The Iron Queen
Author: Julie Kagawa
Series: The Iron Fey (#3)
Publisher: HarlequinTeen
How Received: publisher ARC
My review of The Iron King.
My review of The Iron Daughter.
My name is Meghan Chase.
I thought it was over. That my time with the fey, the impossible choices I had to make, the sacrifices of those I loved, was behind me. But a storm is approaching, an army of Iron fey that will drag me back, kicking and screaming. Drag me away from the banished prince who's sworn to stand by my side. Drag me into the core of conflict so powerful, I'm not sure anyone can survive it.
This time, there will be no turning back.
Buy | Borrow | Brush Off
After postponing reading The Iron Queen for what seemed like the longest time, I finally buckled down, pulled it from my shelf, and settled in with it.
And you know what? I'm happy I did, because it makes a great conclusion to the Iron Fey series.
But I hear your little voices now. "But what about The Iron Knight?" "Yeah, that's the fourth one!" No, stop talking, I don't want to hear it.
Would I love The Iron Knight if I read it? Probably. It's all Ash and Puck and Grimalkin from what I've heard, and I've come to love all three of those characters. It'd be fun to see them go off on another adventure and do their thing and see where they all end up. But I think - just this once - I'd rather use my imagination.
It's because The Iron Queen ended just the way I would have loved it. In fact, the entire book ended the way I would have wanted the series. I can't help but think of The Iron Knight as an unnecessary add on to all of that.
See, for the first time since the books started, I loved Meghan. I always liked Megan, but I never really loved her, not until now. She finally buckled down and realized there was more to worry about in her life than the tragic love triangle between her and Puck and Ash.
She learns to fight; she learns to control her magic; she takes on faeries she used to be terrified of and wins; she doesn't let anybody stop her. She doesn't hide behind Puck or Ash. She gets her ass out into the front of the battle and fights and finally, everybody, Meghan Chase has come into her own!
And the ending was so perfect, so poignant, and I won't spoil it for those of you who haven't read the book yet. (Though, to be fair, that's very few of you.) But I thought it was flawless. It showed so much character development on everybody's parts and left for the chance of happy endings without making it seem silly or cliche.
If you couldn't tell, I loved it. It had its moments where I groaned a little - come on, you can't have a love triangle without having its super cheesy moments - but I did love it.
Overall Rating & Final Comments: 9/10. The character development was fantastic, the ending was perfect, and Meghan Chase finally came into her own. I just wish there wasn't another book!
Oh, and Ash, dear? I know that cape you wear into battle makes you look all cool and like a bad ass, but only bad things happen when you wear capes. So next time you go to fight?
