The Iron Fey Series by Julie Kagawa

image from LibraryThing

I am always intrigued at the way imaginary lands creatures carry over from one story to another. This series by Julie Kagawa is an excellent example of that.

image from LibraryThing

The first book - The Iron King - takes place partly in the our world and partly in the world of Faery - where King Oberon has had a half faery daughter named Meghan who figures out on her 16th birthday when she figures out her 4 yr old brother has been switched with a changeling.  As the Faery sight begins to emerge she realizes that her great friend Robbie is actually her protector Puck or Robin Goodfellow...sound familiar?  It's Midsummers night dream tied in to today's world.

But that isn't the only twist - the faery world of NeverNever is slowly dying due to a strange new fey of iron. Iron is the killer of all faery creatures - one touch is deadly.  Who knew?!   And there is a king aiming to take over the entire world of NeverNever.

image from LibraryThing

Meghan crosses path with Ash, the hunter from the winter court and sworn enemy of Puck and Grimalkin the Cait Sith (that is a fancy way of calling him the cheshire cat from Alice). This group comes together to defeat the Iron King and in so doing Meghan finds a part of herself she had no idea existed.

Iron Daughter picks up right where Iron King ends.  I love books that do that! 

image from LibraryThing

But - I really felt like each of the next books didn't have quite the build up the first one did. As a reader, the excitement Meghan felt as she was discovering her identity was gone. Instead, it was a slow smoldering romance. I wasn't as interested...but I can't seem to stop in the middle of a series. I wanted to know how Meghan overcomes the obstacles that her father and Mab the Winter Queen throw in front of her. I wanted to know if her relationship grows with Ash and if he decides what his real priorities are and if he and Puck continue the feud.  And probably most importantly I wanted to know how Meghan defeats the false Iron King.

And that took us through the next two books. 

The Iron Knight was completely different. Ash was the main character on a quest to become human so he could be with Meghan and the Iron Fey.  When I started this one I just wanted it to be over. It felt like the final season of ER - I just really didn't care anymore - but I had put enough time in that I didn't want to quit.  At least that is how I felt at the beginning. It did draw me in. I did care about Ash and Puck. I really didn't like Ariella though.  But - my favorite characters were Grimalkin and The Big Bad Wolf.  They were great!  

So - I really liked these books. I thought they were interesting and a new twist on the fairy tales we know. Great ideas!