Book Review: The Iron King (The Iron Fey, #1) – Julie Kagawa

Hello everyone!

I am SO excited you are reading this, because I’m about to present to you one of my most favourite books I have read this year! Eeek!!

I didn’t expect to love this as much as I did, which made the whole journey even better! Now buckle up and let’s just dive into the story, because that’s how I went in – with zero expectatations! So here comes…

The Blurb

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.

My Review

Omg ok. I have to breathe easy. This was SUCH an amazing story, and it made me fall in love with all things fae even more. I thought I was completely and utterly smitten with fairies and their courts after reading the ACOTAR series (and I really was), but this made me root for the very often mischievous and sometimes quite wicked beings even more. However, don’t get me wrong. If you are looking for a book that’s similar to ACOTAR, this is not it. It is similar in terms of the courts and whole ‘human girl goes to the fairy-world’ theme, but it has a whole other vibe to it.

But let me start at the beginning. Meghan is an ordinary girl, like so many other YA heroines. She doesn’t have many friends, isn’t very popular at school, and even her family often overlooks her. However, she loves her little half-brother and also her best friend Robbie, even though he is a trickster and loves pranking her. When Meghan sees a strange figure out near the woods, Robbie begins to change and becomes very protective of her. Then her little brother disappears, and something scary takes his place. These early scenes gave me the chills, but they added such a great atmosphere for the rest of the story. I don’t want to spoiler you too much because I think the blurb already gives a lot away, but let me just say, Meghan finds her way into the fairy realm in order to get her brother back, and oh boy, is this an adventure!

I really liked Meghan right from the start. She is a shy girl with a deep sadness inside herself which can be traced back to childhood trauma. Robbie is basically her opposite, and I loved how funny and caring, and also how protective he was of Meghan. Obviously, he also was her companion on her way into the fairy world! However, these are not the only two characters that will make you fall in love with this book. There’s a beautiful and wicked fairy prince who will wrap you around your little finger, and you will not know who to root for in the end.

I know I have said I hate love triangles before, but this one had me hooked regardless. I couldn’t stop reading!! And then there’s also another character I absolutely adored: Grimalkin, a strange hell-cat (or something like that; he definitely seems to be on the scarier side, but with Meghan, he was pretty sweet) that I couldn’t get enough of.

Everyone knows that fairies get hurt when they come in contact with iron. ‘The Iron King’ is therefore a contradiction in itself, and the idea hooked me from the start. I have never read a book like it, and fell in love with all its twists and turns, and I didn’t see many of them coming.

I have always been a big fan of legends and myths, and fairies have been one of those I really love. However, Kagawa didn’t just do a simple retelling here. She put a modern spin on the story, and that’s what I really liked. Additionally, there was a lot of background to the different fairy courts and their inhabitants, and I think that part was brilliantly done. No info-dump, but enough to make you intrigued and understand what’s going on and make you rooting for more.

For me, the tension in this story was building, building, building, and I was incredibly hooked until I reached about the 85% mark of the story. I’m not saying the ending is bad, but compared to the rest it was a bit less thrilling, it came a bit too easy for my liking. I was expecting an epic battle in the end, but what I got was more of a victory out of convenience. However, I still liked how the threads were woven together in the end. There are many questions left unanswered though, and I can’t wait to pick up book number two in the series!

Summing up…

If this last part about the ending hadn’t been the case this would be a clear 5 star read for me, but like this I have to make it 4.5 stars. I recommend it to everyone who likes fantasy with a bit of a sweet romance, lots of heartache, fairy courts, myths and legends  and many mysteries woven into it! Definitely highly recommended!!

Thank you all for reading!
xoxo
Noly