a book report: The Iron Fey series, books 1 & 2, by Julie Kagawa

The Iron King & The Iron Daughter
and where i will stop reading for i cannot finish this series.

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

i was totally hooked with this catch line.
secret destinies? check.
faeries? double check.
fates of all hang in the balance of just one girl? triple check.

i really wanted to like these books. i haven't read a lot of faery fiction, and i really wanted to get into them. but i'm thinking i might have to go elsewhere to satisfy my faery lust.

*spoilers will be brandished, be warned

the series starts with The Iron King, where in typical YA fashion, a young girl who just turned 16 finds out she is not who she thought to be (i am hooked). she has her best friend by her side and an adorable little brother, who ends up being kidnapped thrusting Meghan into a world she never knew existed. oh boy!

the story ends up being a bit of Labyrinth and Alice in Wonderland (but i liked it and didn't mind). Kagawa is a good writer and her descriptions of the Nevernever (the faery land) is great because i can really picture what she is writing about.

we find out that Meghan's best friend is that of Puck, made famous by A Midsummer Night's Dream (which i liked). and we can't forget the love interest, Prince Ash (because the best friend can never be the love interest). so of course there will be a love triangle. ugh. okay, i can handle a love triangle, i can.

but as the story goes on, Meghan who stared out as a strong teenager with a brain turns into Bella Swan. ugh again! Meghan and Ash spend time trying to defeat the Iron King so Meghan can save her little brother and bring him back home and in doing so i am told they fall in love. but i really didn't see it. i felt no love, but Ash is super hot and a Prince, so i'm supposed to fall in love with him, right?

and the story ends with a nice little cliffhanger. and i'm like, "okay, this first book was alright. i can see it going somewhere. i want to know what happens with Meghan because i can see some dark things happening with her, and i like that." (i said all that out loud, really i did.)  


now onto book two, The Iron Daughter, which i had a hard time finishing.

what happened to Meghan? there was potential for a strong, fiery teenager who needs to take on the world to save what she loves. instead she turned into a whiny teen who cries all the time. like all the time.

it goes something like this:
Meghan becomes obsessed with Ash, because i am told she is in love with him. please show me, don't tell me. then Ash treats her like crap, telling her that she shouldn't trust him, that he will kill her if his Queen asks him to and he insults her in front of his brothers and his court. at this point i would be like "oh hell no!" f this s! but Meghan doesn't react this way and loses my respect.

so she cries and cries and falls into a coma (what?) and pines for him. he continues to tell her they can't be together, and then she turns to her best friend (poor Puck). ugh! then at the end Ash tells Meghan that he loves her. this after he tried killing her and her family. he was choking her to death for pete's sake (i know, i know, he was under the control of Virus, but still i just couldn't go with it). so at the end she leaves everything and goes off with Ash.

ugh!

up until the epilogue i was done with this series. but what Kagawa is really good at is leaving an opening where i'm all like "maybe i should read the other two books in the series". but no, i am stopping here. i'll just read others' reviews of The Iron Queen and The Iron Knight on Goodreads to get the gist of what happens (my CliffNotes if you will).

some thoughts:

• i really liked Puck. i guess i am team Puck, if you will. i didn't like that sometimes Puck would act all emo and teenagery. isn't he supposed to be extremely old? his angsty teenage years should be beyond him, right?
• i didn't see anything to make me want Ash and Meghan together. hell, he's still in love with his dead ex-girlfriend. i totally forgot about that. what is Meghan thinking? 
• i really enjoyed the talking cat, Grim. his dialog, along with Puck's was needed.
• the action scenes were good. i liked that the books were filled with action, but they got predictable because they always defeated the bad guy.

i really wanted more from this series. but i kept on seeing Bella Swan in Meghan and i was over it.
i hope you enjoyed this report. xoxo.