Review Detail

What Worked: Chain of Iron begins four months after the events in Chain of Gold. I liked how the pace of the action slowed a bit to spend more time developing the relationships between the characters.
Cordelia and James get married and the weight of the magic he is unknowingly under creates room for a slow burn romance and revelation of feelings. Then an ill-timed confrontation makes for a huge swerve in the trajectory of their marriage. It left me so frustrated, yet impressed that the storytelling was enthralling enough to continue to bother me after the book was finished.
Lucie and Grace form an unlikely partnership over the desire to dabble in necromancy and bring Jesse Blackthorn back to life. Her ability to command ghosts is still a closely guarded secret even from her friends. It leads Lucie down a dark path. Grace finally realizes the depths of her mother’s madness enough to try to break past her influence.
Alastair saves Thomas from murder charges and they have time to clear the air and start a budding romance. Ariadne has realized after her near-death experience that she shouldn’t fear her love of Anna and starts to make amends.
With all the budding relationships, a lot of the secrets from the first book start to be sorted out. Along the way, the team of friends combats two Princes of Hell and stops a serial killer. Their work is not done though. In the end, there are consequences of their decisions that they must face and the final wound to Belial that is saved for book 3.
Final Verdict: It is a long book but a fast read. It does a great job of building authentic relationships and interactions among the characters. I wish it wasn’t so long for the sequel to come out because the ending left me quite restless to find out how they will repair their misunderstandings before things go too far.