Book Title: The Iron Daughter (The Iron Fey #2)
Genre: YA Fantasy
Pages: 304
Author: Julie Kagawa
Date Published: 20 July 2010
Synopsis:
Half Summer faery princess, half human, Meghan has never fit in anywhere. Deserted by the Winter prince she thought loved her, she is prisoner to the Winter faery queen. As war looms between Summer and Winter, Meghan knows that the real danger comes from the Iron fey—ironbound faeries that only she and her absent prince have seen. But no one believes her.
Worse, Meghan's own fey powers have been cut off. She's stuck in Faery with only her wits for help. Trusting anyone would be foolish. Trusting a seeming traitor could be deadly. But even as she grows a backbone of iron, Meghan can't help but hear the whispers of longing in her all-too-human heart.
Half Summer faery princess, half human, Meghan has never fit in anywhere. Deserted by the Winter prince she thought loved her, she is prisoner to the Winter faery queen. As war looms between Summer and Winter, Meghan knows that the real danger comes from the Iron fey—ironbound faeries that only she and her absent prince have seen. But no one believes her.
Worse, Meghan's own fey powers have been cut off. She's stuck in Faery with only her wits for help. Trusting anyone would be foolish. Trusting a seeming traitor could be deadly. But even as she grows a backbone of iron, Meghan can't help but hear the whispers of longing in her all-too-human heart.
Review:
The Iron Daughter by Julie KagawaMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is the second book in the Iron Fey series. I absolutely loved it!
Meghan Chase is a wonderful character. I really liked her. She's now seventeen years old, though still full of angst and a bit of a tom boy. Having saved her brother Ethan from the grip of The Iron King, Meghan finds herself stuck in the Winter Court. Unable to use her Summer power, she struggles to survive in the Unseelie court. When a traitor steals an important object out from under the Winter court's care, Meghan finds herself thrown into another deadly adventure. Can she retrieve the object and stop the war between the Summer and Winter courts? Or will she lose everything she has been fighting for?
I had been in a reading slump before picking up the first book in the series. Now I can't get enough of it! Once I finished The Iron King, I picked this one up and began reading it straight away.
Once again, I was pulled into the story and found myself completely entranced with the world of Faery. I loved meeting Robin Goodfellow aka Puck again, as well as the Cait Sith, Grimalkin and Ash, the Winter Prince.
This story is just as intense and emotional as the first one; full of action, adventure and danger, as well as romance. I love the interaction between the characters. Puck and Ash still have a love/hate/respect relationship. Their ability to set aside their feud in order to work together to keep Meghan safe impressed me though. Grimalkin is still mysterious and seems to know a lot more than he shares, this can be a bit annoying for the characters, but he also acts as a voice of reason when they get a bit hotheaded. There are also some new characters introduced: Leanansidhe, the Exile Queen, who rules over the exiled and half-breed fae that have been banished from Faery and lives in the Between (the veil separating the human and fae worlds). I'm not sure I liked her. She has a vindictive streak that made me shudder. However, she is much nicer than most fae, which is saying a lot. I still wouldn't trust her though.
Ironhorse was introduced to the reader in the first book, but only had a small role. In this book, he takes it upon himself to be Meghan's guardian, since she defeated The Iron King. Meghan herself has changed since her battle with Machina. She has grown as a character, and I have enjoyed watching her mature and handle responsibilities that would break normal beings. However, her woe is me attitude at the beginning of the book made me want to throttle her. But, as the story progressed, I forgot my irritation with her. Her ability to use iron glamour seems to be a direct result from the death of Machina at her hand, but I found it odd that she didn't make the connection herself.
The descriptions of the faery world and creatures living within it are vivid and felt real. As I sat reading, I could picture every scene in my mind's eye with ease. I would love to see this made into a movie or TV serial, though it would probably rely a lot on CGI for the various creatures living within it. I reached the end of the book with mixed feelings. I wanted the story to continue, but I also didn't. This is one of the most emotional roller coaster rides I have been on in a long time. I didn't even have this reaction with the Twilight Saga, and that just about ripped my heart out at times. However, I am looking forward to continuing this amazing adventure by reading The Iron Queen next.
Julie Kagawa has written a fantastic Young Adult series. I love her writing style, which is fast paced and exciting. The flow was also wonderful, as each scene moved effortlessly into the next. She has found a firm fan in me and I will definitely be reading more of her books in the future.
Although there are no scenes of a sensual nature, there are scenes that are violent or a little gory. Therefore, I do not recommend this to readers under 15. However, I highly recommend this book if you love YA fantasy or paranormal romances. - Lynn Worton
View all my reviews
Julie Kagawa, the New York Times bestselling author of the Iron Fey and Blood of Eden series was born in Sacramento, California. But nothing exciting really happened to her there. So, at the age of nine she and her family moved to Hawaii, which she soon discovered was inhabited by large carnivorous insects, colonies of house geckos, and frequent hurricanes. She spent much of her time in the ocean, when she wasn't getting chased out of it by reef sharks, jellyfish, and the odd eel.
When not swimming for her life, Julie immersed herself in books, often to the chagrin of her schoolteachers, who would find she hid novels behind her Math textbooks during class. Her love of reading led her to pen some very dark and gruesome stories, complete with colored illustrations, to shock her hapless teachers. The gory tales faded with time (okay, at least the illustrations did), but the passion for writing remained, long after she graduated and was supposed to get a
real job.
To pay the rent, Julie worked in different bookstores over the years, but discovered the managers frowned upon her reading the books she was supposed to be shelving. So she turned to her other passion: training animals. She worked as a professional dog trainer for several years, dodging Chihuahua bites and overly enthusiastic Labradors, until her first book sold and she stopped training to write full time.
Julie now lives in Louisville, Kentucky, where the frequency of shark attacks are at an all time low. She lives with her husband, an obnoxious cat, an Australian Shepherd who is too smart for his own good, and a hyper-active Papillion.
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