Book Series Review - The Iron Fey (Julie Kagawa)

The Iron Fey

author: Julie Kagawa

genres: Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance, Young Adult

books: The Iron King / The Iron Daughter / The Iron Queen / The Iron Knight

shelves: awesome-covers, awesome-heroine, awesome-humor, awesome-romance, dem-feels, fairies, not-from-this-world, squee, too-awesome-for-words, why-did-it-end

rating: Favorite!!!

My name is Meghan Chase.

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.

In less than twenty-four hours, I'll be sixteen years old.

Before I start this review, let me get one thing clear: I love this series more than anything else... Well, anything else literature-ish, that is. But honestly, I'm not lying when I call The Iron Fey my favorite book series of all time and Julie Kagawa my favorite author of all time - her Blood of Eden series is awesome too, go check it out if you haven't, and I'll read anything of her, even if it's about rainbow-puking unicorns doing nothing but... Well, puke rainbows... Or something like that. So, this review will be very biased and probably pretty fangirly. But who the hell cares? Let's get this started!

The plot was well-paced, not too slow and not too fast, but always interesting, even if it wasn't all action-y and exciting. And I have no other word to describe the plot other than 'magical'. Honestly. Much blood is shed, many die, but in the end, everything turned out just fine, and I love it. The only thing I have to criticize is the predictability - I guessed the identity of the false king as soon as he was introduced and I was right, the... The sacrifice at the end of The Iron Knight was probably inevitable... These kinds of stuff. But I don't care, because I never felt less entertained because of this. And sometimes there were really big plot twists which had me all like 'wtf. No. NO. That didn't just happen', just look at the ending of the first part of The Iron Knight.

This books made me feel like I was somewhere else. Julie Kagawa's prose is just so wonderful, it doesn't flood you with descriptions but it never lacks any... Well, descriptions. Lol. I didn't feel as if I were watching the story, but if i were a part of it, living through the same things as the characters do, and that's the best thing an author can achieve.

Meghan is a wonderful character. She may not be kick-ass and can be a little bit naive, but honestly, I can look over that. She's strong when she needs to be, especially in The Iron Queen where she learns how to wield a sword and takes on the false king, but eventually has to sacrifice everything... Damn, that was just so dramatic and I'm not overreacting when I say I cried. A lot. Thinking about how The Iron Fey originally was just intended to be a trilogy, I just... I just can't. Dammit. Meghan, y u make me cry? I can't even be angry on her because it was such a great plot twist, even though it was foreshadowed from the beginning of The Iron Daughter.

I also love Ash to pieces. Especially in The Iron King he was just gorgeous, with all his coldness towards Meghan and his backstory... Though my fangirling switched to Cam (Fallen) and Damon (The Vampire Diaries) by now, I still adore him and he definitely stands on my list of characters I would date. Also, he's a surprisingly deep and well-developed character, his change from icy to loveble doesn't feel rushed or unbelievable, but actually understandable. Well done, Julie!

While I'm not too fond of Meghan and Puck together, I still love Puck and his jokes and his personality and about everything else about him! He lightened up the mood but could still be serious - though that didn't happen too often - and pretty dangerous in a fight, even though it never felt like it. I would have liked him to find love at the end, but sadly he never did... I feel bad for him.

Grim deserves an extra paragraph, because he's a cat. And I love how he is just there, even though he says he doesn't like humans and thinks he's better than everyone else, I really think he treasures Meggie, Ash and Puck. And that he has a role in the spin-off, Call of the Forgotten, too, is a really nice throwbag to the original series. But honestly, what would this series be without Grimalkin?

I also really liked the side characters, especially Leanansidhe (who has a name I can't pronounce) and Mab and Oberon and everyone. ♥ Gah. There's no character I hate. ... Well, maybe Rowan. That asshole. But still, he was a fine character, just unlikable...

Countless stories, songs and poems have been written about this wonderful age, when a girl finds true love and the stars shine for her and the handsome prince carries her off into the sunset.

You haven't read this? GO READ IT. I have nothing more to say. ♥

I didn't think it would be that way for me.