The Iron King Blog Tour - Part Two: Review!

As promised, here is some more Iron Fey goodness! Firstly, there's my review (which I definitely recommend reading, despite the length and standard ramble.) and then I'm also giving you information on where you get snag yourself a free copy of The Iron King e-book!


Visit Part 1 of the blog tour to read Julie Kagawa's post on the love triangle in The Iron King! 

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 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. - Visit The Iron King's GoodReads page.

As you can see from the GoodReads summary, this novel is a classic case of normal girl finding out she’s not really entirely human. However, it is also so much more than that. Meghan Chase travels to a completely different world which is parallel to our own in search of her brother, meeting cruel and evil beings (which are all described wonderfully, FYI) along the way.

The world building is what made me fall in love with this book. While the Fey aspect of the novel is certainly nothing new, the world that Julie Kagawa created is truly breathtaking. Julie has done an amazing job with that! It's one of the main draws of the novel, and I wanted to find out as much as I could about this fascinating place.

The pacing of the story was quick enough to grab and hold my interest, and the story literally flew by for me. I was done before I knew it, and now I can’t wait to read book two!

What didn’t particularly work too well for me is the fact that I do feel that certain romances happened far too quickly. This is a series, after all. I feel that more development was needed between the characters, and this could have been built up throughout the first couple of books, but instead it felt rushed. I'll let you read the book and figure out which characters I am talking about - I don't want to ruin the book for you in this review!

Meghan as a main character was interesting, and it was fun watching her character develop - but she slowly became quite annoying. She seemed silly and almost naïve at times, as she continued to run into various situations without thinking, and then she had to be saved by one of the other characters. I thought she would have learnt from her mistakes, but I guess not. That being said, this is what makes her character more realistic. She’s a teenage girl who’s just had her world turned upside down. I suppose she needs to be cut some slack. 

As for Puck…  I loved Puck! He was mischievous and funny, and he obviously cared deeply for Meghan, and greatly favoured their relationship. I just wish he had been in it more. His character was a star, and I fell in love with him from the word go. He's definitely the side I favour in this love triangle. I want a real life Puck! *swoon*

I don’t feel I’ve seen enough of Ash to actually analyse his character, but from what I’ve seen so far, he seems perfectly alright. Although I still prefer Puck, Ash is the strong, heroic warrior type who would rather fight with a sword than with magic. I can certainly see the attraction there! *wink wink, nudge nudge*

I especially loved Grim, the talking cat. I thought he was an amazing character - yes, he is much more than an ordinary house cat! - and I hope to see him in future books! His funny comments were the best, and the way he kept wandering off and then reappearing was kind of creepy.

Overall, I give The Iron King a rating of 5/5 for being so incredible. The positives more than make up for the negatives, and this book truly exceeded my expectations. 

For more information on the Iron King and to find out about forthcoming releases from Mira Ink visit their wonderful website: www.miraink.co.uk 

Amazon US | Book Depository | Amazon UK

Series: Iron Fey #1

Published on 21 Jan, 2011 (UK) by Mira Books

Paperback edition; 384 pages

Giveaway time!

So if you decided to read through my review, or you just scrolled down to here - skipping the most important part of the post, I might add! - I'm going to tell you about a giveaway that's currently being held over at The Sunday Express website. They're giving away 1000 free copies of The Iron King e-book. So now's your chance to go and win one! Go, go, go!

ETA: Apparently all of the copies had already been claimed a while ago. Sorry guys! No one told me they were already gone. :(