The Iron King Special Edition (The Iron Fey Book 1)

Ugh I tried to like these books I did. But the main character is soo aggravating. Megan falls in love with ash like in 2.5 minutes and never lets up. Not when he’s a dick to her or even embarrass her in front of everyone. I don’t know if it’s the author intention to make her so needy and self reliant on a man or not but it’s irritating to read. I can’t tell you how many times I cringed or rolled my eyes at how desperate this girl is. I tried to give this series a chance I even read the second book and I can tell don’t waste your time unless you like being let down. The only good thing I can say is the author is very good at making you feel where you are. The nevernever feels real and the attachment Megan feels is understandable. The other characters in the book I like, especially puck and grimalkin. However I can’t read a book where the main characters is honestly doe eyed and I hate to say it dumb!

I started this book a little lacklusterly, almost not reading past the first couple of chapters. Though instantly liking the main character, Meghan Chase, I found the portrayal of high school teens and their drama a little over-the-top, but I stuck with it, and by chapter six I was completely pulled in, glad I'd stuck it out. Once it gets there, it's perfect if you're in the mood for a light, fun, new-teen-love, action story, which I was :)Julie Kawaga's faery world is great. My first fairy story since Laurell K. Hamilton's Merry Gentry series, I was excited to follow Meghan through her adventure, interested to see the author's creation/interpretation of this otherworld. The world building was basic, but enough, the movement between the NeverNever and our world, I think, allowing the author to focus on the story rather than worry so much about creating constantly changing fantastical elements. Those elements that are created are rich and vibrant, and set the stage perfectly for the future of the series.The whole concept and creation of the Iron King was clever, inspired, and on-point with the mythology of the feary world, reminding me a little of Neil Gaiman's modern tech deities from American Gods. Little metallic gnomes and gremlins collecting scraps of broken tech, deadened, metallic trees whose branches act like sharpened knives created a nice paradox to the vibrant colors and life of the Summer and Winter Courts.The Iron King is published under Harlequin's Teen branch, so naturally, there's a love triangle element. I found the subtlety of it refreshing but still wondered at the exact placement of certain events that seemed a bit forced. I get that 'X' has to happen for 'Y' to occur but take the time to develop the events. Maybe, I'm just a little out of touch with the teenage psyche... still, I enjoyed the forbidden love element, and the heart-strings were thrummed more than twice.In the end, it was the love story that brought me through the series ;) It's the reason I like these kinds of books, using them as a nice relaxing get-away-from-reality read. This series fit the bill, and I fully recommend buying the 3 book series as a set (it also comes with the 2 novellas that bridge the books, which were cute).Happy reading :)

Initial ThoughtsI have been eyeing this series for what seems like 10 years but I finally took the plunge when they redesigned the covers. I was excited to finally dive in.Some Things I LikedGrimalken. He’s the Cheshire Cat and perfect guide all rolled into one. I love the way he appears without warning and always has the answers. Because he is a cat. I thought he gave the story balance and the ability for the author to explain the world building organically to the reader and that was a welcome addtion.Puck. Another character I loved. He was spunky and hilarious. Not here for that love triangle, but I still love Puck’s character.Dark themes. The Summer and Winter Courts are not for the faint of heart and there are some dark and sinister things lurking in the Nevernever. I loved that there was both humor and a dark overarching plot.Symbols of technology vs magic. I loved this element. The Iron Court represents the modern world and the loss of youth and magic as compared to the Summer and Winter Courts where magic and frivolity run rampant. I loved the comparison to the two and that Meghan was a child of both.One Thing I Wasn’t Crazy AboutThere were some moments where I felt the story was a bit cheesy. Now, that could be because I’m “aging out” of YA literature. Teenage me might have really enjoyed these very moments. But, adult me thinks they’re a little corny. I could have done without some of those moments.Series ValueAs mentioned below, I already finished the series. There is so much in this world and you’d be remiss if you didn’t stick with it. Very high series value.Final ThoughtsI really enjoyed this book. Some moments got a little cheesy for my taste but overall, I loved the world and characters Julie Kagawa created here.⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Recommendations for Further ReadingThe Iron Daughter by Julie Kagawa – if you enjoyed this book, definitely stick with the series. I’ve read it all now and I promise, it only gets better.Court of Bitter Thorn by Kay L. Moody – if you liked the Fae themes, bargains, and a human girl being brought to a mysterious world, try this series.

Some spoilers in this reviewI had heard this book was aimed at the lower end of YA, I didn’t mind as I enjoy middle grade books as much as adult books. The book started out in this vein with the MC calling her friend stupid or an idiot as you would expect when aiming at a younger audience, but then puck tells her she needs to be careful or the Satyrs will make her dance until her feet bleed then rape her. I was shocked, it didn’t fit with the tone of the book at all. Later she encounters some satyrs who pursue her and it’s clear what their intentions are. She also calls someone a b****rd, a far cry from calling people an idiot at the start. It happened the other way round too, sometimes the book read as if it was aimed at an older YA audience but then the dialogue sounded very young. I noticed these shifts in the tone throughout and it caused me to disconnect from the story.While I liked some of the side characters the MC was very annoying. She was told early on not to make deals with the fae as oaths are binding yet she continued bargaining, usually offering them anything they wanted in return for their help. Even though nothing bad came from these deals it was frustrating that she was ploughing through the nevernever striking up deals constantly that she had been warned against doing.I’m not sure if it was a combination of these 2 annoyances or just the story itself but I was bored! I kept skim reading or realising that I had read a few pages and not taken anything in. I just wasn’t invested in the characters and didn’t care what happened next. For the last 30% of the book I was just slogging through to finish as I had already invested so much time I wanted to see it through to the end. I won’t be reading anymore in this series

Julie Kagawa writes best when she is not borrowing from well-known fairy tales. As a result the second half of The Iron King in which she explores a fairy world tainted by modern myths is somewhat more effective than the first half where I had the impression she was trying to glue together quotes from various sources to little effect and didn't really have a feel for her story. The Puck character, for example, might have worked much better simply as Robin and she hadn't directly revealed that he was the legendary figure Puck. She manages to handle the emerging love story better than she handles the relationship between the main female character, Meghan, and her brother, Ethan. The girl's attachment for her brother is supposed to be the main driving force in the story and the motivation for Meghan's exploits but I personally found it hard to believe. Most of the characters do not really take on a life of their own. Having said all that, once I got to the end of the story I did have a hankering to buy the next book to find out what happened so maybe it wasn't as bad as all that!Review first published on Secret Paths: http://about-books.secret-paths.com/?p=32

Megan Chase is an ordinary girl. In twenty four hours, she will be sixteen. And just for once, she would like something to happen in her life. Living with her mother, step-father and half brother, Ethan, Megan often feels ignored and taken for granted. The only bright spot in her life is best friend, Robbie Goodfell.Megan thinks her luck is about to change when she is finally on her life-long crushes radar. Too bad her luck backfires and she becomes the target of a cruel and awful prank. Things go from bad to worse in Megan's life when she discovers Ethan has been taken...and only she can get him back.Robbie reveals to her that he is not what he seems and neither is she. She is part fey, and Ethan has been taken into Faery. She can get him back, if she's brave enough to make the journey.When Megan arrives in the Nevernever, she discovers more about herself than she ever could have believed. She is not the daughter of the mortal who disappeared when she was six like she thought. She is the daughter of Oberon, the Summer King which makes her an easy target for many enemies.Megan attracts the attention of Ash, the Winter Prince. Winter and Summer have always been foes, but Ash may be the one person who can help her get Ethan back.Megan was a strong character to lead us through the story with a likeable voice and personality. Her struggles in the beginning of the book is something most teenagers can identify with. Being in first person, you really get inside her head, feel what she feels. And trust me, I felt every bit as mortified.The introduction of Ash was beautifully done. A dark prince who says he may yet kill her, or at the very least betray her, Ash is the ultimate bad boy. His rivalry with Puck increases the reader's curiosity, making them want to know every moment of their past.Julie Kagawa has created a beautiful knew story world, combining old legends and modern dreaming with an incredible cast of characters to keep the story going. The romance was tender and bittersweet, the humour dark and twisted. I loved every second of this book.

Meghan Chase travels to a completely different world which is parallel to our own in search of her brother, meeting cruel and evil beings (which are all described wonderfully, FYI) along the way.The world building is what made me fall in love with this book. While the Fey aspect of the novel is certainly nothing new, the world that Julie Kagawa created is truly breathtaking. Julie has done an amazing job with that! It's one of the main draws of the novel, and I wanted to find out as much as I could about this fascinating place.The pacing of the story was quick enough to grab and hold my interest, and the story literally flew by for me. I was done before I knew it, and now I can't wait to read book two!What didn't particularly work too well for me is the fact that I do feel that certain romances happened far too quickly. This is a series, after all. I feel that more development was needed between the characters, and this could have been built up throughout the first couple of books, but instead it felt rushed. I'll let you read the book and figure out which characters I am talking about - I don't want to ruin the book for you in this review!Meghan as a main character was interesting, and it was fun watching her character develop - but she slowly became quite annoying. She seemed silly and almost naïve at times, as she continued to run into various situations without thinking, and then she had to be saved by one of the other characters. I thought she would have learnt from her mistakes, but I guess not. That being said, this is what makes her character more realistic. She's a teenage girl who's just had her world turned upside down. I suppose she needs to be cut some slack.As for Puck... I loved Puck! He was mischievous and funny, and he obviously cared deeply for Meghan, and greatly favoured their relationship. I just wish he had been in it more. His character was a star, and I fell in love with him from the word go. He's definitely the side I favour in this love triangle. I want a real life Puck! *swoon*I don't feel I've seen enough of Ash to actually analyse his character, but from what I've seen so far, he seems perfectly alright. Although I still prefer Puck, Ash is the strong, heroic warrior type who would rather fight with a sword than with magic. I can certainly see the attraction there! *wink wink, nudge nudge*I especially loved Grim, the talking cat. I thought he was an amazing character - yes, he is much more than an ordinary house cat! - and I hope to see him in future books! His funny comments were the best, and the way he kept wandering off and then reappearing was kind of creepy.Overall, I give The Iron King a rating of 5/5 for being so incredible. The positives more than make up for the negatives, and this book truly exceeded my expectations.

"The Iron King" is my first real delve into the world of the Fey so I picked it up somewhat sceptically and I'm so glad I picked this one up as my first faerie read because, from this point on, faerie fiction will now be filling my bookshelf! So why is it so great?Meghan Chase, our main protagonist, has a pretty ordinary life. Or at least, aside from the tragic death of her father years ago, she thinks she does now. So that sounds boring right? Ordinarily I'd agree but wait, there's more: Meghan's little brother is missing; stolen from his bedroom in the night and replaced with a changeling (a faerie baby - a.k.a A look-a-like faerie imposter) and Meghan HAS to get him back. How? Well lately Meghan has started seeing things: Gorgeous boys on horseback, hooded figures in closets and odd looking characters in the streets. For anyone that has read faerie fiction before I imagine the beginnings of "seeing" the Fey usually come across this way because Kagawa seemed to deliberately leave little clues like this for us to pick up on.Essentially, once Meghan realises she can see the Fey, and maybe more, the story really kicks off into an action-packed adventure through the world of the Nevernever (a world with three faerie kingdoms within it)where Meghan begins to learn more about the Fey and herself. As it turns out, Meghan is FAR from ordinary.I loved Ash, Meghan and Robbie/Puck. The relationships between the three of them are really interesting - particularly between Robbie and Ash. Moreover, it's rare for me to really connect with a character and to find them especially likeable but I did with all three; Robbie is especially witty whilst Ash is more mysterious. But the character I loved the most has to be Grimalkin - Meghan's eventual tour-guide who just happens to be a talking, occasionally invisible cat. He is just fantastic! I challenge anyone not to love him; he's very similar to "Alice in Wonderland"'s Cheshire cat.Was there anything I didn't like that you might notice too? Actually there was one thing (but notice that it absolutely does not affect the star rating this fabulous book deserves, nor does it cause me to question how much I enjoyed reading it). Although Ethan (Meghan's little brother who goes missing) only features very rarely at the beginning, I just got the impression within the first few chapters that Meghan resented him a bit. Actually, it sometimes came across as though she wasn't his biggest fan at all. So it seemed a bit of a sudden change when she charges into the world of the Fey to search for him without putting up a fuss. Having said that, he is her brother so I wouldn't have expected any less - it just seemed a bit of an abrupt switch in opinions.So overall, do I recommend this? Absolutely! Get a copy quickly! I'll definitely be getting the sequel. Also, there's a funny little guide to the Nevernever at the back of the book which is good fun alongside a Q&A with the author - always nice to have some extra bits.