Iron King (Iron Fey, #1)

by Julie Kagawa

[violetpeanut]

This was very much a classic fairy tale - a girl must go on a quest into fairyland to save her younger brother. On the journey she meets fantastical creatures and gets into some tough spots which she gets out of with the help of some new friends.

As a fairy tale i enjoyed the book. The plot moved along nicely and I really liked the characters (Grim was my favorite). Having said that, there was something about this book that just didn't work for me. I can't really put my finger on it. I found myself skipping over paragraphs here and there. I don't know if it was the writing style or something else. In any case, I generally enjoyed the book but could not rate it higher. I'll check out the next in the series.

EDIT:
After thinking a bit more I've realized a couple of things that didn't work for me. First, the main character, Meghan. While she was generally a likeable character there were quite a few eye-rolling moments where she just does stupid things and needs someone to save her. I'm not expecting her to be a warrior princess or anything but some of her reactions to the situations she finds herself in are a little ridiculous.

Also, the love angle. I wasn't thrilled with the whole "love triangle" aspect of the story. I think it's overused in YA books. Also, the relationship between Meghan and Ash goes from 0-60 in 2 pages. There's a lot of sexual tension but there's almost no development of a relationship there.

I still enjoyed the basic story and will check out the next in the series.