Illumicrate - Chain of Gold Special Edition

Items:

Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare
Bridge Through Time Triptych by @rosiethorns88
Mortal Instruments Blanket by @yoshiyoshitani
Clandestine Tea For One Set by @chattynora
Shadowhunters Playing Cards by @merwildandco and @chattynora
Foiled Print Duo by @arz28
Cortana Letter Opener by @fableandblack

Review:

Check out Sammie's first impressions in the video:

This was my first special edition box with Illumicrate for Chain of Gold, but overall my third ever special edition box. I feel like this was 100% worth the money and I would definitely get another one from them. They were a touch on the expensive side but the quality of items was 100% worth it and the box was well packed with loads of items that I loved.

The first item that I discovered in this box was the tea for one set. This was just purely amazing and I really love who decided to put this in a box. It's a tea pot for one cup of tea but the base of the pot sits into your cup and then you have a plate to sit your cup on top of. The design on it was really simple but also really pretty, I loved this item and it was 100% my favourite item alongside the book. The only thing I would have liked would have been some Shadowhunter tea or something along those lines so we could enjoy the use of the item while reading the book. The quote on the tea pot was just perfect.

The next item was a letter opener, this was quite a unique item and I loved how it was displayed in that little box. It was quite heavy too and I really didn't expect it to be. It was in the shape of Cortana which seems to be the theme of Chain of Gold, obviously this is because of Cordelia since she is the main character and it's her go to weapon. It is actually quite detailed for what it is and I love the final touch on the base of the handle by having the angelic rune.

I then came across the stained glass windows which are known as the bridge of Triptych. The artwork on these stained glass windows are of the favourite trio; Will, Tessa and Jem. I loved how we were able to get artwork from The Infernal Devices eventhough the box was based on Chain of Gold. I can see why because obviously these characters are mentioned within Chain of Gold as they are the parents within this trilogy. The design of them was really nice and I loved how that you were able to put them into any position you wanted. I loved that the colours on the 3 panels were common throughout each one and that they were quite pale to give it that older appearance. The only thing that I would have loved is to have a panel dedicated to just Will and Jem, but then I can see why they have Tessa with each of them. Just think it would have been that nicer touch how I mentioned. Plus I'm a huge fan of Jem, just because he is so caring and loving towards his parabati and his family.

A deck of cards featuring the major shadowhunters throughout all of Cassandra Clare series was also included in this box. I loved the design of them, how they were quite simple and not bright colours. I loved how there was artwork for each character. I wish that the jokers were the cats from each series that would have just been a nice touch. The only think that let the deck down was the artwork for Cordelia and Alastair was not correct as their race was potrayed wrong, but this is now being resolved and we are getting replacements for the two cards from Illumicrate, which I really appreciate. It is not the artist fault as they were not aware of this when producing the item and they hadn't read the book yet so could not be made aware of this problem.

The next item included in this box was two black and white with copper drawings, one of The Infernal Devices characters and one of Chain of Gold characters. I found these pretty awesome because they were on card so you could frame them and you could potentially colour them in however you want because the characters are actually white. I personally won't be colouring them in as they look beautiful as they are.

There was also a decent sized fleece blanket included in this box which is super soft and so cuddly, I love it. This is the first blanket that I have received in a book box and I actually really like it because it's neutral to all of Cassandra Clare's series as it just contains The Mortal Sword, The Mirror and The Mortal Cup. I also don't really mind the colour it's not the best but it is definitely not the worst. It is like some sort of dull dirty red. quite close to brown being truthful. But I still really like it. It's perfect to just snuggle up on the sofa with a glass of wine and a good romcom.

The book was obviously the last item in the box and the last item of my review. I found that most of the special edition books I got from book boxes were similar to Waterstones rune edition. But I do actually really like Illumicrate's copy as it is forest green with a sort of gold/bronze coloured sprayed edges. I feel that this slowly creeps above the Waterstones copy only by a small fraction. It has the same artwork on the end pages as the Waterstones copy and FairyLoot, this is because all first editions have this as well as the extended story at the end.