Review: The Iron King - Julie Kagawa

Meghan Chase has a secret destiny - one she could never have imagined ...

Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan's life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fitted in at school...or at home.

When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar and her little brother is taken, Meghan senses that everything she's known is about to change.

She could never have guessed the truth. Meghan is the daughter of a faery king and a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will have to choose between a normal life and her magical destiny - and between her best friend and a darkly dangerous prince.

It's time for Meghan to enter the faery world...

The Iron Fey Series:
The Iron King
Winter's Passage (Novella)
The Iron Daughter
The Iron Queen
The Iron Knight

Visit Julie Kagawa's website for more information

Review:
Meghan has never quite fitted in either at school or at home with her family, ever since the disappearance of her father something has just felt wrong.  She should be excitedly looking forward to her 16th birthday but too many strange occurrences are making her nervous.  Then her young brother seems to have a complete personality transplant and Meghan makes the horrifying discovery that the real Ethan has been kidnapped and a violent changeling has been left in his place.  Meghan is determined to get her brother back, even if it does mean venturing into the Nevernever and facing some of her worst nightmares.  But will she succeed and if she does what will it cost her?

I have heard so much about the Iron Fey series since The Iron King was released in the US last year that although the fey tend to be my least favorite paranormal creature I have been really looking forward to reading this book.  When I started reading it didn't take long before I was noticing things that reminded me of several other stories (A Midsummer Night's Dream, Alice in Wonderland and Labyrinth along with many others) and I loved the way Julie Kagawa has managed to give the flavor of some of my favorite fairy tales but still come up with a unique and interesting story that is completely her own.  You will find plenty of familiar mythology in there but Julie has also added a twist that I've never seen before and was very impressed with.  It's hard to say more about the twist without giving spoilers but I'm sure anyone who has read the book will know what I mean.

I liked Meghan, she was completely selfless when it came to her search for her brother and I liked the fact that she was willing to risk anything to make sure she got him home safely.  She does make mistakes but I think that is understandable considering the way she is thrown into the deep end with this whole new world with rules that she knows nothing about.  What I really appreciated was the fact that she learnt from her mistakes and didn't keep repeating them.  Her character really grew in confidence as she learnt more about her new surroundings and although she did need help from her friends at times she didn't just sit back and expect anyone to save her, in fact she tried hard to make sure she could save herself.

The Iron King has an interesting cast of supporting characters of which my favorite would have to be Grimalkin the talking cat who I adored.  I also really found myself liking Puck and the banter between him and Ash.  I want to learn more about both Puck and Ash and I'm hoping they have major roles in the rest of the series.  My only complaint would be that the romance happened a little too quickly and without me feeling much of a connection between the two characters.  I would have preferred more time spent on them getting to know each other, especially when there is a whole series for us to see things develop between them.  Having said that I am hopeful that we will see much more of this in future books and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next.

Overall I'd say The Iron King is an impressive debut and the start of a series that I'm looking forward to reading more of.  I'm very curious to find out more about Julie's mythology and would recommend this book to any fans of a good fairytale.

Source: Received from Mira Ink in exchange for an honest review

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