Book Review - The Iron Knight/Iron Valentine/Iron's Prophecy

The Iron Knight
Author: Julie Kagawa
Series: The Iron Fey #4
Genres: Fantasy | Young Adult
Release Date: 26th October 2011
Publishers: Harlequin Teen
No. Pages: 399
Source: Purchased
Rating: 
Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones

To cold faery prince Ash, love was a weakness for mortals and fools. His own love had died a horrible death, killing any gentler feelings the Winter prince might have had. Or so he thought.

Then Meghan Chase - a half human, half fey slip of a girl - smashed through his barricades, binding him to her irrevocably with his oath to be her knight. And when all of Faery nearly fell to the Iron fey, she severed their bond to save his life. Meghan is now the Iron Queen, ruler of a realm where no Winter or Summer fey can survive.

With the unwelcome company of his archrival, Summer Court prankster Puck, and the infuriating cait sith Grimalkin, Ash begins a journey he is bound to see through to its end - a quest to find a way to honor his vow to stand by Meghan's side.

To survive in the Iron Realm, Ash must have a soul and a mortal body. But the tests he must face to earn these things are impossible. And along the way Ash learns something that changes everything. A truth that challenges his darkest beliefs and shows him that, sometimes, it takes more than courage to make the ultimate sacrifice.

The following review may contain spoilers concerning earlier books in the series.
If you have not read the previous installments, please proceed with caution.

I'm not ashamed to say I felt quite cheated throughout this final story of The Iron Fey. After an amazing finale and all bit it quite exciting ending to The Iron Queen, I was expect fantastic things from this book; I expect action, I expected an equally fantastic world and I expect to be amazed and surged with feelings, but once again, this book had quite disappointing moments, but this time, Kagawa's world wasn't what saved this book from a terrible rating, and nor was it the plot.

When I got The Iron Knight through the post, I near enough ditched on of the other books I was reading and threw myself into the story and while I shouldn't have been surprised by the slight disappointment in the plot, speed and action, I was, especially when you're predecessor is as good as The Iron Queen; The Iron Knight needed a kick up the backside within it's first third, if not especially in the first third. The world was still as beautiful as Kagawa had left it and I was pleased to find that I'd come to enjoy the simplistic nature of the Nevernever and had come to believe that absolutely anything was possible in this world and land she'd created, but I felt disconnected, I felt like I wasn't submerged deep into the story, and whether than was because of the different perspective, having been so used to Meghan's, or whether that was because this story was, in my opinion, was not a part of the previous three, I felt like the Iron King, The Iron Daughter and The Iron Queen were a trilogy, with the same complimentary story running through them, yet The Iron Knight felt more like a companion novel and extension to the story, rather than a part of it. Yet within my dismissiveness of the story as a whole, there were things I appreciated as we got deeper through the pages.

I found myself appreciating Ash and Puck's relationship, Ash and his past and also the whole concept of Nevernever even more. The entire concept behind Nevernever being the belief of others was so strong in this book, it was almost overpowering, the fact that Ash's quest had never been done by anyone before meant that it would go down in legend, 'the fey who became human for the love of a fey queen', and the fact that at least two of his companions were doing it in order for their story to last longer in the Nevernever was a testament to Kagawa's world; she never for one moment forgot what she'd forged the entire world on, and never forgot to make sure we never forgot too. Speaking of forgetting, the other feature I enjoyed was how Ash's past and history came up in this story. While Meghan was and is still kind of unable to appreciate and see Ash's past, Kagawa made sure we could, and throughout all the pain he had suffered and brought upon other people, he fought through it, and even when his past came back to haunt him, literally, he battled through tough feelings, grief, conflicting emotions and in the end, the feelings of friendship and loyalty. While I don't like including spoilers in reviews, (SPOILER)I have to mention how much Ariella's appearance, no matter how important to the entire story, really pissed me off. (SPOILER) Yes, in the end, the important character in Ash past was insufferable, and while Ash needed their sacrifice in order to gain the soul, I was annoyed at the fact they were there in the first place. By the end of The Iron Queen, I was fully invested in his relationship with Meghan and to see Ash so torn by his feelings of betrayal, pain, suffering and grief was almost too much, not to mention how much his mind changing and constant thoughts of breaking his vow were seriously beginning to grate, but I was still completely unimpressed with said character.

Part three seriously began to pick up when Ash realised what it meant to be human, and what his sacrifice would mean, and I think it's his and Puck's development throughout this story that had me rating this as high as I did, because it's seriously not one of Kagawa's best. I found their feelings for one another, how honest they became with each other and just their general ambiance around one another was so wonderful and heart-warming, I was almost glad that previous annoying character was brought in the bring them back together; it was fantastic to see Ash and Puck working as a team, and how Ash considered Puck a friend by the end, a very good friend, and how Puck always had faith in Ash to complete his quest, no matter how much it meant losing Meghan for himself. They both had better character development in this installment, both individually and together, than I had seen from Meghan in The Iron King and The Iron Daughter put together, and that had me the most pleased throughout everything. This story lacked a lot of the action that the previous installments had, yet there was one scene in particularly that hovers in my mind and it's one of reflections; I found that scene quite utterly, amazingly fantastic and I can't fault any of that scene, if the book had been anything like that, in both writing, character and passion, it would have gotten a full 5 stars, but because it wasn't, it didn't, but I can't forget that passion, emotions and plain determination and gusto the characters had in that scene, other than Grim, because Grim, throughout this series, has possibly become my favourite, the biggest of reasons, because he is a cat.

As finales go, Kagawa wrapped it up well, she brought an ending I could be happy with, allowed for growth of Meghan while we weren't with her, allowed for her ruling to well reserved and generally gave me a nice closure, however, I know for a fact I wouldn't have been happy if I didn't have any other material afterwards. This book isn't as full of action or adventure as the previous three, although adventure is probably the word for this book, because if they literally travel to the End of the World, so prepare to take a seat and be there for a while, no, this book was about the characters involved, what this quest meant to them, whether it was to fight for love, to find themselves, to find their lost friendship, the grieve for something or someone you never had to opportunity to grieve for, or whether it was to prove your intelligence or have your legend live on for longer, this book was about the people involved and how their actions affected them and everyone around them. It definitely isn't my favourite of the series, but neither is it my least favourite, and if I could, I would defiantly give this book 3.75 stars, but even my ratings aren't that precise, so in the end, I have to let my disappointment overrule any other reactions I had to how nicely the finale epilogue ended..

Iron Valentine
Author: Julie Kagawa
Series: The Iron Fey 4.4
Genres: Fantasy | Young Adult
Release Date: 14th Febuary 2012
Publishers: Harlequin Teen
No. Pages: 24
Source: Free
Rating: 

The following review may contain spoilers concerning earlier books in the series. If you have not read the previous installments, please proceed with caution.

After being slightly disappointed with how The Iron Knight ended, having not gotten much interaction with Ash and Meghan's relationship, finding this extra was just a wonderful experience. As extra material goes, it showed so much between the characters, how much they've each grown and just how important they were to one another. Meghan, as rulers go, is young yet now powerful, full of the power of Summer and Iron, she is now a confident ruler of the Iron Court and knows exactly what she's made of, while at this point in their lives, Ash has managed to become confident in himself as a part human, part fey and has blended into that life quite calmly. What impressed me most of all was how Ash followed his heart in real life just as much as he did with his dream in The Iron Knight and finally married Meghan, which made me insanely stupidly happy I can't even explain it, and as if that wasn't enough, how their relationship was clearly less held back than in the past this extra so very very pleasing. The overall plot of this extra was quite cute, fluffy, charming and completely beautiful; Meghan and Ash celebrating Valentines together after everything they'd been through, completely happy and at ease with one another, leading their court together in matrimony, it was all just adorable. I kept finding myself smiling and smirking at their little details together and I was amazed at the effort both parties went to. As finale's would have gone, this would have been a fantastic one and perfect enough for me. I'd been waiting for the fluff in this relationship and boy did I get it.

Iron's Prophecy
Author: Julie Kagawa
Series: The Iron Fey 4.5
Genres: Fantasy | Young Adult
Release Date: 1st September 2012
Publishers: Harlequin Teen
No. Pages: 67
Source: Purchased - Iron Legends
Rating: 
Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones

Meghan Chase is finally getting used to being the Iron Queen, ruler of the Iron Fey. Her life may be strange, but with former Winter prince Ash by her side at last, she wouldn't have it any other way. But when they travel to the Summer and Winter courts' gathering for Elysium, the oracle from Meghan’s past returns with a dire prophecy: "What you carry will either unite the courts, or it will destroy them."

Now Meghan faces a devastating choice that may determine the future of all fey - and her and Ash’s unborn child..

The following review may contain spoilers concerning earlier books in the series.
If you have not read the previous installments, please proceed with caution.

The final closing door on the Iron Fey series came with this novella, as novella's in this series went, this one was by far the best. With the right amount of mystery, fluff, confidence and charisma from the characters and foretelling for the following spin-off series was so almost perfect and it ensured I would definitely be reading the following series sometime soon, but not right away.

As we all know by now, Ash and Meghan finally got their asses together, got themselves married and decided to start getting it on, and if I'm honest, I don't blame Meghan for that, by that time, I'd fallen for Ash quite deeply, and even my love for Puck wasn't enough to not make me envious of Meghan when with Ash, but their relationship had clearly been added to by the time this novella was set and I really liked that Kagawa had ditched the boringness and got right to everything else, the prophecy. As action goes, there was as much good stuff in this novella as there was in The Iron Knight, and if I'm honest, I hadn't realised I'd missed Meghan's stubbornness or her quick-witted humour, not to mention her perspective so much after one 500 page book without her. I found her confidence, independence and her general ambiance to be so fantastic and I was immensely proud of her for all she'd achieved; she'd become a ruler of an entire race, defeated not one but two previous rulers and got the person she loved to actually be with here while she ruled and a character development throughout a series goes, she can take the crown for this series, because her difference from The Iron King was so dramatic, she was almost a different character. Meghan has been proven to be a warrior, a queen and a human, all in retrospect of one another, caring for her kingdom, her family and herself, her husband, her friend and her future, her unborn child and everything. She carries so much weight on her shoulders and it's nice to see that she can hold herself that way throughout this novella. As plots for novella's go, and action, this novella packed it all, with snippets of the following series, with plot twists and bad-ass fighting scenes with a huge snake, I couldn't have been happier to read this.

Yet for me, it was how this novella not only set the scene for such a good door for the spin-off, but how well it ended in itself. I couldn't have been prouder of all the characters for having made it this far, yet I also felt a small pang of loss knowing that this chapter of their lives, this time, was closing and that the sweet, adorable, humourous and adventurous nature of all the characters together in this story was going to end. I never expected to become this attached to a collection of characters from a series I was never that impressed with; there was always things I would have changed if I had the power, and there was always times when I was displeased, but the feeling of leaving Nevernever for a while, the thought of leaving these characters behind, well, it was difficult. This series was such a rollercoaster ride for me, and I honestly don't regret it at all.