From The Cover:
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 to let her touch his icy heart.
My rating: 4 stars.
My Thoughts:
Initially, I had high hopes for The Iron King. But the beginning is rushed, information’s unexplained, and the characters show no promise – Meghan is the pettiest character I’ve encountered in a long while, and her best friend, Robbie, has so much potential but is only ever described as a grinning prankster.
Only 35 pages in, and the unbelievable clichés and unrealistic drama appear:
“Then a grin spread across my face and I whooped, leaping into the air. Scott Waldron wanted to see me!”
Really? Whooped and leaped into the air?
And it doesn’t end there. 65 pages into the story and another appears:
“I turned and fled into my room, slamming the door behind me. Flinging myself under my bed-covers, I put the pillow over my head and shook, hoping that when I woke up, things would be normal.”
And another, page 213:
“‘Puck, no.’ I clutched at his sleeve. ‘Don’t fight him. Someone could die.’”
Along with those occasional annoyances, the plot drags. Horrendously. Sticky situations come and go, but I never could determine what purpose they served. It all felt like unnecessary filler – and, unfortunately, not good filler. There’s only so many times I can read a Damsel in Distress-type event…and The Iron King is full of them.
However, more than halfway through the novel, the pace picks up. Interesting characters, like Ash, are introduced, and more of the faery world is explained and described. It had a similar feel to Melissa Marr’s world of fey in Wicked Lovely. This is the saving point for Kagawa’s novel, to me. The descriptions are beautiful and strong, superior to the severely lacking, boring, cliché dialogue. And, surprisingly enough, everything from earlier on in the story is tied together in the end.
The finish is nice, despite being a cliffhanger. The characters shape up, suddenly stronger in their personalities than before, but the romance feels forced and confusing; it blooms as if out of nowhere. Still, it’s sweet to read.
The Iron King is annoying in several ways, but the writing style – save for the dialogue – makes it all worthwhile.