The heart wants what the heart wants, and our hearts want books.

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Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare is the first dead tree book I have read in 2020. I own all of Ms. Clare’s books in dead tree format, but they are all currently in storage boxes. I did however take photos of my bookshelves before packing everything up for the move from California back home to Tennessee. Ideally, I would have them all be hardback, but I started reading the Shadowhunter Chronicles sometime in 2011, the first book, City of Bones, in this young adult fantasy saga was published in 2007 so between the library and trade paperback versions I saved some dollars. Now, I can’t wait to read and own them all sitting prettily on my shelf, so pre-order or purchasing soon after release is my M.O. I have always had an issue with my books being of a particular look on the shelf (don’t even act like you don’t have bookshelf proclivities, every book lover does), and I, of course, prefer the uniformity of height and dust jacket cover that a hardback provides. What I do not appreciate is when a publisher changes the look of the cover and/or the type of book they publish (hardcover, trade paperback, mass market paperback) in the middle of a series – I’m looking at you Game of Thrones and Outlander and even Shadowhunters! Thank you Tor books for keeping The Wheel of Time series consistent over almost 25 years…but, I digress…

If you are already familiar with Shadowhunter lore, where all the stories are true, skip down to the bottom for the Chain of Gold book review!

It would be remiss of me to start talking about Chain of Gold without giving you some background into the enormity of the world of Shadowhunters, also known as Nephilim, demons, and downworlders. Here’s the quickest and dirtiest overview I can give you. Shadowhunters are a race of mortals given angelic powers by the angel Raziel to rid the world of demons and protect mundanes (humans with no powers) from demons and downworlders. Downworlders are the fae, vampires, werewolves, and warlocks, and they are not all evil, but if the majority of mundanes knew they existed, the shadowhunters would never be able to exert control over the chaos. These six peoples have fourteen full-length novels, three short story collections, a codex, and multiple graphic novel interpretations, ranging in chronological timeline from 1791 until 2013. Ms. Clare doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon, as she has two more novels in The Last Hours trilogy, of which Chain of Gold is number one, and who knows how many other stories just daring to be written. I will highly recommend that you read them in publication date order and not chronological order if you have never read them before, see official timeline here. Alternatively, you could break up The Mortal Instruments’ six books into two trilogies and insert The Infernal Devices trilogy in the middle then read the short story collections and following books in whichever order makes sense to you, but that’s probably more confusing than just sticking with published order.

If you want more info than what I’ve given, go to shadowhunters.com or cassandraclare.com or dig deep into the subreddits and fanfiction world that exists in the darkest corners of the internet.  For more shadowhunter-y entertainment, there’s the 2013 film entitled The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones starring Jamie Campbell Bower, Lily Collins, Lena Headey, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, and Nikki’s and my Poldarkian favorite, Aiden Turner. Additionally there’s the 2016-2019 Freeform TV series Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments that I thoroughly enjoyed, and honestly think was better casted but contains actors that don’t have name recognition. Both movie and TV series take ‘liberties’ with the plots of the books. You have been warned.

Without further ado or explanation, Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare, The Last Hours Book One. 

Cordelia Carstairs comes to London in 1903 with her brother and mother to clear her father’s name before his trial in Idris, the shadowhunters’ hidden country in the middle of Europe. During the course of social outings with other shadowhunters of her age, including her friends from childhood Lucie and James Herondale, a new type of demon, one that can walk in sunlight, begins attacking London. The young shadowhunters undermine the directives of the Clave,  the official government of shadowhunters all around the globe, and flout their parents’ supervision to find out what supernatural power is calling the demons to Edwardian London after years of relative peace and quiet in Downworld, the world of supernatural beings hidden from mundanes. Cordelia, Lucie, James, and their cohort of friends from the great shadowhunter families of Carstairs, Herondale, Fairchild, Lightwood, and Blackthorn are thrown into dangers expected and unexpected.

Clare excels at maintaining a cast of characters that is, at times, overwhelming. We have our main group of young shadowhunters, but we also have their parents, siblings, and the peripheral characters within shadowhunter society. The large social gathering scenes jump from group to group seamlessly, just as if you were a guest at a party flitting from one conversation to another. I am amazed by how she writes these ‘mob scenes’ and can keep each character reacting as their personality dictates. Part of the ‘new’ generation of young adult writers is that they are unafraid of including diversity in their characters. Cordelia’s mother is of Persian descent and Clare references the literature and culture throughout the book. Many of the characters identify as bisexual, lesbian, and gay, with no judgement from the narrator, but with honesty towards the difficulty their truths bring to their lives and the lives of their families and those they love. The primary characters condone love, understanding, and appreciation for everything that makes their people the person that they are on the inside. They love and support each other through the difficult times, and that’s why I read Clare’s novels, in addition to the teenage angst, romance, and supernatural demon fighting powers that force the nephilim to mark themselves with tattoo-like runes to activate those powers. They also wear a lot of black, and I respect that. Overall, I don’t consider this one of Clare’s best works, some of her plot devices are obvious before you know what they are being used for, and it’s hard to be rooting for the female empowerment and relationships when they feel one-dimensional at times. More Cordelia and Lucie being BFFs and BA demon hunters, not them being obsessed with boys and relationships. Four stars for getting lost in another world and time period for a couple of days. (Dead tree gets 2 stars because I couldn’t highlight and make notes which make my posts much more delightful to write and read after.)

Do you have a book or series of books that aren’t necessarily ‘age appropriate’ but you low-key obsess over like a teenager? Hint: don’t go looking at my Pinterest boards…

~Ashley

Hint from Nikki: We’re interested and we want to know more!  Either we’ll chat with you about your favorite or we’ll consider adding it to our TBR list.  

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Ashley IN MEDIAS RES:

• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• Profit First: Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine  by Mike Michalowicz
• The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan

Nikki IN MEDIAS RES:

• Circe by Madeline Miller
• A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas
• The Centurion’s Wife by Davis Bunn and Janette Oke
• I Ain’t Doin’ It: Unfiltered Thoughts From a Sarcastic Southern Sweetheart by Heather Land

Ashley FIN:

• Wheeler by Samantha Whiskey*
• Defender by Samantha Whiskey*
• A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas
• After His Banana by Penelope Bloom
• American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
• House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas
• Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare
• Circe by Madeline Miller

Nikki FIN:

• A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas*
• Wild in Winter by Scarlett Scott*
• After His Banana by Penelope Bloom
• House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas
• Someone to Honor by Mary Balogh
• Someone to Remember by Mary Balogh

*Finished in February after Reading Life Review Post.

Nikki:  Oh dear readers, this month has been heavy.  In our corner of the world, in the first week we had tornados, our first local case of COVID-19, and the last day of school for…who knows how long.  I hope we’ve been able to bring you some light in this heavy time and that you’ve found some titles to help you through, whether they help you improve the way you approach the world or they’ve helped you to escape it for a while.  

As you can see above, I have read some titles tackling serious issues this month (yes, even After His Banana), but only two titles have contemporary settings, which does help.  If you missed our commentary on Sarah J. Maas’s latest release, House of Earth and Blood, please check that out here.  It’s a fabulous New Adult title and we have SO many feelings on it.  I’m looking forward to my first reread of A Court of Frost and Starlight, hopefully with buddies, coming soon!  It’s a nice extended epilogue (if you skip the teaser for the next book which might come out in 2021). 

One title I do want to highlight is The Centurion’s Wife.  My Goodreads friends may note this is not actually on my reading shelf, rather the anthology is.  I own the first in the trilogy and wanted to reread all three during Lent this year, but #2 and #3 are on hold, so Amazon Prime Reading to the rescue with the set!  This book is set in the Judea Province in AD 33 and opens six days before Passover.  Yes, THE Passover with THE Last Supper. We have a young woman who serves Pilate’s wife and the centurion in charge of a garrison near Capernaum (yes, the one whose faith Jesus praises) and the story revolves around them as they each search for answers for Pilate about Jesus and his followers.  While there is a bit of romance (chaste or closed door), the book is really about their search for answers and how those answers heal and transform them. Really, this describes all three books, which follow each other as the early Church develops.  These books highlight the culture and customs of the day and tell stories of what might have been.  They do not include Jesus as a character, except as others recount events from Palm Sunday through Pentecost, but they do include disciples and other prominent followers and leaders of the city.  I first read this trilogy years ago and have reread it during Lent a couple of times. If you’re looking for a book or books to read to provide some additional cultural context or just a historical escape with a seasonal connection, I highly recommend them!  

~Nikki 

P.S. if you missed the memo that all of Maas’s books are well loved here, well, here it is.  Although I wouldn’t call Catwoman well loved, it is a fun read I suggest.   

Ashley: I, of course, have to second Nikki’s statement about this month being heavy. I went from my RE/MAX office being closed for over a week because the electricity was out from tornado damage. (Literally one block over from our office, historic East Nashville homes and buildings are destroyed, and the fence around our office building is still down in the parking lot. Many agents, friends, and clients have been affected by the destruction, and my heartfelt prayers continually go out to them, especially those who don’t have their own home in which to ‘Shelter in Place.’)   Then being on a girls’ trip to Charleston/Folly Beach during the beginning of the COVID-19 breaking news cycle, which we all agreed to cut short so that we could get home to our families. Though the house we were renting on the beach would have been a most excellent place to get quarantined in… here we are, trying to make the most of a situation that will likely take longer to figure out than anyone anticipated. I hope all of you and your people, dear readers, are safe, sound, and hunkered down. For those of you in essential services, I appreciate your hard work and resiliency during these times.

Now, with as much as I have been home, not able to go gallivanting off in the Jeep, destroying the ozone layer with my terrible gas mileage (there was a bachelorette trip miracle of 17.1 MPG!), I haven’t been able to finish as many books as I expected. It is my smallest books per month this year, though we are just now finishing up a rough month 3. I have finished 6 books so far this month. I anticipate one more, but regardless, 7 would still be less than January’s 9. Yes, yes, I know, the reading life isn’t a competition… except with yourself! And I want GoodReads to keep telling me that I am X–books ahead of schedule! Sometimes I need to feel like a winner! I know it’s only 6 books, but it’s also 3,088 pages. THREE. THOUSAND. EIGHTY. EIGHT. PAGES.  That is an average of approximately 100 pages a day, 515 pages per book, so not too shabby for all that, now, eh?

I read American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins for this month’s Barnes & Noble Book Club on March 10th. I know there was a lot of negative press about the book, even after Oprah had chosen it for her Book Club pick as well. We didn’t talk about it during our book discussion, and to be honest, I haven’t in-depth researched what all the critics complained about. If you want to do that, it’s an easy Google search, but regardless, I do highly recommend this book. It’s about a Mexican woman and her son who are running from a cartel and the dangerous journey they undergo to the United States interspersed with the backstory of who they were before and the events that led up to them running for their lives. This is such a powerful, modern story based on situations that can and do happen everyday. Jeanine Cummins talked about her experience serving the migrants in Mexico in the interview she gave for the Barnes and Noble Podcast, and it broke my heart all over again. You can listen to the podcast without worrying about spoilers, but if you read the book I highly recommend listening as well. The book is filled with violence, so if you’re not ready for something heavy, put it on your TBR for later. I’m ready to discuss it when you’re ready.

I am so bummed that book clubs have been put on hiatus because of the COVID-19 threat, so Nikki and I have decided to coordinate a Virtual Book Club for our readers. We are going to post about it on Social Media this week, before Thursday’s post, so be sure to follow us there, and we’ll give you more details after I talk about one of the other tomes I read this month!

~Ashley

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Leading up to the release of House of Earth and Blood, my emotions were all over the place.  We’ve been rereading A Court of Thorns and Roses with a small group and loving it, but the emotions are high in those books.  Knowing this is Sarah J. Maas, I was 100% expecting more of the same (and wow did she deliver), but I was still excited, especially because Ashley and I had tickets to an event with Maas the week the book was published.  We had our entire date planned and it was going to be glorious. And, then, the event was canceled. I was disappointed and then some, we both were. Let me state on record, only in retrospect – it was the right call.  

We didn’t let the lack of an event cancel our date though (the first weekend in March there was no suggestion of physical distancing in our area, yet), it still happened, albeit differently than planned, and we had a great time, and got some work done that you’ll be seeing in the coming weeks.  Even so, I was disappointed and put off starting the book for a week. I was (am) still re-reading A Court of Wings and Ruin, and I was just grumpy.  I was also anticipating all that emotion and the need I would feel to sprint through all 800 pages as quickly as possible, and I was right.  Generally, I read about 100 pages a day, so it should have taken me about eight days to read this book.  It took six. If I hadn’t had to work the last day, I’d have stayed up to finish the last 20ish pages, and it would have been five.  

I also want to state, I didn’t know much about this title before jumping into it.  I knew it was Maas, a modern, urban fantasy, and the lead character’s name. If you love Maas, just stop reading this and go read House of Earth and Blood, then come back and tell us what you think.  

If you need more, this world is intense.  Like I need another pass through to understand it better and I have a list of things I want to know more about in the next book, which are mostly spoilery.  This is modern high fantasy for adults. Our main character is in her mid-twenties, so it’s not technically YA, but definitely has that pacing. This isn’t romance, but there is a romantic side story in it (and a couple of open door “bedroom” scenes).  It’s an adventure mystery wrapped in a modern high fantasy.  

There is SO, so very much world building, as well there should be (which Ashley will discuss later).  And even for that, it’s not slow in the way Tower of Dawn is during the first section.  Speaking of the Throne of Glass series, this felt like if Throne of Glass (book #1) and Crown of Midnight (book #2) were one book – because a TON of things happened and perhaps it was too much and should have been two books, but then two books would have changed the story probably because there is no good stopping place in the middle.  I’m honestly afraid that subsequent books are going to be so long that she has to break them in the middle or leave things out (Hi Kingdom of Ash – book #7).

What do I think:  I loved it! So very much!  I’m SO excited for the next in the series.  I will probably reread House of Earth and Blood before #2 comes out, at least once.  That said, this is not her best work, at least it feels like it’s not without knowing what comes next.  It feels underdeveloped. Not un-developed, but perhaps too rushed. That said, there’s no telling what’s up her sleeve, so perhaps I’m speaking too soon.  Time, rereads, and more books will tell. Maas foreshadows like the queen she is. See also A Court of Thorns and Roses for my favorite example, and it’s only (so far) a trilogy and one novella (if one considers 230ish pages a novella).  

The part that 100% delivered in this one – the sass.  It is real and glorious. “Charm and irreverence happen to be my two favorite traits,” – me too Bryce, me too.  

~Nikki 

I need book 2. Stat. I also need to re-read this book for reasons, some of which follow. 

If you have read any Sarah J. Maas before, you know her world-building is top-notch, but this one, House of Earth and Blood takes the cake for going deep and wide from the outset. Usually the first book in her series sets her up to give details about how the world is organized and she hooks you with characters and situations that grab your attention. We get those characters and situations for sure, but even before we get the names of our protagonists, before we even have the beginning of part one chapter one, we have this list of the houses of Midgard that leaves us with a LOT of questions: 

What does V.E. mean? Who is the Imperial Senate? The map of Lunathion on the previous page doesn’t have any indication of the Eternal City, where is that? Are we meeting characters from every house? Why are there so many creatures? What do Cthona, Luna, Solas, Ogenas, and Urd have to do with the houses and will we meet them? What was the Fall, and why are sprites now Lowers? What’s a Lower? How are there unnamed things that Urd herself doesn’t know? WHY DO I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS ALREADY?!

Do you see what I mean about deep AND wide? It gets a little troubling for Maas fans as the book goes on because of all these questions from the outset. We’re used to getting the majority of our questions answered and some are, but at the same time there’s this lingering feeling of incompleteness as compared to her other series. Yes, I know this is the first book in a series and there’s ample time for Maas to fill us in on all the details, but giving us so much at the outset is both anticipatory and a disappointment. I could have done with a little less ‘whole wide world’ to really dig into the details of what we were given about our characters and places. The epilogue creates more questions. Reasons why I need book 2…

The action takes place in Crescent City, officially Lunathion, and its geography and governance is described in intense detail. Thank you Queen Maas for the map included at the beginning of the book. The geography of the city is important for knowing which peoples live where and placing Bryce’s activities in relation to each other during the course of the book. The city is thousands of years old, the world is filled with mortals, immortals, magic, and technology. Technology like we are used to now, portable phones with cameras, interweb (direct term from chapter 2), security cameras, but everything runs on the First-Light energy created when magic-wielding and long-lived Vanir (every creature on Midgard except humans and ordinary animals) make the Drop into immortality.

So, let’s talk about our heroine, Bryce Quinlan. She’s a half-human, half-fae, mid-20-something living with her best friend and college roommate Danika, a werewolf shifter, working at an antiquities gallery during the week and partying it up on nights and weekends. And when we say partying, we mean the party scene that your parents warned you about from toddlerhood. The partying, in combination with the drugs, the alcohol, the casual sex, the violence, and the cursing, is what makes this book Maas’ first adult novel and not Young Adult. If you’re morally opposed to these topics in your adult fantasy, this is not the book for you. Bryce has a teeny tiny bit of magic, barely enough to register, and she and Danika plan to make the Drop into immortality together when they turn 27, “right before any permanent lines or wrinkles or gray hairs. They merely said to anyone who inquired, What’s the point of being immortal badasses if we have sagging tits?” I can’t help but agree on all counts, ladies.  

Bryce and Danika are just the beginning of a cast of characters that span all the houses of Midgard, from the witch-turned-sorceress Jesiba Roga who owns Griffin Antiquities where Bryce is employed, Lehabah the fire sprite who guards the library in the antiquities gallery, Ruhn Danaan Bryce’s half-brother on her fae-side, Hunt Athalar the Umbra Mortis – an angel of swift death in the personal guard of Lunathion’s governor, Bryce’s friend Juniper the professional ballet dancing faun, Fury their assassin friend they met at Crescent City University but about whom we don’t know many more details – not even her true age, her House, or what type of Vanir she is, and on and on until we’re overwhelmed with fictional people to whom we become overly attached.

Do you see what I mean about needing to re-read? Even while combing through my highlights for important things to include in this post, dear readers, I am finding more quintessential Maas foreshadowing to highlight and pay attention to. Layers on layers on layers…just so many layers!  I’m not saying these things to make you feel overwhelmed, I got sucked in and finished the book in five days, most of which was done over 2 days while on vacation. Just…be aware! And be prepared for chapter 5 to give you an 800+ page book-sized hit in the feels. You’ve been warned. 

Quarantine is the best time to be reading a tome this intense, detailed, and engrossing. May you be gods-favored with quiet time in your quest to finish reading this contemporary, epic fantasy masterpiece.

~Ashley