Iron King by Julie Kagawa



Goodreads 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.

I forgot how I first got introduced to this book, but thank goodness I did! I've always been interested in the fey, the dangerous, cruel immortals instead of the fluttering pixies with glowing wings. Now, if you know you're urban mytholygy, all fey have an aversion to iron, right? Julie Kagawa plays on this legend and uses her imagination to dream up the Iron Fey, a new race of faeries who are made from the new dreams of mortals, dreams of science and technology. 

When the journey starts, it's Meghan's sixteenth birthday, a big thing for all teens. She swears this is going to be the day she gets her crush to notice her, but instead, she gets something she never thought possible. The knowledge of her true heritage, the entrance to a whole new world where Summer and  Winter are enemies and where there are many, many things that want to destroy her.

What I didn't catch at the beginning of this book, and what made me face-palm myself, was that her best friend is the one legendary faery that is not royalty, and yet is still so old. A few chapters in, I was hooked and Meghan was already running away from human-eating trolls and escaping death by a millimeter, not to mention meeting a faery cat that reminds me suspiciously of the Cheshire Cat. Don't tell him I said that. When reading this you won't be bored what with everything going on here and there.

Meghan's world is suddenly turned up. Side. Down. Especially when she discovers that her father wasn't her father, that she's half faery princess, that her best friend isn't human, that she's falling in love with someone who can never be with her and who's supposed to be your enemy. It's bound to happen.

This book is one of my favorites for many reasons. The characters will make you love them no matter how infuriating they are, you'll start to actually feel like you're in Arcadia, or the iron realm, and you'll experience the exact same emotions along with Meghan. I was so into this book that I read it in one sitting and into the night.

After reading this, you'll be making your parents buy you the next book, Iron Daughter, just to find out what happens with Ash, Robbie (insert wink), and Meghan! Plus there'll be the usual check-under-your-bed-for-bogies and look-at-computers-weirdly routine that you'll be experiencing every time you think of this book!

Pages: 363
Series: Iron Fey Book 1
Genre: Paranormal/Romance/Fantasy
Rating: 5 stars

"I glanced up and found his face inches from mine, his eyes searingly bright in the shadows of the room. Time seemed frozen around us."