The Iron King by 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 fit in at school…or at home.

When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she's known is about to change.

But she could never have guessed the truth—that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she'll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil no faery creature dare face…and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart. (Goodreads)

Review:

There are a lot of fantastic things about this book. The fact that I can easily pin point the influences like: Peter Pan, A Mid Summer Night's Dream, and Alice in Wonderland is the first amazing thing. Also, I loved the unique qualities of the second type of fey introduced: the Iron Fey. Since Julie Kagawa is going off the premise that the reason faeries still exist is because people in the human world still believe in them and still listen to their stories (particularly Oberon, Titania and Puck's). So what is done with the left over thoughts and ideas that people have? What about all the technology that people think of and science fiction? Well those things became the Iron Fey. This was something I had never seen before in any fae type novel. I can see why a lot of people are drawn to this series. The love triangle of Ash, Puck and Meghan is exciting as well. I liked that the book ended with a lot of unanswered questions, leading me to want to pick up the next book.There was enough action to keep me interested, but not too much to make me confused as to what exactly was happening in the story. I like the introduction of creatures that I'd never read about/heard of like the: Cait Sith, Grim (he very much reminded me of the Cheshire Cat).

Yet, every good story does have a few flaws. There are very few to be found in The Iron King. For once I'd like to pick up a novel with Fae in it without the main human (or half human) character being completely ignorant of Faery rules and completely naive. I know those types of things can push a story a long and create more conflict for the main character to over come but at some points I was like: "Really?! Can we stop making deals with the Fae? You really don't know what you're doing!" There are a few simple rules that one must follow when dealing with fae and they are:

1. Never, ever under any circumstances eat or drink anything while in Faeryland.
2. Do not make deals with Fae unless you know exactly what you're getting into.
3. Do not dance with them, no matter how pushy they are! It will only lead to trouble.
4. Even if you have a friend that is a Faery and is nice to you, not all Fae are like that.
5. Never assume that you can outwit a Fae, they will find loopholes!
   

I understand that Meghan was born in the human world and she didn't get trained in Fae Relations but seriously? This type of stuff happens in every novel when a human crosses over to Faeryland. Also, I found that the climax of the story didn't have enough action for me. It seemed to be over too quickly. Other than that, I found the book to be very entertaining and I will be picking up the next book in the series.

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