The Iron Queen by Julie Kagawa is About to Ascend her Throne

 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.

THERE WILL BE NO TURNING BACK.

THE IRON QUEEN

February 2011

In less than twenty-four hours Meghan Chase will be seventeen. Although, technically, she won’t actually be turning seventeen. Having spent the past year in Faery gives her the benefit of not aging.

However, Meghan’s been banished from Faery for choosing her dark prince, Ash, over the will of her powerful father, Oberon, King of the Summer court. Now Meghan, her winter prince and prankster best friend Puck try settling into a normal human life, first near New Orleans and later in a magical cottage provided by Leanansidhe, Queen of exiles.

But her time in this makeshift home, and more important her time with Ash, doesn’t last as the feys of Summer, Winter and Iron courts soon track them down. She thought they’d left Faery behind forever, but pressing matters cause the three exiles to be summoned to war.

But her time in this makeshift home, and more important her time with Ash, doesn’t last as the feys of Summer, Winter and Iron courts soon track them down. She thought they’d left Faery behind forever, but pressing matters cause the three exiles to be summoned to war.

A new alliance is made, along with a few contracts, of course, and Meghan, half Summer faery princess, half human, is pressed to choose Fey over her mortal beginnings. Will she abandon her human heart for an iron will that will help her survive?

For as Meghan Chase can confirm—in real life, unlike books, faery tales don’t necessarily have happy endings

(above, including title, are marketing copy)

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Details from Amazon
Author Julie Kagawa
Reading level: Young Adult
Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Harlequin; Original edition (January 25, 2011) 
Iron Fae Website
Provided by publisher through netgalley.com. No remuneration was made.

I finished reading the Iron Queen back in November while my husband was making breakfast. I was glad he was down stairs because I was crying through the last few chapters. The marketing copy is right, there are no sure happy endings in YA Paranormal romance. Usually the end is not entirely tragic, and in this case it isn't either. Thank goodness, or I would have been crying still when he brought breakfast into the room. I originally posted this review on November 13, but as Julie's book is about release I am thrilled to have an opportunity to re-post my review.

I read this book thinking of various ways in which I could critique it, YA appropriateness, Character development, plot, timing, emotional realism, etc.,

YA Appropriateness:
At Harlequin, unlike several other publishers, they have seemed to realize that teenagers have sex, or if they aren't having it they are wrestling with the concept. That is certainly the case in this book. For that reason, as well as some of the more gruesome violence, I would put this at the older end of the young adult scale. After all pretending that teens are not at least wrestling with sexuality is not going to make t disappear.


Emotional realism
Emotional realism doesn't really work here. How would a teen behave in these circumstances? Events in Meghan's life may certainly cast the important aspects into high relief. And the characters react to that immediacy, but in real life, I have no idea how they would go about dealing.  I know that at 16/17 I wouldn't have had the chops to go through the circumstances that Meghan has to conquer. 

And, I wonder if we can expect any sort of realism in a "grown-up" faery tale; after all, in a place where natural laws have been displaced, emotional reality may be an unrealistic (ironic word choice) standard.

The romance between Ash and Meghan Chase (why are so many characters in paranormal lit. named "Ash?") is compelling and filled with the teenage angst imagined of Romeo and Juliet or visualized from Twilight. As with many YA books of the moment we have a love triangle, independent, headstrong girl, Meghan; steady, upstanding citizen guy, Ash; and mischievous "puck-like" Puck. And, again, thinking realistically is not realistic in a story built on the suspension of reality.

Plot and Timing:
This plot is pretty direct. The main plot is saving the world of the fae from the encroachment of human technology and its detritus. An obviously green story line about how our technology and plastic, smelted ores, cars, etc., is destroying the world and how the technology is creeping in to make everything in magic reductive to a scientific theory.  Since Julie Kagawa grew up in California and Hawaii, green is probably something she comes by naturally. One look at the highways of California, and areas that even 40 years ago were orchard and wood and which are now strip malls, condos or high tech office buildings, makes one understand the value of some sort of environmental awareness. And, there is nothing like life on an Island to make one see that as well. So, I don't think Kagawa is capitalizing on the current green trend, but the plot is well timed. Yet, it certainly gives one a reason to think about our habits.

The more secondary plot is reunifying Meghan and the man she thought of as her dad, missing for many years while in the park with Meghan. Previously Meghan had discovered him, vacuously playing the piano in a place between human reality and faery, being kept as a pet by Leanansidhe. the queen of the exiled fae.

Yet a third plot is the resolution of the love triangle, her romance with Ash and her friendship with Puck. Remember Puck and Ash may look like teens but they are hundreds, maybe even over a thousand years old.

The pace is pretty quick. I felt a bit of a lag as the group journeyed towards their destiny, but if one can call a lag "short" this one was and from there the pace once again moved at just the right speed and in this series I never felt the plot rushed.  Interaction between characters advances at least one of he story lines. Nothing swoops in at the end to change the outcome, kiss it and make it go away. 
Character Development:

I protested in the last book about Meghan's sometime wimpy, waiting-for-the-white-knight attitude. In this installment in the series we see she has evolved, and is not as self-involved as she was. Both she and Ash note it several times. While she longs for her previous life, and so wants to go home, she recognizes that it would endanger  them.

May I mention that her existence prior to her discovery that she was half-fae,  her life may not have been paranormal, but in many respects it was surreal. Her mother sort of floated through life, noone else saw her best friend and she had never been to his house, and her step-father couldn't see her to such an extent that one would think he had been bespelled. This may have been due to unwitting interaction with the fae world or it may be just how it was in Ms. Kagawa's head.

And, I found the characters to be pretty well developed and fairly complex. They are not the cookie cutter "heroine and hero" to which we have become accustomed.


All in all, it was hard to find many flaws in the book. Throughout it tips its hat to other classics in the Fantasy-YA world, LOTR, Twilight, Romeo & Juliet. These homages are nice; instead of denying the influence of her reading, Kagawa recognizes and salutes it. My only complaints: it was not long enough, and I wanted it to become an hot Adult PNR, Darn!

If I had a rating system, this would have earned my highest score!