Author: Julie Kagawa
Publisher/Year: Harlequin Teen / 2012
Source/Format: Bought / nook
Date Finished: 24 September 2012
Book # 47
Series Reviews: The Iron King, Winter's Passage, The Iron Daughter, The Iron Queen, Summer's Crossing, The Iron Knight
Buy | Borrow | Accept | Avoid
The Short and Sweet of It
Rounding out the Iron Fey series, this novella continues the journey of Meghan and Ash as they solidify their relationship and embark on a new journey.
A Bit of a Ramble
I kind of wish this had been the epilogue to The Iron Knight. Outside of introducing Kagawa's new series, the story seems to have no real point. The rest of this will be spoilerific so beware:
The story centers around the prophecy given by the oracle in one of the earlier books in the series, specifically the one where the oracle asks Meghan why she won't trade her firstborn since he will bring her nothing but pain. Meghan, Ash, and Puck have to find the oracle, with the direction of Grimalkin, in order to hear her proposal regarding the unborn child. Apparently he will either bring the courts together or tear them apart. You know, he could be a savior or he could be a destroyer. As Puck says in the novel, "So it's the ever popular Firstborn Child of Doom prophecy, huh, ice-boy? How very cliche. Why can't it ever be the third nephew twice removed who's fated to destroy the world." I agree.
So far, so good. But then the oracle shows Meghan the future and the really bad thing she's shown is her son killing her brother Ethan. Right there I was like, oh crap this is just a set up for the next series. Sucktastic.
Finally, the progression of Ash from badass to kissass is highly disappointing. There's a difference between loving someone and being obsessed with them, between being loyal and being a lapdog. While Ash definitely needed to grow as a person, he didn't need to revert to Meghan's arm candy. I don't like it when women end up like that, and I don't like it when men do either.
All told, though, this series was exactly what I needed at the time: relatively mindless entertainment with interesting characters and a fantastically believable world.
The more I see you talking about this series, the more I want to read it all the way through, including the novellas! By the way, that snake head on the cover really freaks me out. It's crazy realistic!
ReplyDeleteI seriously love that cover!
ReplyDeleteMy favourite love stories are usually ones where we get to see that the romance is a part of the character's life, not their sole reason for existing. It's too bad about Ash :\
ReplyDelete