Review: The Iron King

Title: The Iron King

Author: Julie Kagawa

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Pages: 363

Rating: (4 out of 5)

"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 Meaghan 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."

I just wanna start out by saying that I don't care how unoriginal and cliche this book is because I loved it with my whole heart and soul. Having said that, The Iron King was unoriginal and cliche. I would say this book was a mix between A Midsummer's Night Dream and Alice in Wonderland (both mentioned in the book). Also, it was the typical, girl who's not popular but has one best friend that ends up being in love with her even though she doesn't love him back and she discovers she's really something amazing (in this case she's half fey) and ends up falling in love with some extremely attractive guy and defeats all the bad things. Which isn't a bad plot, just one I've read say... a million times before!

I am absolutely in love with the idea of NeverNever (fairyland) and magical creatures, etc. and this book just enforces that love. There are so many different types of creatures in the book and they're all explained fairly well and they each have their own personalities. Julie Kagawa created a beautiful world for her story. From the colorful gardens of the Summer Court to the dark depths of the Wyldwood to the icy tundra of the Winter Court the setting is beautifully described and you can really picture it (or at least I could, correct me if you think I'm wrong).

The main character was Meghan Chase, who upon her sixteenth birthday discovered she was half-fey and a powerful one at that being the child of King Oberon of the Summer Court. Her brother was kidnapped and she ventured into the NeverNever in order to rescue him from his captor. As far as main characters go, Meghan wasn't all that bad. Her weakness definitely got on my nerves after awhile though. Fortunately she wasn't all that whiny and always tried to do the right thing. By the end of the book I found myself routing for her and wanting her to win and for everything to work out for her. I usually can't jump on board with the main characters of books and that's something very important so I was relieved when I discovered I liked her.

One big problem with this book however is that I loved Puck and Meghan only liked him as a friend. I guess this isn't too bad though because Meghan can have her Prince Ash and I can have Puck! ;)

Overall, I loved the book and I can't wait for the next in the Iron Fey series to come out!

P.S. - If you read this book, loved it as much as I did, and want more than you can check out the Iron Fey Series Website and read the novella, Winter's Passage, that takes place between the first and second book while your waiting! You have to be quick though because it's disappearing just like Grim tends to do (those of you who read The Iron King will get this, and yes I'm aware it was a really lame joke) on July 31, 2010! Less than a month away!