REVIEW: Chain of Iron by Cassandra Clare

Chain of Iron follows on from Chain of Gold where our titular characters, James Herondale and Cordelia Carstairs get married in order to protect Cordelia’s reputation after she covered for James by providing him with an alibi saying that they were together, alone. It is a sham marriage and one of mainly convenience, the plan is that they will amicably split after a year of marriage but the newly weds find themselves getting closer to one another. Enter our third wheel, Grace Blackthorn who uses her power to get people to do what she wants, the only person she can’t control is James. James is the main target of her affections and her mothers manipulations. So her mother, Tatiana Blackthorn has a bracelet designed to do what Grace’s powers cannot, get him to fall in love with her. This bracelet works and James believes that he truly does love Grace even though those lingering feelings for Cordelia are there somewhere in the back of his mind.

James’ Sister and Cordelia’s best friend, Lucie is looking for a way to resurrect her new ghost boyfriend who also happens to be Grace Blackthorn’s brother. In the previous book, Lucie used Jesse’s last breath to save her brother on the brink of death but now the young ghost is slowly disappearing. Lucie Herondale is determined to find a way to stop this and find a way for them to be together, no matter the costs.

Along with all of this, murders of shadowhunters begin. The peculiar thing about this besides the obvious, is that one of the runes from each murder victim is missing which should not be possible at all. This leads the gang of Merry Thieves also known as our main and favourite characters of this series to investigate and find out what happened to these victims. We can only guess who the puppet master might be behind these murders until the puppet itself is revealed.

This books puts all of the mysteries of the previous book into pieces of a puzzle and makes them all make sense. As a second book in the series, it should be a bridge to connect the first and last book. It should connect the beginning and the end and thus this book should be the middle. And for once it is. Cassandra Clare does not fall down at the second book syndrome and this book truly carries the story on and is full of plot points that move the story to where it needs to be.

One thing I will mention about this book is that it has major spoilers for other books in the shadowhunter world, mainly the dark artifices series. This is because one of the big bads motivations of his actions in those books are more explained in this book. It gives it more context and background but if you have not read the shadowhunter chronicles in publication order, it can definitely spoil the rest of the chronicles.

This book is full of pain, love and loss. It is full of action packed drama that will have you wanting to finish the book but not wanting it to end at the same time.

4 out of 5 stars.