Author: Tiffany Reisz
Publisher: Harlequin Mira
Date: July 24th 2012
Pages: 400
Genre: Romance- Erotica
Source: Netgalley

From Goodreads: Notorious Nora Sutherlin is famous for her delicious works of erotica, each one more popular with readers than the last. But her latest manuscript is different—more serious, more personal—and she’s sure it’ll be her breakout book…if it ever sees the light of day.

Zachary Easton holds Nora’s fate in his well-manicured hands. The demanding British editor agrees to handle the book on one condition: he wants complete control. Nora must rewrite the entire novel to his exacting standards—in six weeks—or it’s no deal.

Nora’s grueling writing sessions with Zach are draining…and shockingly arousing. And a dangerous former lover has her wondering which is more torturous—staying away from him…or returning to his bed?

Nora thought she knew everything about being pushed to your limits. But in a world where passion is pain, nothing is ever that simple.

When we last left our heroes…LOTS OF THINGS HAPPENED THAT WILL SPOIL THE FIRST THREE BOOKS IF YOU DON’T TURN AROUND AND STOP READING THIS NOW…Megan had become the queen of The Iron Fey and Ash, her prince, lurver and champion was unable to join her in the Iron Realm. Ash being a fairy and inherently allergic to iron sets out to find a Benadryl strong enough to combat the death rash and the anaphylactic shock caused by exposure to the metal that dominates his beloved’s queendom. If Ash wants to be with his Megan (and he really, really does) he must change the part of him that cannot survive the Iron realms. He must give up his immortality and find a soul. Ash must sacrifice his strength, his magic, his life and become mortal.

I have absolutely loved this series and thoroughly enjoyed it, even the parts of it I didn’t like- which would include this book. Now wait, wait, wait. I didn’t say I hated it. I didn’t say it was awful and I really don’t even have a bunch of reasons to support why I didn’t like it. I have just one- Ash. The story, setting and world were in typical Kagawa fashion- made out of win and covered in awesome. Her imagination astounds and I love living in her world, but Ash…dear Ash was a huge disappointment. He was so very indecisive, wavering, wishy-washy and other words for flake that I found myself drifting whenever he’d start his “questioning” again. I know that what he was doing was a major decision and I could almost understand his constant reflection, but Ash, my Ash- that headstrong, daring, valiant and devoted Unseelie Prince, would never hem and haw his adoring fan into disbelief. I wanted him to SHUT UP because I couldn’t stand the sound of his inner monologue one second more.

Looking back, I think one of the story’s greatest powers has always been Megan’s voice. Megan was Kagawa’s character and she really knew her. Ash, leading man that he is and all, was still merely a supporting character in Megan’s story. When it came down to him flying solo as the star of his own spin off show, it was almost as if Kagawa had no idea who he was. The story was there, and it was lovely, but Ash had absolutely no substance.

“Do not be deceived by the politeness of the fey. Fey are almost always polite. This does not mean they will not happily remove your head.”

Maybe I’m wrong. But what I’m not wrong about is the fact that even with my mild dislike of this last book, this series is absolutely phenomenal and I’m going to miss it with all of my heart. I’m quite fixedly a Kagawa fan and I eagerly await whatever she comes up with next. (Vampires? I haven’t had a sensible and respectable relationship with a vampire in awhile. Oh and little Ethan? All growed up?)

The Iron Queen by Julie Kagawa

Published January 25th 2011 by Harlequin Teen
Goodreads
Website

From Goodreads: 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.

This time, there will be no turning back.

**HEY, this is the third book in the series. If you read this review before reading the other books you will quite possibly spoil it, thereby ruining any chance you had to dwell however briefly, on the plane of extreme awesome.**

Get ready for it, because I’m gonna act like a complete dork over this book. Here we go:

So I love this series, right? It’s been very good so far. But this book? THIS BOOK?! I have found the font from which all awesome springs forth.

It’s so awesome that I need a visual aid to help you really grasp the extent of its awesome. Count the number of times I use awesome in this post, and multiply it by cake and you have the sum total of the awesome that is this book.

Here is the everyday, normal level of awesome that exists in the world:

And here is the awesome that resides in Julie Kagawa’s The Iron Queen:

The war between the Iron Fey and the Summer and Winter courts has just begun, and already the old fey are falling, helpless against this new breed of faery that has the ability to harness the power of iron. Iron is the one thing the old fey fear most; the one thing they are helpless against. Now the false Iron King and his army are sweeping a path of destruction across the Nevernever, killing the land and all faery life in its path. The powers of both courts, Summer and Winter, even when combined, are no match against this new enemy. Time is quickly running out and in desperation Oberon calls Meghan out of her exile in the human world. As a half faery princess, Meghan possess the glamour of the Summer court. But as the one who slayed the true Iron King, she also holds all the power of the Iron fey. She is the only one who can enter the Iron realm unscathed, and the only one who can save the Nevernever.

A swollen crimson moon hovered over the camp that night, rust-red and ominous, bathing everything in an eerie, bloody tint. Snow flecks drifted from a nearly clear sky, rusty flakes dancing on the wind, like the moon itself was tainted and corroding away.

Meghan is unstoppable in this book! She is so determined and in charge. I loved it. She has never been cowardly- how could she be with all she’s been through, but in this book, she really comes into her own. Things learn to both fear, and respect Meghan Chase and it’s awesome to watch her work.

Thus far, we’ve spent very little time in the Iron realm, most of the stories taking place in the human world or in the Summer and Winter courts. This book is so much darker than the previous two because the place our heroes are in borders on nightmarish. As technology and man’s dependence on it have increased, the Iron Fey have grown. Their world is one of twisted metal, acid, mutation and the discarded cast-off gadgets of the human world. It’s wonderfully creepy, and yet so very sad. This place is awful, but a type of Fey do live there and to them it is home. I absolutely loved Kagawa’s worlds. She truly captures everything that is both beautiful and grotesque about the faery world, always reminding us that these beautiful, mythical creatures that we like to pretend lurk just beyond our perception- really just want to eat us.

This book, the third in the series, is by far the best, and by far one of the best adventures I’ve been on this year. I can’t wait to see what the boys get into in The Iron Knight and I would be willing to make a binding bargain with the fey in order to get my hands on it NOW.

I haven’t been Team Ash. Far from it. The whole “I will kill you, but wait I love you, but I’ll still kill you, but stay away from me, come here, I will kill you but wait I love you” thing really made my ass twitch in the beginning. He had way too many red flags. But…..The Iron Queen, which we have already established, holds the bulk of the world’s allotment of awesome, changed me. Ash is such a strong character in this book, so devoted to Meghan and all Daniel Day Lewis “STAY ALIVE! No matter what happens! I will find you!” that it’s unbelievably hot (and it’s ok for me to lust after the boy since he’s countless centuries old). I can now proudly wave my giant foam finger with the rest of you: TEAM ASH.

The Iron Daughter by Julie Kagawa

Published August 1st 2010 by Harlequin Teen
Goodreads
Website

From Goodreads: Half Summer faery princess, half human, Meghan has never fit in anywhere. Deserted by the Winter prince she thought loved her, she is prisoner to the Winter faery queen. As war looms between Summer and Winter, Meghan knows that the real danger comes from the Iron fey— ironbound faeries that only she and her absent prince have seen. But no one believes her.

Worse, Meghan’s own fey powers have been cut off. She’s stuck in Faery with only her wits for help. Trusting anyone would be foolish. Trusting a seeming traitor could be deadly. But even as she grows a backbone of iron, Meghan can’t help but hear the whispers of longing in her all-too-human heart.

Every girl wants to be a princess and for Meghan Chase her dreams came true on her sixteenth birthday. Turns out, she’s the half faery daughter of the king of the Seelie court! She’s a faery princess! She’s…she’s wrestling a snarling changeling who tries to eat her face when she realizes that her baby brother has been snatched by the Fae? Wait, what? This isn’t a Disney movie where the faery princess gets everything she wants and lives happily ever after. This is the realm of the Summer and Winter faery courts, where the Fae behave just as they’re meant to- viciously. She finds herself smack dab in the middle of an age old feud between the two faery courts, neither of which is happy to have a half human in their realms. Then there’s the other court, the Iron Fey, a new bred of faeries with mechanical parts of iron, a metal that’s deadly to the other Fae. And Prince Charming? Well when he pulled her into his arms at the ball and twirled her around the dance floor…he told her he was going to kill her.

Who the hell wants to be a faery princess.

When we last left Meghan, she had fallen madly in love with an assho- I mean Ash, a prince of the rival Winter court. She’d bested the Iron King, the one that was holding her baby brother captive. She even survived an attack by zombies. But perhaps the most reckless thing the daughter of Oberon, King of the Summer Court, did was to obligate herself to a Fae of the Winter Court. One does not make idle promises in the land of the Fae. Every pledge is a binding contract, and she has no choice but to go with Ash to the Winter Queen’s court- where that rat bastard drops her off at his momma’s house, then runs off to distance himself from Meghan “for her own good.” He leaves. She’s freezing. His mother’s a witch. His brother’s an evil asshat and any minute now Meghan is going to either get eaten or turned into an ice sculpture. And still she loves him.

My dear girl. A word of advice. When a man, (even one who’s a devastatingly handsome prince who helped rescue your brother) leaves you “for your own good,” you burn any of his crap he’s left behind and date his best friend. You don’t race across a frozen garden screaming “I LOVE YOU!” whilst surrounded by his relatives who all want to kill you. I’m trying to help you here Meghan. I’m trying to be understanding about your Ash fixation but it just keeps getting more and more hopeless. Ash saves her, leaves her, then almost kills her at least forty times in this book.

We have the reemergence of the Iron Fae, who break into the Winter court and steal the Scepter of the Seasons, a faery relic that is passed between the two courts to usher in the change of the seasons. Without it, spring can not give way to winter and vice-versa and it affects everything, even the human realm. Queen Mab declares war on Oberon, naming him as the thief and the two fairy courts prepare for battle. No one believes Meghan’s claim that the Iron Fae stole the scepter, no one has ever seen them and neither of the monarchs want to believe in the existence of these deadly Fae. To stop the impending war, and clear her father’s name, Meghan sets out to find the scepter and the new Iron King.

We meet so many interesting characters in this book. Leanansidhe was my favorite new addition. She’s a powerful Fae who was banished by Queen Titania and now lives in the human world. She’s so charmingly evil and surprisingly one of the only helpful fae that Meghan has encountered. IRONHORSE IS BACK. AND HE TALKS IN ALL CAPS. Love him. And Meghan runs into an enchanted human man living as a “pet” in Leanansidhe’s house, and something about him bothers her- almost as if she should remember him but the memory is…missing. *BIG GRIN* That there was a teaser.

I freakin’ love this series. I really do. Kagawa’s world will not let you leave and you won’t want to once you start reading it. So it’s probably a bit confusing when I say, that as much as I’m loving this series, I really didn’t get this book. It had SO MUCH going on and it felt packed and busy at times. We had everyone and everything from the last book as well as a slew of new somebodies and somethings. And I liked them, but the story line ran just on the edge of too much. It had too many notes.

Bring on book three!

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Published February 1st 2010 by Harlequin Teen
Goodreads
Website

From Goodreads: 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.

It’s not everyday that a teenager from Louisiana has to travel into the world of the Fae to rescue her little brother. Lots of strange things do happen in Louisiana (If you’ve ever been to the French Quarter, you know this) but faery abductions are rare. Notice I did not deny the possibility that there are faery abductions since that would be a reckless thing to say on my part, as they might be listening and they might decide to prove a point.

Let’s stop a moment and all collectively clap our hands just to be on the safe side.

Meghan has to brave the terrors of the wyldwood, the vicious, ungoverned territory in the world of the fae that separates the Seelie and Unseelie courts. Here she begins to understand the dark, deceptive nature of the Fae and that even the slightest bit of help, comes with a price. An unexpected separation from Puck, her friend and faery guide, leaves Meghan with no choice but to solicit the aid of Grimalkin, a cat like creature with hidden designs who is all to eager to exact a debt from the daughter of the Seelie King. Her arrival in the Summer Court, home of King Oberon, reveals a side of Meghan’s life that she would never dream existed. Here she is only a pawn for the fae, both Seelie and Unseelie, to use in their endless wars amongst themselves. With creatures from every side vying for control of Oberon’s daughter, they have little concern with her quest to free her brother. But they forget, as a powerful faery princess, Meghan can decide her own fate.

This book is so much fun! There’s a great adventure taking place and Kagawa’s world sucks you in until you’re running for your life along side a faery princess! Not a bad turn of events for someone who had just resigned herself to nonchalantly read the story from the safety and familiarity of her hammock. I really wasn’t expecting to enjoy this story as much as I did. The concept seemed rather silly and maybe a bit juvenile until I remembered that THERE IS NOTHING NICE ABOUT FAERIES.

**clap clap**

I loved Meghan for not being an incompetent whiner. This girl holds her own in this strange, exotic world- even if she does lack the sense to NOT fall in love with a guy who has vowed to kill her. Ah, youth. I’m not going to dwell on the fact that the whole falling-in-love-with-the-bad-guy thing is a bit played out, because it’s the running gag in romance right now so I can let it slide. And hey, we’ve been there. That swarthy, overly tattooed bartender with the eyebrow ring? So not a good idea. But for future reference, authors, it’s bad form to love your potential murderer. Just FYI.

I read this book cover to cover in about a second and a half because I was unable to put it down. I was be-spelled, entranced, and ensorcelated (that word copyright 2011 by Life After Jane, not to be used with out express permission of the owner).

“Excuse me, sir!” I gasped as the policeman turned to me. “Could you help me? There’s a gang chasing-”
I stumbled back in horror. The officer regarded me blankly, his jaw hanging slack, his eyes empty of reason. He lunged and grabbed my arm, and I yelped, kicking him in the shin. It didn’t faze him, and he grabbed my other wrist.

Plus 10 points for having zombies.

I loved that Meghan lived in Louisiana, and fought faeries just over the pond (i.e. The MS River) from me since it only involved me further in the story. I’ve got the sequel, The Iron Daughter set to go as my next read. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to run off into the backyard and look for fairies. I’ll let you know what I find, and if we don’t speak again, you’ll know that they, found me.

*Thanks to Donna @ Bites for the enthusiastic review that prompted me to pick this book up.