REVIEW: Chain of Iron by Cassandra Clare (The Last Hours #2)

Title: Chain of Iron by Cassandra Clare
Pages: 656
Published by: Walker Books
Publication date: 2nd March 2021
Genre: Fantasy
Format: Hardback
Amazon UK – Waterstones

Synopsis:

Cordelia Carstairs seems to have everything she ever wanted. She’s engaged to James Herondale, the boy she has loved since childhood. She has a new life in London with her best friend, Lucie Herondale. And she bears the sword Cortana, a legendary hero’s blade. But the truth is James is in love with the mysterious Grace Blackthorn, while Cortana burns Cordelia’s hand when she touches it.

Even worse, a serial murderer is targeting the Shadowhunters. Cordelia, James and Lucie must follow their trail through the city streets. All the while each is keeping a shocking secret – and James fears that he himself may be the killer they seek.

Chain of Iron by Cassandra Clare Book Haul!

Hey guys! Normally I’d include this in a book haul post but I’m so excited to finally have this book and I couldn’t wait to share all these beautiful editions with you. As you can tell from the title, Chain of Iron by Cassandra Clare is finally here and I have my copies! Yes, that’s right, I put multiple copies because I can’t control myself and there’s so many beautiful editions of this book. I bought the collector’s first edition hardback, the exclusive Waterstones edition (to match the first and all the other exclusive editions Waterstones has done) and the UK tour edition! Unfortunately, none of these are signed but they have all the exclusive content. So here’s the pretty editions I bought:

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Exclusive Waterstones edition

I have a tale to tell about this one. My first copy turned up damaged and I was devastated because I like to keep all my special editions in pristine condition. It was the back cover that was damaged and it looked like ink had leaked all over it. The material of the book had completely soaked it up and just looking at it, I knew there was no way I’d be able to get that out. It was this horrible black mark and it went all the way across the top and the bottom. Fortunately, Waterstones had kept aside some spare copies as replacements and they sorted it out really quickly for me! I’m really happy with my new copy and I’ve already added it on my bookshelf next to all the other pretty rune editions Waterstones has done. It’s stamped signed and has an exclusive short story, which is a scene from Chain of Gold written from Cordelia’s perspective.

Huge book haul!

Hey guys! Today I am bringing you a massive book haul. My last one was in June, but since then I have already acquired a big stack of books and I am so excited to share them with you! So, let’s get into it:

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The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, A Darker Shade of Magic and A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab: I am kicking it off with three Schwab books! Her most recent book, Addie LaRue, while not my favourite of hers, it was still really great and I enjoyed the story. I bought the signed Waterstones edition and it has gold sprayed edges! I love it! Next, I bought the Illumicrate edition of A Darker Shade of Magic and it is beautiful. I cannot wait for the matching editions to be released. The final Schwab book I bought was the UK collectors edition hardcover, so that I could display the stunning dust jackets that were also from Illumicrate.

My most read authors!

Hey guys! Today I’m going to be sharing with you some of my most read authors and I bet most of you will already know who the majority of them are. I’m going to start from the lowest and work my way up to the author with the most books that I’ve read. There’s a lot of sixes and sevens, according to my read shelf on Goodreads, so I’ve picked my favourite ones. If I include them all this post will be way too long!

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Marie Lu (six books)

First up we have Marie Lu with six books and these include The Young Elites trilogy, Batman: Nightwalker and her Warcross duology. Lu has been hit-and-miss author for me unfortunately, but I do still really want to read her other published books, especially The Kingdom of Back. I enjoyed the concept of The Young Elites but I don’t think it was executed very well, whereas I loved Nightwalker and Warcross. I wished the latter one was a trilogy but it worked really well as a duology so I’m happy.

Book Covers: Old vs New

Hey guys! Today I’m going to be talking about book cover changes! Most books will eventually go through a cover change and sometimes, unfortunately, it happens right in the middle of a series. Often I am incredibly happy that I finally have a beautiful copy of my favourite books. Other times, however, I wonder what the hell they were thinking. I am going to share with you some of my favourite cover changes and some of the most frustrating changes.

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The Eldest Curses by Cassandra Clare and Wesley Chu

So first up is the cover change for The Eldest Curses trilogy! The original cover is the one on the left and I’m not sure why they decided to completely revamp the cover but it’s happened before the release of the The Lost Book of the White, which is the second book in the trilogy. I personally love the new cover and think it’s a lot more appealing than the first one. I have nothing against the first cover; I really like that one too but compared to the new one, it’s a little plain. I do hope the third book has Alec and Magnus on the cover together but I doubt that will happen. Also, I like how the publisher is offering a reversible dust jacket for the second book so you can either stick with the old cover or showcase the new one.

Book haul – 2020

Hey guys! Today I’m sharing with you some more books I’ve purchased this year with my own money and I’m actually surprised by how many I’ve bought in 2020. I’ve managed to acquire 16 books so far this year (this doesn’t include multiple copies) and I’m really excited to share my most recent buys with you. I’ve also decided to include some of my own pictures! They’re not very good, but since I wanted to talk about the multiple copies I thought it would be best to take my own.

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House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas: I had to share pictures of my stunning copies of House of Earth and Blood. I ordered both Waterstones editions – the hardback with exclusive red sprayed edges and the tour edition. I love both these editions so much and I’m so glad I was able to get my hands on a copy of the tour edition. I read this book when it came out and I loved it so much. I can’t wait for the second book to come out.

Books Releases I’m Excited For!

Hey guys! So when I did my most anticipated 2020 books back in January, I didn’t realise until now just how many books I missed off that list. Since there’s tons more I’m excited about (one I only found out about recently), I decided to post a second one! Hope you enjoy!

Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer: I cannot tell you how much I was freaking out when this was announced. I have been waiting so long for this and I’m so happy it’s finally here. I honestly never thought this day would come! My favourite thing about this announcement though has been all the Twitter memes, they were hilarious. I’m so excited to dive back into this world and it’s also really cool being able to get caught up in all the excitement on Twitter as well. The only thing I’m not a fan of is the cover. I don’t think it’s that nice compared to the others.

All Your Twisted Secrets by Diana Urban: I have been seeing this book everywhere and even more so after I followed the author on Twitter. She’s so lovely and seems so down to earth and has me seriously hyped up for her novel. It reminds me of One Of Us Is Lying by Karen McManus and I loved that book so much! All Your Twisted Secrets sounds exactly that – twisted. Six teens have to choose which of them to kill within 60 minutes or else they will all die. I can’t wait to read this!

Illumicrate Glamour & Gold: The Shadowhunters Edition Unboxing!

Hey guys! My Illumicrate Glamour & Gold box arrived yesterday and I couldn’t wait to share it with you! It was an amazing box, full of so many wonderful items. I’m not keeping them all, but I did really like this box.

FairyLoot Unboxing: Chain of Gold Collector’s Edition

Hey guys! My FairyLoot Chain of Gold Collector’s Edition box arrived yesterday evening so I thought I’d post an unboxing for it today! Unfortunately I was not a huge fan of the items in the box or the book itself, so I will be selling the entire box at some point.

My main thoughts were that the items were nice but impractical, I already have lots of similar items and I don’t have the storage space anymore. The book was nice but I much prefer the Waterstone’s exclusive edition, which was purple and gold, so that’s why I’ve decided to sell the book too. Anyway, here’s what came in the box: