The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Megan 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.

Stars: 5

I was incredibly surprised with this book. When I first saw it I thought nothing of it, it didn't interest me in the least. But after stumbling upon a few good reviews on it, I decided, hey, why not give it a go.

The beginning didn't impress me, it was so...depressing. Meghan, the main character, is ignored by her family except her four year old brother, humiliated in school--twice... is constantly made fun of for her rough lifestyle, gets left out in the rain, and she only has one friend. It was depressing, and I couldn't help but wonder if anything good was going to happen in this poor child's life.

But, after the beginning things got considerably more interesting. Things start getting weird when her prankster best friend, Robbie, starts acting protective and dark around her. Then her brother is 'attacked' by her dog, Beau, although he claims Beau was protecting him from the dark man in his closet.

As if this weren't enough, she comes home after being passed out in a nurses office to find her mother covered in blood, and her brother, Ethan, saying she slipped. When her step-father gets home, he takes her to the hospital, and Meghan is left alone with Ethan. Ethan gets very hungry, and upset that she won't get him food bites Meghan's leg. Right then, her friend Robbie comes in, and that, my friend, is where the truly strange things start happening.

 I hate books that move along the storyline to quickly, and what I hate worse is books that make dramatic changes quickly, for no reasons. I have read both these kinds of books, and I am extremely pleased to say this was not one of them. The romance was beautiful, not to much, and yet there was some in it. There were no random things out of place, everything worked it's way into the story.

It ended in a cliffhanger! Well, not a huge one, but one none the less, and now I'm dying to get my hands on The Iron Daughter, next in the series!

I am a huge fan of this book and am super-psyched to read the next one.

TOODLES

xxAvalon