Only One Opinion (The Iron King)

Review of The Iron King, by Julie Kagawa.

Quickie: Slow to start, but an interesting faery story. Worth a read.

Full: I almost put this one down. The first half felt like every other faery story out there, and I had no real motivation to continue. I was told it would get better, and it did, although my thoughts at the end were still, "Meh.".

Meghan is our MC, and she lives on a pig farm with her mom, half brother Ethan, and her step-dad Luke. She doesn't believe that anybody really cares about her, she expects her mother to forget her birthday, etc. It's your basic "My life sucks and nobody likes me" start.

Her half-brother Ethan is stolen and replaced with a changeling, and Meghan and her trusty trickster friend Robbie go off to Faeryland to get him back.

I'll stop there, since I try to be spoiler free. ;-)

My reasons for feeling "Meh" about the book:
1. Robbie Goodfell? Oberon? Mab? Seriously? I've read that one before. And other versions. And adaptations. I'm just tired of seeing the poor characters from A Midsummer Nights Dream used and reused over and over.
2. I don't honestly believe Meghan would care all that much about the Nevernever (Faeryland). It's done nothing but try to kill her since she got there. (Seriously. It was one thing after the other, without pause.) I for one certainly didn't care about the Nevernever in this story. They are all evil killers who have no heart. What a joy... And yet she wants to save them?
3. Continuing with the saving them... how does she expect to save them when she is so.... blah? She tells Prince Ash not to kill Human because Human doesn't know what he's doing... while Human is trying to kill them all. Right.

Perks:
1. The characters that you do like are pretty cool. I was a fan of Grimalkin, the cat. Probably just because he was a cat. :-p I got annoyed with Puck, the egotism and constant jokes felt forced to me. Prince Ash was cold, as he was supposed to be. I got the feeling I was supposed to be rooting for one or the other for a romantic relationship with Meghan, but I just didn't like either boy enough.
2. The story concept was interesting. The Iron Fey were fresh and the story element that kept me reading. I see potential for the next book, especially if it picks up where The Iron King left off.

I give this book 3 stars out of 5, although I have hopes for the next one in the series.

The Iron King (Harlequin Teen)