The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Title: The Iron King
Author: Julie Kagawa
Series: The Iron Fey #1
Publisher: Harlequin
Date Published: February 1, 2010
Buy: Amazon

Goodreads Summary

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.

I read this book for two reasons, the pretty cover and the reviews. The reviews were so good! How could I not read this?  I wish I had the ability to not pick up a book because it has a pretty cover. This book wasn’t meant for me. I disliked it with a passion. I gave it two stars so I didn’t want to burn it but it took me a while to finish it. I paused so many times looking for all sorts of excuses for not having to continue reading this book. I cannot even write the review (or whatever it is) without slacking off.

I mean sure this book has some things going for it but half the time I want to bang my head on the wall because of  Mary Sue Meghan, our main character.

Oh my dear god this girl annoys the hell out of me. I wanted to choke her half the time, see what her “lovers” would do then. I feel so bad saying all these things because so many people loved it, I feel like the hipster creep (although being a hipster is cool).

I mean sure the world building deserves to be mentioned. It was absolutely great, hence the reason this book got two stars and not one. The whole idea of how fey came to existence is super unique and even after all the kinds of fey books I’ve read, I haven’t encountered any other ideas as unique as this BUT what use is the world building if half of the time you are resisting the urge to throw the book on the wall because of the characters?  She also has great ideas for fey like the iron fey and the seelie and unseelie. Plus the bits of the court politics we are shown are pretty cool.

My favorite character was Grimalkin. A talking cat. He kind of reminds me of the grumpy cat but he is smart and always made me laugh.

(hehehe I wanted an excuse to post this meme)

Puck always made me laugh as well but I was annoyed by the fact that he fell in love with Meghan. I mean he is damn old faerie, how does a silly teenage girl who he has known for HER whole life change anything? Her life span is merely a fraction compared to his, after the thousands of years he has been alive how does a stupid teenage girl make him go from the cool ass court jester to a love sick fool?

Oh and the insta lust love between our darling Unseelie prince and Meghan. Oh dear god Ash was such a cliché character I was resisting the urge to scream. He is the dark brooding guy who Meghan is intrigued by, her heart starts beating faster when he is around and all the other shit that comes along with insta love. He is unseelie and wants nothing to do with her but he is secretly in love with her as well. *starts crying* It feels like twilight all over again. I cannot think about their romance without having an emotionally break down. It left scars on me.

I did in fact go on to read the rest of the books in the series despite this because, back then, once I started a series I had to finish it. This changed after reading this series, I learned my lesson.

This series made me suffer so much. It ruined all fey books for me. I cannot enjoy a good fey book because of this one and I avoid them like the plague, (at first though I did try to read other ones to fix the damage this book did) it’s okay if they contain fey but do NOT make them about them. The only series I liked that had fey in it was the Fever series (I didn’t know it was centered around the Fey until I read it and the Fey are the creepy guys so it’s cool) and even THAT didn’t change my mind about fey books in general. Like I said, I have a permanent scar from this book. I think the main reason for my prejudice is because this was my first fey book, I went into it blindly believing that everything would turn out great. It didn’t. I hope no one ever faces the emotional trauma this book caused me. Okay yes I am exaggerating but not about the part where I have disliked all fey books ever since.