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The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa 

LibriDilectio

The Iron Knight, Julie Kagawa (Gr 9+)

Harlequin Teen. Review copy provided by publisher.

“My name—my True Name—is Ashallayn’darkmyr Tallyn.

I am the last remaining son of Mab, Queen of the Unseelie Court. And I am dead to her.

My fall began, as many stories do, with a girl…”

This is the fourth book in the Iron Fey series (The Iron King, The Iron Daughter, and The Iron Queen are the others). The Iron Fey is the kind of series that I really look forward to reading. I have enjoyed every book and can’t wait to read MORE! Usually, I like trilogies best. I want to have the end in sight, even if I like the setting/story/characters, but with this series – the more the better! Keep going Julie Kagawa! I’ll keep reading them!

The previous three installments in this series were narrated by Meghan Chase, the half faery princess daughter of Oberon, King of the Summer Fey. I’m not sure how much to say about her story…if you’ve already read the first three books in the series, you’re fine to keep reading, but if you haven’t you should probably just stop reading this. Seriously. Stop. Actually, just go get a copy of The Iron King and read that instead. Anyway, at the start of this book Meghan is settled into her new role as Queen of the Iron Fey. She’s had to separate from Prince Ash, her true love and our new narrator, because he is full blood fey and would die in the Iron Realm. Meghan believes there’s no way for the two of them to ever be together, but Ash is not giving up.

Ash makes for an interesting narrator. As a reader, I felt like I knew him, but reading a story from his perspective was a lot different than getting to know him through Meghan. He’s a very complicated character. This is best illustrated by his relationships. He loves Meghan, but he still has unresolved issues from an old relationship. His biggest enemy, Puck, is also his best friend and closest ally. In this story we get a lot more back story on Ash and find out that he is even MORE complicated than he seems on the surface! He needs some faery therapy stat to start working out his mountain of issues!

The Iron Knight will be a huge hit with fans of the series. It keeps the plot moving along at a steady clip, shows readers new parts of the Nevernever, reintroduces old characters as well as a few new ones, and has the romantic feel that readers will be looking for. This series continues to be a lot of fun and I can’t wait to see what Julie Kagawa comes up with next!