I received this book for free from the library in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: the library
The Iron Daughter
by
Julie Kagawa
steampunk, urban fantasy in a paperback edition that was published by Harlequin Teen on July 20, 2010 and has 359 pages.
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Other books by this author which I have reviewed include The Iron King, The Iron Knight, The Immortal Rules, The Iron Queen, The Lost Prince, Eternity Cure, The Iron Traitor
Second in the steampunk urban fantasy for young adults series, Iron Fey.
My Take
It’s trite. The only clever bits are Kagawa’s integration of industry and computer technology to create the Iron fey and her use of it to build their society and strategies. It does help of course that the fey to whom we are accustomed are made deathly ill by any contact with iron.
Naturally, there are iron-clad rules on subjects of the Winter and Summer Courts falling in love. Naturally, Prince Ash keeps trying to not love Meghan. Naturally, Meghan has to be all teen-agery…read “stupid” about why Ash appears to reject her at the Winter Court. I mean, really, how dumb can she be when Ash has repeatedly told her about the Winter Court and how he must behave so naturally, she gets all emotional when Ash “rejects” her in front of Queen Mab, his brothers, and the entire Court. Duh…
Of course, we have the scene where Meghan gets her comeuppance over the kids at school. We don’t even get to enjoy this scene. There’s all this lead up and….nothing. It’s flat. The best we get is a sentence in which Meghan is simply relieved when the quarterback love-of-her-life from Iron King gives her up to Ash for a dance.
The Story
In the last story, Iron King, Meghan has fulfilled her contract with Prince Ash and returned to the Winter Court which Ash promptly leaves, abandoning Meghan to the machinations of his brothers, Rowan and Sage, as well as the rest of the Unseelie courtiers. At least until it’s time for the Exchange.
An essential, twice-yearly event in the faery courts, the Exchange ends disastrously in war when someone steals the Scepter of the Seasons throwing the weather out of whack in both fey and human lands. It is essential that the Scepter is retrieved before disaster worsens and the Winter and Summer Courts are annihilated leaving the way open to the Iron fey.
Queen Mab will not believe Meghan as to the true identity of the thieves; she is the half-breed daughter of Oberon, King of the Summer Court and no one but she and Prince Ash have even seen the Iron fey. Obviously, Meghan bewitched Ash and killed Sage as part of a Summer plot.
So Ash and Meghan must escape Winter and retrieve the Scepter themselves from the Iron Court.
The Cover and Title
I like the cover. It’s probably the best part with Meghan’s soft profile against winter with wrought-iron-like traceries bordering the edges. The title is certainly accurate although the fulfillment of it is more promise in this story. I suspect it will be completed in book 3.
