Literature & Fiction
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Chain of Iron (2) (The Last Hours)
A #1 New York Times Bestseller!
The Shadowhunters must catch a killer in Edwardian London in this dangerous and romantic sequel to the #1 New York Times bestselling novel Chain of Gold, from New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Cassandra Clare. Chain of Iron is a Shadowhunters novel.
Cordelia Carstairs seems to have everything she ever wanted. She's engaged to marry James Herondale, the boy she has always loved; she has a new life in London with her best friend Lucie; and she bears the sword Cortana, a legendary hero's blade.
But the truth is far grimmer. Cordelia's marriage is a lie, arranged to save her reputation, while James remains in love with the Grace Blackthorn. Cortana burns her when she touches it. And a serial murderer is targeting the Shadowhunters of London, killing under cover of darkness, then vanishing without a trace.
Now Cordelia, James, and Lucie must follow the trail of the killer through the city's most dangerous streets. All the while, each is keeping a shocking secret: Lucie, that she is attempting to raise the dead; Cordelia, that she has sworn a dangerous oath of loyalty to a mysterious power; and James, that he himself may be the killer they seek.
The Shadowhunters must catch a killer in Edwardian London in this dangerous and romantic sequel to the #1 New York Times bestselling novel Chain of Gold, from New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Cassandra Clare. Chain of Iron is a Shadowhunters novel.
Cordelia Carstairs seems to have everything she ever wanted. She's engaged to marry James Herondale, the boy she has always loved; she has a new life in London with her best friend Lucie; and she bears the sword Cortana, a legendary hero's blade.
But the truth is far grimmer. Cordelia's marriage is a lie, arranged to save her reputation, while James remains in love with the Grace Blackthorn. Cortana burns her when she touches it. And a serial murderer is targeting the Shadowhunters of London, killing under cover of darkness, then vanishing without a trace.
Now Cordelia, James, and Lucie must follow the trail of the killer through the city's most dangerous streets. All the while, each is keeping a shocking secret: Lucie, that she is attempting to raise the dead; Cordelia, that she has sworn a dangerous oath of loyalty to a mysterious power; and James, that he himself may be the killer they seek.
Readers Top Reviews
LindaTravis Hayde
If you love Shadowhunter universe - you will love it! (will contain SPOILERS) For me it is my comfort world. Where you can more or less predict the events, more or less know that all that teenage drama will be OK at the end, that the main characters of the book is Misunderstanding, Secret and Interruption. And it's GOOD to have some safe (with all its demons LOL) place to travel, to read about passionate teenage drama and unconfessed love. I rushed trough this book within a day. (As English is not my native language, sorry for my grammar) As for Spoiler part. Things I LOVED - James at his 17 acts really mature. I mean he took his fathers advice to heart and actually TALKED to his wife. I loved that he had such a confidence in their partnership, such trust in Cordelia's strength that he was honest. He has grown up with an excellent parents as an example - strong devoted father, wise mother, loving family and trusted friends. I loved his confidence against all kinds of pressure. Cordelia (perhaps I must read it again to grasp her better) is created strong and capable but with so mush going on I didn't catch her inner motivations at all. Lucy is a little brat who is getting in deeper sh*t than she might manage. But as ALL Cassandras books are about crazy teens who who get neck deep in all kinds of sh*t - no surprises there. I LOVED those marriage scenes. This calm, peaceful couples life that I (as an adult) know is the key to a healthy relationships. Sure as a reader I was truly annoyed by their mutual blindness of love (LOL) but that's the point of the story, right? I LOVED how alcohol addiction was showed. Not only Mathews drinking but also his friends co-addiction. Cordelia and James both writing it off as it is not the same as Elias disastrous sickness. other friends seeing but ignoring to mention it. They textbook justify his behavior. Loved James and Elias scene together. I loved Christopher was shown a little more. Things I DIDN'T love :( Maybe I'm getting old, or have read too much from this world, but I couldn't really feel characters. Perhaps it was too many POVs and thou I understand that there are many things going on and different perspectives gives different feeling - this jumping from one to another was bothering me. I hated Cordelia and Mathew running off. Nope. Do not like it at all. Actually both times I was annoyed by my own predictions of events. And the knowledge WHY some things were the way they were. Tessa and Will leaving, some demon fights, some visitations just to push the plot Probably that's on me, not Cassandra. Thou I know why they seem to be needed - I didn't like Graces POV. It felt like "telling" even if reader can see why she might be the way she is (Tatianas attitude, Jesses love, Bracelet, her powers). Those inputs were unnecessary. All in all - This was a go...
Kindle LindaTrav
Everything is so well done in Ms. Clare's books. If this genre is for you, this entire series is a decadent treat!
Kindle Kindle L
Cassandra Clare is one of the best authors of all times! What a perfectly woven story, keeping me on the edge of my seat the entire time!
MeliKindle Kindl
Currently reading. I'm 140 pages in and I'm already dreading the end, especially since the next book doesn't come out until the end of January. So far I've read all the other books in the Shadowhunters series and I highly recommend them.
Ashley NoelleMeli
My poor heart! How am I supposed to wait until November for the last one??? ugh! This might possibly be my favorite series in the Shadowhunter world! I didn't think I could love a character more than Emma Carstairs, but Cordelia is fighting for her place as my fave! Loved it!
Short Excerpt Teaser
Chapter 1: The Bright Web 1 THE BRIGHT WEB
And still she sits, young while the earth is old,
And, subtly of herself contemplative,
Draws men to watch the bright web she can weave,
Till heart and body and life are in its hold.
The rose and poppy are her flower; for where
Is he not found, O Lilith, whom shed scent
And soft-shed kisses and soft sleep shall snare?
-Dante Gabriel Rossetti, "Body's Beauty"
A smoky winter fog had settled atop the city of London, reaching its pale tendrils across the streets, wreathing the buildings in dull tinsel. It cast a gray pallor over ruined trees as Lucie Herondale drove her carriage up the long, neglected drive toward Chiswick House, its roof rising from the fog like the top of a Himalayan peak above clouds.
With a kiss on the nose and a blanket over his withers, she left her horse, Balios, at the foot of the front steps and set off through the remains of the terraced garden. She passed the cracked and ruined statues of Virgil and Sophocles, now overgrown by long tendrils of vines, their limbs broken off and lying among the weeds. Other statues were partially hidden by overhanging trees and unpruned hedges, as if they were being devoured by the dense foliage.
Picking her way over a toppled rose arbor, Lucie finally reached the old brick shed in the garden. Its roof was long since gone; Lucie felt a bit as if she'd come across an abandoned shepherd's hut on the moors. A thin finger of gray smoke was even rising from within. If this were The Beautiful Cordelia, a mad but handsome duke would come staggering across the heath, but nothing ever happened as it did in books.
All around the shed she could see small mounds of earth where over the past four months, she and Grace had buried the unsuccessful results of their experimentation-the unfortunate bodies of fallen birds or cat-slain rats and mice that they had tried over and over to bring back to life.
Nothing had worked yet. And Grace didn't even know all of it. She remained unaware of Lucie's power to command the dead. She did not know that Lucie had tried ordering the small bodies to come back to life, had tried reaching within them to catch at something she could draw into the world of the living. But it had never worked. Whatever part of them Lucie might have been able to command had fled with their deaths.
She had mentioned none of that to Grace.
Lucie gave a philosophic shrug and went up to the massive wooden slab of a door-she did sometimes question what the point was of having a door on a building that didn't have any roof-and tapped a coded pattern: one two, one two.
Instantly she heard someone crossing the floor and turning the bolt, and the door swung open. Grace Blackthorn stood in the doorway, her face set and serious. Even in the foggy weather, her hair, loose around her shoulders, glinted silvery bright. "You've come," she said, sounding more surprised than pleased.
"I said I would." Lucie pushed past Grace. The shed had a single room inside with a floor of packed earth, now partly frozen.
A table had been pushed against the wall under the Blackthorn family sword, which hung from coarsely forged iron hooks. On the table a makeshift laboratory had been constructed: there were rows of alembics and glass bottles, a mortar and pestle, and dozens of test tubes. An assortment of packets and tins took up the rest of the table, some lying open, others emptied and collected in a pile.
Next to the table was a fire that had been laid directly on the ground, the source of the smoke escaping from the missing roof. The fire was unnaturally silent, emanating not from wood logs but from a mound of stones, its greenish flames licking greedily upward as though seeking to consume the iron cauldron suspended from a hook above it. The cauldron held a simmering black brew that smelled earthy and chemical at the same time.
Lucie approached a second, larger table slowly. On it rested a coffin. Through its glass lid she could see Jesse, exactly as he'd appeared when they were last together-white shirt, black hair lying soft against the nape of his neck. His eyelids were pale half-moons.
She had not confined herself to birds and ...
And still she sits, young while the earth is old,
And, subtly of herself contemplative,
Draws men to watch the bright web she can weave,
Till heart and body and life are in its hold.
The rose and poppy are her flower; for where
Is he not found, O Lilith, whom shed scent
And soft-shed kisses and soft sleep shall snare?
-Dante Gabriel Rossetti, "Body's Beauty"
A smoky winter fog had settled atop the city of London, reaching its pale tendrils across the streets, wreathing the buildings in dull tinsel. It cast a gray pallor over ruined trees as Lucie Herondale drove her carriage up the long, neglected drive toward Chiswick House, its roof rising from the fog like the top of a Himalayan peak above clouds.
With a kiss on the nose and a blanket over his withers, she left her horse, Balios, at the foot of the front steps and set off through the remains of the terraced garden. She passed the cracked and ruined statues of Virgil and Sophocles, now overgrown by long tendrils of vines, their limbs broken off and lying among the weeds. Other statues were partially hidden by overhanging trees and unpruned hedges, as if they were being devoured by the dense foliage.
Picking her way over a toppled rose arbor, Lucie finally reached the old brick shed in the garden. Its roof was long since gone; Lucie felt a bit as if she'd come across an abandoned shepherd's hut on the moors. A thin finger of gray smoke was even rising from within. If this were The Beautiful Cordelia, a mad but handsome duke would come staggering across the heath, but nothing ever happened as it did in books.
All around the shed she could see small mounds of earth where over the past four months, she and Grace had buried the unsuccessful results of their experimentation-the unfortunate bodies of fallen birds or cat-slain rats and mice that they had tried over and over to bring back to life.
Nothing had worked yet. And Grace didn't even know all of it. She remained unaware of Lucie's power to command the dead. She did not know that Lucie had tried ordering the small bodies to come back to life, had tried reaching within them to catch at something she could draw into the world of the living. But it had never worked. Whatever part of them Lucie might have been able to command had fled with their deaths.
She had mentioned none of that to Grace.
Lucie gave a philosophic shrug and went up to the massive wooden slab of a door-she did sometimes question what the point was of having a door on a building that didn't have any roof-and tapped a coded pattern: one two, one two.
Instantly she heard someone crossing the floor and turning the bolt, and the door swung open. Grace Blackthorn stood in the doorway, her face set and serious. Even in the foggy weather, her hair, loose around her shoulders, glinted silvery bright. "You've come," she said, sounding more surprised than pleased.
"I said I would." Lucie pushed past Grace. The shed had a single room inside with a floor of packed earth, now partly frozen.
A table had been pushed against the wall under the Blackthorn family sword, which hung from coarsely forged iron hooks. On the table a makeshift laboratory had been constructed: there were rows of alembics and glass bottles, a mortar and pestle, and dozens of test tubes. An assortment of packets and tins took up the rest of the table, some lying open, others emptied and collected in a pile.
Next to the table was a fire that had been laid directly on the ground, the source of the smoke escaping from the missing roof. The fire was unnaturally silent, emanating not from wood logs but from a mound of stones, its greenish flames licking greedily upward as though seeking to consume the iron cauldron suspended from a hook above it. The cauldron held a simmering black brew that smelled earthy and chemical at the same time.
Lucie approached a second, larger table slowly. On it rested a coffin. Through its glass lid she could see Jesse, exactly as he'd appeared when they were last together-white shirt, black hair lying soft against the nape of his neck. His eyelids were pale half-moons.
She had not confined herself to birds and ...
