review of The Iron Queen by Julie Kagawa:

♥ Summary: My name is Meghan Chase.

I thought it was over. That my time with the fey, the impossible choices I had to make, the sacrifices of those I loved, was behind me. But a storm is approaching, an army of Iron fey that will drag me back, kicking and screaming. Drag me away from the banished prince who's sworn to stand by my side. Drag me into the core of conflict so powerful, I'm not sure anyone can survive it.

This time, there will be no turning back.

♥ Favorite Line(s):
"Goodfellow?” ****** stared at Puck nervously. “Robin Goodfellow?”
“Oh, look at that, he’s heard of me. My fame grows.” Puck snorted and leaped off the roof. In midair, he became a giant black raven, who swooped toward us with a raucous cry before dropping into the circle as Puck in an explosion of feathers. “Ta-daaaaaaaaaa."- I. Love. Puck.

♥ My thoughts:
I'm finding this review very hard to write. There are parts of this book that made me ache for the next one, parts I wanted to re-read again and again because I love them so much. Then there were parts that made me want to throw this book across the room and never speak of it again. So you see, I am in quite the review pickle. But alas, I will try, using my favored new method of reviewing to explain my feelings for The Iron Queen.

The lovely bits>

• My dear Puck> Puck is the HBIC as far as I'm concerned and I still loved him dearly in this installment. He's sarcastic, has a bloodthirsty streak, and is my beautiful ginger prince. Whenever I felt the plot was too heavy, good ol' Puck would swoop in with a hilarious one-liner to get everything moving again. While not the main focus of the love interests anymore, he's a necessity for the story to flow the way it does and brings something fun to every party and battle. And a weapon.
• Meghan's progression> In The Iron Daughter, Meghan Chase was still relying on others to fight the majority of her battles. She was almost in the way at some points, which is why I loved her much more in The Iron Queen. She steps up to the plate and becomes a truly great heroine. She learns what sacrifice truly means and begins to look at the general welfare rather than cling to personal loyalties as hard as she did in the first two books.

• The ending> French the llama, guys. I have never read an ending in which nothing happened the way I wanted it to and I still loved it. Until now. I had a very clear picture in my mind of where I wanted the story to go. Nothing went the way I wanted, yet Kagawa weaved such a great closure that I didn't care one bit. The last few pages left the plot off in such a great place for the next book that I cannot wait to read The Iron Knight.

The not-so-lovely bits>

• The plot> Now don't get me wrong, much of the plot was fan-friggin'-tastic. I loved almost everything about the actual story, but some parts left me feeling let down. At points toward the middle of The Iron Queen I experienced some deja vu. I felt like I'd read entire chapters before in the previous books. Some of the fighting and dialogue was a little too repetitive for me and made it hard to get through a large portion in the middle of the book.

♥ Summing it up:

I really am enjoying this series and the world that Julie Kagawa has created. While this wasn't my favorite book ever, I do recommend it for fans of faeries, fights, and forbidden love.

*More like 3.75, but I don't have a graphic for that. *le shrug*

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Happy Thursday!

"Can't Go Back Now"-The Weepies,