Book Review: The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Release Date: Available Now
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Pages: 368
Received From: Store Bought

Summary: 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.

My Review: The Iron King was a fun, creative and enchanting faerie book. Julie's writing was beautiful and highly addictive. I couldn't put this book down! I was so eager to find out the outcome of the story. I encountered so many different types of faeries that I lost count, but in a good way. I really liked Meghan's character because she was fearless. Well, not exactly fearless but she handled situations very well. Coming from a world of normalcy and ending up in a unique, out of this world place is hard to swallow. However, Meghan went with the flow and focused on the prize. At first, I had a hard time getting used to a few characters such as Puck and Queen Titania. I just finished reading Wondrous Strange and Darklight by Lesley Livingston and was used to their traits. So, it took me a few chapters to adjust to their different personalities.

My favorite character was definitely the cat which guided Meghan for most of her journey. He was sarcastic and just didn't care about anything. He made the story pretty entertaining and I thought it was cute when he picked on Meghan. Also, the romance between her and the ice prince was interesting. Every time he would show her affection my heart melted but when he turned cold, I wanted him even more, and I'm sure Meghan experienced that as well. So, overall I recommend this book because it's packed with never before heard faeries, action, romance and pure excitement. I seriously cannot wait for The Iron Daughter which is the second installment coming out in August! Oh and interested in knowing more about Julie? Look no further, check out my interview below :)

My Rating: 4.8 out of 5

Author Interview:

Julie Kagawa was born in Sacramento, California. Her love of reading led her to pen some very dark and gruesome stories, complete with colored illustrations, to shock her hapless teachers. The gory tales faded with time, but the passion for writing remained, long after she graduated and was supposed to get a real job. To pay the rent, Julie worked in different bookstores over the years, but discovered the managers frowned upon her reading the books she was supposed to be shelving. So she turned to her other passion: training animals. She worked as a professional dogtrainer for several years, dodging Chihuahua bites and overly enthusiastic Labradors, until her first book sold and she stopped training to write full-time. Julie now lives in Louisville, Kentucky, where the frequency of shark attacks are at an all time low. She lives with her husband, two obnoxious cats, one Australian Shepherd who is too smart for his own good, and the latest addition, a hyper-active Papillon puppy.

For more info on Julie, visit her site:
http://www.juliekagawa.com

1) How old were you when you started writing? I couldn’t give you an exact age, but I do remember writing lots of gruesome, bloody stories in junior high and high school, just to shock my teachers. My poor creative writing instructor probably hated me. :D

2) What inspired you to write The Iron King? I love old, creepy faerie tales, but with the recent influx of faery books, I wanted to write something slightly different. So I go to wondering, what if there was a new type of faery, one that had evolved to today’s world of computers and technology? And then I remembered we already have monsters living in machines: gremlins and worms and bugs, ect. And from that thought, the Iron Fey were born.

3) Are the characters in the books based on someone you know? Ah, no. Well, yes, but no one alive. Most of my characters are a mix of people in books, movies, and (mostly) anime and video games. For instance, one of my characters is a combination of Squall from Final Fantasy VIII (video game) and Heero Yuy of Gundam Wing (anime series). And my villain is a straight up Sephiroth. (I wear my geekdom proudly)

4) What was the hardest part about writing The Iron King? I did the last half of The Iron King for NaNo Wrimo, so the hardest part was finishing those 50,000 words in a month. It was the most frantic 30 days of my life. And, because I learned my lesson so well, I’m doing it again this year for my current book, too.

5) If you had to describe your book in one word, what would it be and why? Surreal, because that’s what I hope comes across to the reader, the whole strangeness of Faery and the creatures that live there.

6) Also, I see you used to be a dog trainer, which breeds were the easiest to train and which were the hardest? Oh wow, I could spend hours on this question. Quick answer: I love training herding breeds like Australian Shepherds and Border Collies, because they’re so smart and quick to learn. Some of the more “challenging” breeds were beagles, basset hounds, dachshunds, and miniature schnauzers. But, every dog and owner is different. I met some really stubborn Australian shepherds, and some dachshunds who would put a border collie to shame.

7) Do you have any other projects you're currently working on? At the moment, I’m finishing up The Iron Queen, the third book in the Iron Fey trilogy. And also a couple super secret projects I can’t tell anyone about yet. ;)

8) What book are you currently reading? An ARC of Darklight by Leslie Livingston. I loved Wondrous Strange, but I have a feeling this one is going to end on a cliffie, ahhhhhhhhhh!

9) Do you have anything to say to all your readers? No author would be worth anything without their fans, so thank you to everyone who loves reading and talking about books. It is readers who inspire me to write.

10) Tell us something about yourself that no one knows about. I am secretly terrified of the deep ocean. I can’t even watch a documentary about deep sea creatures without feeling very uncomfortable. (This is made even more odd by the fact that I lived in Hawaii for ten years.)