Review: Chain of Gold (The Last Hours #1) by Cassandra Clare

Title: Chain of Gold

Series: The Last Hours #1

Prequel short stories: The Penultimate Hours

Other series in the Shadowhunter Chronicles: The Infernal Devices | The Mortal Instruments | The Dark Artifices

Author: Cassandra Clare

Genre: YA, urban fantasy, historical

Publication date: March 2020

Published by: Margaret K. McElderry Books

Source: Purchased hardcover

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Synopsis: 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.

My rating: ★★★★★

I loved this book! But then again, going into it I knew I was going to love it, as I do all Shadowhunter books. But at this point we all know what a huge fan of the Shadowhunter Chronicles I am.

This series is a sequel to The Infernal Devices and revolves around the next generation of Shadowhunters, including Will and Tessa's kids! One of my favorite things about Cassie Clare's books is that she always writes these interesting, complex, and completely lovable characters. And the new cast in this series was no different! I adored them! I'm not gonna lie though, keeping all the Lightwoods straight in the beginning was tough just because there's so many of them. And then some of them are related to Lucie and James, but some are not...

But by the end I was fine and I loved them all. Lol. We’ve got aloof but brilliant Christopher...

Thomas sighed. "I always end up helping Christopher in the lab."
"It is because you are remarkably good at dodging explosions," said James, "and also, you can curse in Spanish."
"How does that help?" said Thomas.
"It doesn't," said James, "but Christopher likes it."

And Anna was cool... That is literally the only way you can describe her. I loved her and the way she basically told society and the patriarchy to fuck off. Lol.

I also loved Matthew and how protective he was of James. Matthew reminded me a lot of Will and Jace, with his charming arrogance, so of course I loved him. Lol. Are we sure he's not a Herondale?😆 But there's also more to him than meets the eye. He has this sort of sadness and self-loathing inside him that really makes me feel for him. Whatever horrible thing he thinks he did is not his fault. I just want to give him a hug!

James, on the other hand, was nothing like the other Herondale boys, which is not a bad thing because I still loved him. Lol.. He's very sweet and thoughtful, and most definitely still a Herondale. Exhibit A:

"This is bad enough without mentioning ducks," said James He had never fancied ducks since one had bitten him in Hyde Park as a small child.

Exhibit B:

“I see you have decided to follow in the long Herondale tradition of poor decision-making."

Magnus gets it.

And Cordelia was also very caring and thoughtful and an absolute badass with Cortana! (Yes, Emma's Cortana!) I loved her!

Sona looked slightly horrified. "Cordelia has a tendency to throw herself into every situation headlong," she said to Tessa and Will. "I'm sure you understand."
"Oh, we do," said Will. "We're always speaking very sternly to our children about that very thing. 'If you don't throw yourself into situations headlong, James and Lucie, you can expect bread and water for supper again.’"

(Omg Will 😂) And I know I missed some characters, okay? But in my defense, there's like 20 main characters in this book 😆 But I really did love them all! Including their fun banter and the strong bond they have.

One thing I didn't like was James's infatuation with Grace, which is the point, but good god did I hate her! I understand her situation isn't great, and I did feel bad for her at times, but. mostly I just did not like her. Cordelia and James on the other hand...

Loved! And don't get me started on the Whispering Room scene because holy hell...

Throughout this whole book they just had these super cute moments that melted my heart. And then that ending? Oh boy! I loved it and hated it at the same time. It was very bittersweet and I'm curious to see how their relationship will progress in the next book.

I have talked at length about the characters, and I could honestly go on and on about how sassy Lucie is, how intriguing Cordelia’s brother Alastair is, or how happy I am whenever Jem aka Brother Zachariah or Magnus shows up...

“James, you are not defined by this—by this blood in you. I have found no trace, no hint of who your grandfather is, and I advised Jem to cease looking. It does not matter. You are who you are, made by the sum of your choices and actions. Not a teaspoon of demon's blood."

-Magnus to James

But I want to touch on the actual story very briefly. I really enjoyed it (duh, I know lol)! I thought it was interesting what with the lack of demon activity and then the very odd demon attacks the Shadowhunters experienced... it all made sense in the end!

But yeah, I loved this! I love this world and I already, somehow, loved these characters even before I started reading this book. I mean, I did get to know them a little from some short stories here and there (The Penultimate Hours), but Cassie Clare always writes a variety of lovable characters, which I love! And I always love that she includes POC characters and has LGBTQ rep in her books! And I of course loved that we got to see characters from other series as well...

Will made the introductions. "Ragnor Fell, my beloved son and daughter. Also a disgraceful pack of home invaders. I think you all know Ragnor Fell, the former High Warlock of London?"
"He taught us in the Academy," Christopher said.
Ragnor Fell glared at him. "By the name of Lilith," he drawled. "Hide the breakables. Hide the whole house. Christopher Lightwood is here."
"Christopher is often here," said James. "The house remains mostly intact."

This book was just fun, but also heartbreaking at the same time. I didn’t full-on cry, but I would be lying if I said I didn't get teary-eyed, especially at the end. Which was an odd experience because I loved and hated it at the same time.

So many interesting things happened and I'm very interested to see where things go from here because Tatiana... yikes. I also liked that we got to learn about Tessa’s demonic parentage though—that was very interesting stuff. And I love that we get more and more worldbuilding as the books go on. We may be I-don't-even-know-how-many books into the Shadowhunter Chronicles, but even after all this time, new things we didn’t previously know about the Shadow World or Shadowhunters are introduced. I love that!

Fairy Tale of London

The short story included at the end of this book was Will and Tessa’s wedding! Ah!

I loved this so much! Especially how Will thought of his parabatai, even on this day. It was so sweet!

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a link to your review or comment below! 😊