible. I cried, I laughed and I imagined myself in that time with them. Even after reading so many of her books I cannot get tired of it. It was like a travel machine. This story brings so many important discussions like homo relationships, rights of woman and even her word against man in a discussion about her reputation. 

For me, who grew up reading about Tessa and Will and their love, it was really hard to read about them in this book without thinking about Jem - actually he is in this story as a Silent Brother. In some moments Lucie talks about her parent's love, how rare it is and it's one of the most beautiful moments of the book. In the brazilian edition we had a special chapter about Will & Tessa wedding and you can already imagine how I cried. They are a couple like no other and seeing Will talking about Jem... it's hard. 

Finishing the book was hard and my heart was completely broken — specially because of the love triangle between Cordelia, James and Matthew, which is something that I don’t know if I like because I already saw a triangle like this in TID — but I do can say that I was happy and satisfied. I finished wanting more. I can barely wait to read Chain of Iron and to discover all the under the letter information that Cassie gave to us. And Lucie is on the cover of the second book so I can imagine we''ll see more about her. 

What’s Grace power? Is it related to the bracelet? But she did it with Matthew!!!! And what about Jesse? Is he gone or no? And Lucie, what are we going to discover about her powers? James will figure it out he’s in love with Cordelia after or before the wedding? I cannot wait to read it.

So as someone that was 5 years without Shadowhunters, I can tell you with completely sure that it’s an amazing travel. This trilogy is showing me more than I expected and I can say that it can be as good as TID.

With much of love,

Maybe Mavi.

ps: never forget all the stories are true.