GoodRead - The Iron Daughter

Last year, I reviewed The Iron King by Julie Kagawa (not read it? Here you go!). I enjoyed reading it as it was a sunny read that I read over the summer holidays. That Christmas, I was given the sequels, The Iron Daughter and The Iron Queen. And now, almost a year after receiving the books, I have FINALLY read The Iron Daughter.

After the events of The Iron King and the eNovella, Winter's Passage (here's my review!), half Summer faery princess and half human, Meghan is held prisoner in the Winter faery's court. No one believes her claims that there are Iron Fey. And the only other person who knows about the Iron Fey - Prince Ash - is missing. And when he does appear, he acts all cold and distant towards her, even though they had feelings towards each other. Was he planning her emotions all along? And how can Meghan prove that the Iron Fey do exist as war begins to loom on the horizon...

Now, I am in two minds over this. I do like most of the plot. And the characters - I love Ironhorse in this book. I was very happy when I met Puck and Grimalkin (even though he still reminds me of the Cheshire Cat, but who's very sarcastic) And I enjoyed the introduction of Leanansidhe, though her saying "Darling", "Pet" and "Dove" took a few pages to get use to.

Now, I have one or two problem with this book. It's Meghan and Ash. Their relationship felt flat with me. I think this is because the first 100 or so pages, we had Ash acting all aloof towards Meghan. It kinda put some distance between the reader wanting the two characters to get together. But maybe it's because Julie wanted us to get excited over Puck and his feelings towards Meghan.

However, the other problem I have is Meghan herself. In the first half of the book, Meghan seemed to be either: crying, on the verge of crying or had just cried. I'm sorry, but did Meghan have a character transplant? In The Iron King, Meghan walked into the world of the fey - the Nevernever - to save her brother. She went into a mystical land, inhabitted with strange creatures and killed an faery king made of Iron to save her brother WITHOUT thinking of herself. Here, however, she was in tears. Where's our fearless heroine that made a deal with Ash to go to the Winter Fey's court if he helped her save her brother (hence why she's there. She made a deal!) and not once did she go "I kept my end of the bargain. I should think about leaving/escaping now..."

Also, she seemed to be mostly upset because of Ash's reaction to her. In The Iron King, they fell in love with each other but, in the Winter Court, Ash is acting cold, distant and even aloof to her. But, Meghan, didn't Ash say in Winter's Passage and then again in the start of The Iron Daughter that the winter fey see emotions as weakness and will use them as weapons? Do you think that maybe, JUST maybe, that he's acting like a total jerk to protect you? No...? Oh no, here come the waterworks...

This kept getting repeated for the first half of the book. Once the action kicked in, Meghan was more like the Meghan we met in Iron King.

I think I'm being a little harsh. I read this straight after reading two excellent reads - Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor and Roar & Liv by Veronica Rossi - and when you come away from stories that you love, anything you read almost immediately afterwards will seem a bit... underwhelming.

It's an OK read. I will read The Iron Queen, but if Meghan starts crying again, I will not be held responsible for my actions...

UK Cover Reveal for THE LOST PRINCE!

Am a bit late revealing this as Mira Ink revealed the cover for The Lost Prince by Julie Kagawa. This is the first book in a new series, Call of the Forgotten, which is (in a sense) a follow-up series to The Iron Fey series. But, I have been told by Mira Ink that, even though it is set in the same world, it's a new series so you can read that without reading the previous.

And here is the UK cover to The Lost Prince:

This is very different from The Iron Fey covers, which the US cover has stuck with as you see below:

Now, out of the two, I much prefer the UK cover. I just prefer it. I think it'ss because of the silver and the magical edge to it whereas the US cover feels a bit... you know... LOOK WHO HIT PUBERTY! It feels a bit like they using the age old "Sex Sells" and my reaction is "NO! You have a fanbase, you don't need to use this tactic!!!"

Now, I do need to read The Iron Daughter and The Iron Queen, but am very intrigued over this. And, to wet your appetite, here is the US book trailer... Enjoy. 

GoodRead - Summer's Crossing

As some of you guys knows, I haven't read the Iron Fey trilogy by Julie Kagawa. I do have a copy of the first book - The Iron King - but this keeps getting pushed further and further down in my ToBeRead pile - but I had the first eBook Winter Passage (the story between book 1 and 2) and I read that, liking it quite a bit.

So, Summer's Crossing. This story comes after the third book in the series - The Iron Queen - and the newly-revealed fourth book, The Iron Knight. So, if you have read the first three books, this is a bridge between the Iron Queen and the Iron Knight.

Summer's Crossing is a story told from Puck's point of view and, with the Winter Prince Ash, they must granted one last favor (fairies are BIG on their favors) forcing the prince to a place he cannot go without Puck's help — into the heart of the Summer Court. And, with this, Puck faces the ultimate choice — betray Ash and possibly win the girl they both love, or help the Winter Prince - his frienemy - pull off the biggest deception he will ever pull...?

Now, after the whole drama of trying to get the story onto my Kindle (and I have to thank Matt from Teen Librarian for a lot of help on that front!), it took a while to get my head round all the characters. But seeing as I haven't read the rest of the books in the series, that's understandable. But once the story got going, it became interesting.

But, I didn't connect with it. It was the last chapter which laid down the fountains for the Iron Knight, that held my attention. Now, I know that this series has bases in Shakespeare plays, but this ending with a Shakespeare play that I studied in school and quite like. So, for this, I would be interested to read Iron Knight. But, saying that, after reading Winter's Passage, I wanted to read the following book, The Iron Daughter.

But I think I prefer Winter's Passage, but I do want to read Iron Knight. Anyone know when that's out in the UK?

GoodRead - Winter's Passage

I downloaded this onto my iPhone Kindle app because it was free, and I had a copy of The Iron King by Julie Kagawa (which I haven't read yet - OOOPS!). And then, my family and the Person I'm With clubbed together and got me a Kindle. I registered it and Winter's Passage transfered onto the Kindle. Dying to try it out, I read it without thinking.... SORRY IRON FAY FANS!

But this isn't a Kindle review/gushing. This is about Winter's Passage review. So, here's the story...

After the events of The Iron King, Meghan Chase has to keep her word and goes, with Prince Ash to dangerous Winter Court (the fay are big on promises). Prince Ash is her forbidden love, as the son of the Winter Court and the daughter of the Summer Court can never be together. But Meghan has one request: that they visit Puck - Meghan's best friend and servant of her father, King Oberon - who was gravely injured defending Meghan from the Iron Fey. But something is following them. Something powerful and something that won't stop until it gets want it wants...

Now, seeing as I haven't read any book within the Iron Fay trilogy, it basically a short story that bridge the first and second books in the trilogy - The Iron King and The Iron Daughter - which contained spoilers from Iron King. So, yeah, if you're going to read this series, start with book 1 then read this, then continue with the series.

However, I read this and it was a fast, fun read. As I don't really read faeries (though I do have a copy of Iron King, Lament by Maggie Stiefvater and two of the Wickedly Lovely series, it was an interesting read. It was fun read. There was a few things that bothered me, but I suspect that if I actually read my copy of the Iron King, all those bits that bothered me won't have.

If you're going to read this, then my advice is this: Read The Iron King first!

(and now, for the book trailer and a random song choice. ENJOY!)