The Iron Daughter by Julie Kagawa

Title: The Iron Daughter (The Iron Fey #2)
Author: Julie Kagawa
Genre:  Urban Fantasy, Young Adult
Publisher:  Mira Ink ( 15th April 2011)
Blurb:

I’ve been in the palace of the Winter fey for a while now. How long exactly? I don’t know. If I ever get out of here, I might find a hundred years have passed and all my family and friends are long dead.

I try not to think about that, but sometimes I can’t help but wonder.

My name is Meghan Chase

Half Summer faery princess, half human, Meghan has never fitted 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 the prince who betrayed her, 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.

Rating: *** (3 stars)
Review:

The Iron Daughter is the second book in Julie Kagawa’s The Iron Fey series. It continues an indefinite amount of time after the events of The Iron King.

For me this book was much slower than The Iron King. It was still a good and an entertaining read, but it lacked some of the magic (no pun intended) of the first book. There were times when I found myself flicking through the pages, to see if there was anything interesting coming up.

To begin with Meghan really frustrated me in this book. She didn’t seem to have learnt any of the lessons she was told in The Iron King and, for the most part, still seemed to believe that appearances were everything. So there was a lot of angst, which I’m not sure did anything to either develop Meghan’s character or to move the plot forward. However, once she got her act together she was a brilliant, strong, lead. She has the potential to be brilliant in the next book.

The first part of The Iron Daughter didn’t really seem to have much in the way of plot. However, from Part Two onwards the plot was really quite good. There were lots of twists, and we got to revisit some characters from The Iron King. There was, of course, the ever-present threat of the ironbound faeries but I thought Kagawa handled it brilliantly.

On the whole I think this book suffers from second book in the series syndrome – Kagawa tries hard to make this book as magical and interesting as The Iron King but unfortunately falls short. I will, however, be continuing on to The Iron Queen as The Iron Daughter has hints of promise.