ARC Review of The Iron Traitor by Julie Kagawa!

The final entry for this Saturday edition of Friday Reads is for the second book of The Iron Fey: Call of the Forgotten series, The Iron Traitor that was released on October 29th.


The Iron Traitor by Julie Kagawa

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


First of all, I have to say a big thank you to Harlequin Teen for approving my request for an eARC of this via NetGalley!

The Iron Traitor is a sequel and though I'm not sure if it's just a second book or a middle book (is it a series or a trilogy?) it had to keep up to quite high standards for me and thankfully, it did that and then some!

I will try to keep this review as spoiler free as possible, but there might be some spoilers for book 1, even if I'll try to avoid those too. What I'm gonna say from the very beginning... you need to be warned about something, yes THAT cliffhanger ending! I feel like going into the book forewarned about it doesn't take away from the enjoyment of it, but does help a bit dealing with the shock and emotional misery! So thank you, Sam, for the warning about this cliffhanger, I will join your petition for banning them!

Ethan now is still getting used to the fact that he's not alone in his fight against the Fey, and he's not even sure he's so against them anymore. He has Kenzie to fight for and he has found some allies in the Nevernever, Keirran and Annwyl, Razor, even Grimalkin and Puck. When the Lost Prince was mostly about Ethan and his own path and fight, here Keirran has a growing role since Ethan and Kenzie are mostly dragged along trying to help him on his quest to save Annwyl.

The biggest strenght of this book is that it takes everything that was good from book 1 and takes it up a notch. Our quartet has to go into the Nevernever and not just for a short trip, they have to face Titania and her whims and cruelty, they have to fight old beasts and they will probably start something worse than a war, all of that in the name of love. All the characters grown and progress and Keirran in a very disquieting way, and you start not being sure what is really going on with him. There seems to be quite a deal of information we're not privy to and I'm hoping we'll get some more answers in the next book.

The ending... well, you have been warned about the massive emotional cliffhanger from the start, and trust me, it's the kinda cliffhanger that makes you want to be for the next book to come out like yesterday, but we still have a year to wait!!

All in all, a great read very much deserving of 4.5 stars!





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Review of The Lost Prince (The Iron Fey: Call of the Forgotten) by Julie Kawaga!

As the next Friday-Reads-but-not-really  review, here is the pleasant surprise for me of a book about the Fae that I actually loved and that made me want to read another series about the Fae!


The Lost Prince by Julie Kagawa

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Let me start this review stating that I am not a big fan of books about the Fae. If you were to ask me why, I might have a bit of trouble putting into words exactly what is that I dislike, but I am not drawn about books with them as a focus. That is the reason that I still find myself so surprised that I loved this one and even more than after reading it, now I find myself adding the previous series to my TBR list.

The Lost Prince is the first book in a spin-off series of the Iron Fey series and it was one of those welcome surprises for me. Well, a book about the Fae that I like? That's always a surprise for me!

Ethan is the main character in this book and with his dislike of the Fae I think we connected great right from the start! He is a teenager and his perspective was written so well. He's full of angst and prejudiced against the Fae due to his experiences in the past and how he feels he has lost her sister to Them. He has the Sight, but has become an expert on ignoring Them and protecting himself and his family, or so he thought. He is angry at the Fae and at the world and has built a persona that keeps everyone at arm's lenght so they can't get tangled with the Fae.

At the start of the book he is starting in a new school and things start going south very early on. With a reputation partly undeserved and his own desire to push people away, things aren't easy for him. And despite all his precautions, he finds himself in the middle of Fae affairs, and not only that but someone has decided that they want to get to know him. That someone is none other than Kenzie, a girl that won't take no for an answer and that manages to push all the right buttons for him.

Ethan and Kenzie end up in the Nevernever, the Fae world, trying to hide from a new and nasty kind of faeries and there we encounter quite a few new characters (old friends for those that have read The Iron Fey books, of course) like the encounter with Grimalkin. He is a talking cat that reminded me so much of the Chesire Cat in Alice in Wonderland! Elusive, irritating and so very cat-like! Meghan as the Iron Queen and still being very much Ethan's sister, Ash, Puck... it was a pleasure meeting them all for the first time, and I felt quite drawn to read their stories. I guess for fans of the original series it must feel different and they might want more from their fave characters, but I'm quite happy I jumped into this spin-off as I did, cause I can appreciate all the new characters more.

Keirran was quite a shock for Ethan, since despite being his same age, he's Meghan & Ash's son and so his nephew. He also became an ally even if he had his own agenda. There seems to be more to Keirran than we see at first, and despite his good guy presence, there's something disquieting about him.

There's adventure, there's romance and it's the slow burning one and so it is quite a great first book that not only introduce us to a new world but also stands well on its own with plenty of action and an incomplete resolution to the problem of the Forgotten Fey.

A great first book and very much deserving of 4 stars!





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