Review: Chain of Gold (The Last Hours #1) by Cassandra Clare
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I LOVE Cassandra Clare.
Seriously. I read The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices years ago and absolutely adored both series. The characters, the romances, the Shadowhunter world, the demons, the historical settings. ALL OF IT.
And don’t even get me started on Will Herondale.
That man still has my heart after all these years.
But after finishing those two series, I kind of felt like my time in the Shadowhunter world had come to an end. The stories I loved had been told, the characters had gotten their endings, and I was satisfied. Cassandra Clare continued expanding the universe with more books and new generations of Shadowhunters, but by then I had moved on to other things and never really felt the need to go back.
Until this October.
I was looking for something spooky to read for Halloween, especially after my sister and I finished our annual spooky season buddy read, which turned out to be a pretty spectacular disappointment. I was actually thinking about reading The Vampire Academy when Amazon recommended Chain of Gold instead.
And I thought, you know what? Why not?
Cassandra Clare has never let me down before. Plus, Chain of Gold follows the next generation of Shadowhunters, including the children of Will and Tessa Herondale, and I was more than a little excited about the possibility of revisiting that world.
Surely another Herondale romance would be just what I needed!
Well, friends.
Apparently not.
Because as much as I wanted to love this book, I have to admit that Chain of Gold was a surprisingly slow and frustrating return to the Shadowhunter world for me.
Summary
An inheritance of shadows. A love in chains. An unconquerable foe.
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 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’s friends discover that 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. (Summary from Goodreads)
Review
First of all, can we talk about how excited I was to return to this world?
I genuinely thought I was going to pick up Chain of Gold and immediately be transported back to everything I loved about The Infernal Devices.
The historical setting! The Shadowhunters! The demons! The tortured romances!
And of course, WILL HERONDALE.
I was ready.
Unfortunately, I spent a good portion of this book wondering when I was actually going to start caring about any of it.
This book was SLOW.
And I don’t necessarily mind a slow book. I love historical fiction, I love character-driven stories, and I am perfectly willing to wait for a romance to develop if the emotional payoff is worth it.
But I need to be invested in the characters.
And for probably the first 60% of Chain of Gold, I just wasn’t.
My biggest issue was James and Cordelia.
Listen, I wanted to love James Herondale. I really did. He’s Will Herondale’s son, for crying out loud! I practically went into this book prepared to love him on principle alone.
But James spent so much of the book being completely obsessed with Grace Blackthorn that I never really believed he had any romantic feelings for Cordelia.
And that was a problem.
Cordelia has loved James for years, and we’re clearly supposed to be rooting for these two, but I just couldn’t get there.
James seemed far more interested in Grace, and Cordelia spent so much time quietly loving him that I found myself wishing she would just move on already.
I also struggled with Cordelia as our main heroine.
She wasn’t terrible, and I certainly didn’t dislike her, but she never felt particularly strong or compelling to me. Especially when compared to some of the other heroines Cassandra Clare has written.
I kept waiting for Cordelia to really come into her own, to show me why I should be completely invested in her story, but it never quite happened.
And the romance?
Where was the chemistry?!
I didn’t feel the longing. I didn’t feel the tension. I didn’t feel that desperate, heartbreaking, tortured love that made The Infernal Devices so unforgettable for me.
Instead, I felt like I was being asked to root for a couple simply because the story had decided they were supposed to be together.
And I’m sorry, but that’s just not enough for me.
Another thing I really missed was the literary atmosphere of The Infernal Devices.
One of my favorite things about that trilogy was all the references to classic literature, especially Dickens. I loved how those books incorporated familiar literary works and quotes into the story. It made the historical setting feel especially rich and romantic to me.
Chain of Gold also incorporates literature and poetry, including Persian poetry and references that were less familiar to me.
And while I appreciate what Clare was doing, I just didn’t connect with those references in the same way.
Part of what made The Infernal Devices so special to me was that familiar literary atmosphere, and I found myself missing it here.
But honestly, the biggest surprise was that I was far more interested in some of the secondary characters than I was in James and Cordelia.
Thomas Lightwood and Alastair Carstairs?
YES PLEASE.
Now THAT was a relationship I wanted to know more about.
There was something about their complicated history and the tension between them that immediately caught my attention. I wanted more scenes with them, more emotional development, and more time spent exploring what was going on between those two.
Meanwhile, James and Cordelia were over there doing absolutely nothing for me.
Lucie Herondale was another character I found myself becoming increasingly interested in.
In fact, I would argue that Lucie’s abilities have the potential to be far more interesting than James’s.
The more we learned about what she could do, the more I wanted the story to focus on her. There were some genuinely intriguing possibilities with her character, and I kept wondering why we were spending so much time on James when Lucie seemed to have a much more fascinating story developing.
And then there were the rest of the Merry Thieves.
I wanted to love this group. I really did.
But I felt like some of them were just sort of…there.
Christopher Lightwood, for example, seemed to exist primarily to be the smart one who was interested in science and inventions. I didn’t feel like he had much of a purpose beyond that.
Thomas also felt a little underdeveloped outside of his connection to Alastair.
There were so many characters and potential storylines that I wanted to explore, but instead I felt like we were spending an enormous amount of time on a central romance that I wasn’t enjoying.
Which brings me to Matthew Fairchild.
NOTE: Mild spoilers ahead regarding possible romantic developments!
Oh, Matthew.
What are we doing here?!
Toward the end of the book, there seemed to be some hints that Matthew and Cordelia might become romantically involved in future books.
And I have to say, I was kind of intrigued.
But also incredibly confused.
Because Matthew spent so much of this book drinking, dealing with his own issues, and seemingly paying very little attention to Cordelia.
Then suddenly we’re getting moments where he’s dancing with her, making her laugh, and potentially becoming another romantic possibility?
Okay?
But WHERE IS THE BUILDUP?!
If we’re going to have a tortured, forbidden romance here, then give me some TORTURE!
Give me longing. Give me stolen glances. Give me a man desperately trying not to fall in love with someone he knows he shouldn’t want.
Matthew clearly has some personal demons, and there is plenty of potential for a really compelling, emotionally complicated romance.
But I wanted more groundwork laid for that possibility.
And let’s not forget that Matthew has already kissed Grace!
Now we’re potentially moving on to Cordelia, the girl his best friend has all sorts of complicated feelings for?
Sir.
What kind of parabatai are you?!
I’m not saying I don’t want to see where this goes, because weirdly enough, I actually found myself MORE interested in the possibility of Matthew and Cordelia than I ever was in James and Cordelia.
But I need Cassandra Clare to convince me.
Because right now, I feel like Matthew has the potential to be a wonderfully tortured romantic hero, but we’re spending far too much time watching him be drunk instead of really exploring that emotional conflict.
And that feels like a missed opportunity.
Now, with all that said, I don’t want to make it sound like there was absolutely nothing I enjoyed about this book.
Because something interesting finally happened around the 60% mark.
FINALLY.
Once the larger demon storyline really started coming together, I found myself becoming much more invested.
The mystery surrounding the demon attacks, the strange powers emerging among the Shadowhunters, and the implications for what might happen in future books were all genuinely intriguing.
This was the Cassandra Clare storytelling I had been waiting for!
I started asking questions. I wanted to know what was going to happen next. I was interested in the larger threat facing the Shadowhunters and how all these different pieces might eventually fit together.
And Lucie’s storyline?
I am VERY interested in seeing where that goes.
By the end of the book, I was finally starting to feel some of that old excitement about the Shadowhunter world again.
Not necessarily because I had suddenly fallen in love with James and Cordelia.
Because I hadn’t.
But because the larger story had finally given me something to care about.
And apparently that was enough.
Because despite spending a significant portion of this book feeling bored, frustrated, and completely underwhelmed by the main romance, I went ahead and ordered the second book.
And I’m already reading it.
So clearly Cassandra Clare still has some kind of hold on me.
I don’t know what to tell you.
Maybe it’s nostalgia. Maybe it’s my lingering love for Will Herondale. Maybe it’s because I genuinely believe there is a much better story developing beneath all these romantic complications.
Or maybe I’m just not quite ready to say goodbye to the Shadowhunter world again.
Whatever the reason, I’m sticking around for book two.
I’m hoping the romances become more compelling, the Merry Thieves get some much-needed character development, and we spend more time exploring Lucie’s abilities and the larger demon storyline.
Because there really is a lot of potential here.
I just wish it hadn’t taken so long for me to feel it.
Final Thoughts
I wanted to love Chain of Gold so much more than I actually did.
As a longtime Cassandra Clare fan, returning to the Shadowhunter world should have felt like coming home. And in some ways it did. I loved revisiting the families and characters connected to The Infernal Devices, and there were some genuinely interesting developments toward the end.
But the pacing was slow, the central romance lacked chemistry, and I found myself far more interested in the supporting characters than the people I was supposedly meant to be rooting for.
That said, the larger demon storyline eventually won me over enough to continue reading the series.
Would I recommend it? Yes, especially to readers who already love the Shadowhunter world and want to revisit the next generation.
Did I love it as much as The Infernal Devices?
Not even close.
Am I still hoping Cassandra Clare can make me fall in love with another Herondale?
Absolutely.
Although at this point, I might be rooting for Matthew Fairchild instead.
Sorry, James.
Book Info and Rating
Title: Chain of Gold
Author: Cassandra Clare
Series: The Last Hours, Book 1
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Paranormal Romance
Published: March 3, 2020 by Margaret K. McElderry Books
Source: Personal collection
Rating: 3/5 stars
Where to Buy
