The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

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.

Obtained: Bought
Genre: Young Adult/Paranormal Romance
Series: The Iron Fey
1.  The Iron King
2.  The Iron Daughter (coming in Feb, 2011)
My Rating:
A great read.  I was excited for The Iron King's release months before it was due.  Harlequin did a great job with the publicity, and Julie's writing was good enough that she had me absorbed in the book from a chapter's preview.  When it got closer to the release date, though, I felt as if there was a bit too much hype about this book....and all around the same time, which, in turn, made my expectations for it even higher than it already was.  The writing is wonderful, and so was the plot, but there were a couple of things that I believe could have been improved.

Story:
Enter Meghan: a teen forced to live out in the swamp due to a hillbilly step-father who is intimidated by technology, and a mother who is more a flake than a parental figure.  The only two people who seem to actually acknowledge her existence are her step-brother, Ethan, and her best friend, Robbie.  Don't forget Floppy, Ethan's stuffed rabbit.

Meghan's sixteenth birthday is quickly approaching, much to her delight.  While she may not be the most popular--okay, she's at the bottom of the popularity food chain--she'll be tutoring the boy she's crushing on, and she'll be getting her learner's permit.  Goodbye swamplands, hello car!

Things seem great... until a mishap occurs during a tutoring session, a malevolent force kidnaps her kid brother, and Robbie starts acting a little too weird for comfort.  Who can Meghan turn to now when it seems the world is out to get her?

My Opinion:
I stayed up until 4am readingdevouring the first half of The Iron King this past Friday night.  Then it was finished on Monday between classes, which might have taken away from my experience due to all the noise (and those uncomfortable college campus chairs). 

I felt as if Meghan's relationship with Ash was slightly rushed.  I understand that life or death situations can really affect people, and that had they not been forced into that position, the two might not have acted the way they did.  But for some reason, it felt a bit too surreal for my tastes.  I can't put my finger on what it was.  Perhaps it was due to some of the things Ash uttered to Meghan.  Regardless, that was the major aspect that shook me out of my reading-haze and made me look at the book more carefully.

I also feel as if the confrontation, and likewise, it's outcome, with the Iron King was brief.  Readers spend the entire book advancing to this point, hearing about how Meghan has all this potential, and it feels as if Ash was not only Meghan's crutch, but that he was also the leading man (instead of Meghan).  I am, by no means, calling the end of the encounter a cop-out, but I was left feeling somewhat disgruntled.  I wanted to see Meghan kick ass a lot earlier!  Or at least to have something happen instead of her running around completely defenseless the whole time.

So now that I've got the criticisms out of the way, what redeemed the book in my eyes?  For one thing, the characterization was superb.  Grimalkin and Puck are by far my favorites from the tale because they have such quirky personalities.  I was able to envision the ice prince, Ash, as some frosty badass who needed Puck--his polar opposite--to balance the serious with the funny.  I did not care so much for Meghan's character in The Iron King--she was somewhat bland, perhaps because I was dying to see her powers surface a lot sooner than they did, and for her to grow more as a person.

The second redeeming quality was the attention to detail.  Descriptions of the inhabitants and their surroundings in Nevernever are what truly got me absorbed in this book.  I love the allusion Julie makes to Alice in Wonderland in the first part.  Before even mentioning the rabbit hole, once the story started picking up, my brain kept screaming "it's Alice in Wonderland! It's Alice!" But once readers grow adjusted to Nevernever, this world becomes the author's own personal domain--one that I am enamored with.

Overall, it was a terrific read.  This is definitely the type of book that you will devour in a day if you have the time.  I'm really looking forward to what Julie has in store for us in The Iron Daughter. 

So my lovely readers:

This is something new, but, I know this book's been pretty popular with a lot of people and I want to hear what you all think.

For those of you who have read it, who are you rooting for?  Team Ash or Team Puck?

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• Paperback - 368 pages
• Price: $7.99
• ISBN-10: 0373210086
• ISBN-13: 978-0373210084
• Released: Feb 1 2010
• Julie Kagawa's Website
• Buy it at Harlequin.com
• Buy it at Amazon.com