The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa

The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Released on October 25, 2011

http://www.theironfey.com/

To cold faery prince Ash, love was a weakness for mortals and fools. His own love had died a horrible death, killing any gentler feelings the Winter prince might have had. Or so he thought.
Then Meghan Chase—a half human, half fey slip of a girl—smashed through his barricades, binding him to her irrevocably with his oath to be her knight. And when all of Faery nearly fell to the Iron fey, she severed their bond to save his life. Meghan is now the Iron Queen, ruler of a realm where no Winter or Summer fey can survive.
With the unwelcome company of his archrival, Summer Court prankster Puck, and the infuriating cait sith Grimalkin, Ash begins a journey he is bound to see through to its end—a quest to find a way to honor his vow to stand by Meghan's side.
To survive in the Iron Realm, Ash must have a soul and a mortal body. But the tests he must face to earn these things are impossible. And along the way Ash learns something that changes everything. A truth that challenges his darkest beliefs and shows him that, sometimes, it takes more than courage to make the ultimate sacrifice.(from Harlequin Teen)

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I did not want to see this series come to an end, it has become one of my favorites. Julie really knows how to pull the reader’s imagination beyond the limit, to places you never knew you could picture in your mind. Since the ending of The Iron Queen I was eagerly anticipating this book but then at the same time not wanting to rush to finish it.

The Iron Knight begins with Ash starting on his quest to fulfill his promise to Meghan and find a way to be together again and survive in the Iron realm. There is quite a bit of brooding from Ash in the beginning of the novel, the first fifty pages at least, but with the help of Puck’s great sense of humor it goes by pretty quickly and once Ash’s whole group comes together things begin to get a lot better, darker and exciting. I was thrilled to get to a deeper look into Ash’s personality, you really get to know him well in this novel, his fears, his inner thoughts and all those little things that he thinks about when he’s got that quiet thoughtful look. I also loved that we get to know a lot about his past, the stuff that he always kept hidden, and his friendship with Puck. It was definitely fun to read.

The additional characters made this story very interesting, they got me all worked up every now and then bringing up feelings of anger, frustration and jealousy, definitely lots of jealousy. This book felt totally different for me, even though it’s part of the same series it was a whole new adventure, creepier and darker, with great details that let your imagination roam wild. That’s what I loved about it the most, it keeps you interested the whole way through because like with the others you never know what kind of horrible situations Julie will make her characters go through next.  The ending was everything that I hoped for, I wouldn’t have changed a thing. It left me perfectly satisfied, elated. I didn’t want to let it go and I could definitely take a few more books from this series, even one that’s all about Puck’s future adventures(because I’m TEAM ASH!!). I loved the spin that Julie added to the fey mythology in this series and I’m eagerly looking forward to see what she’ll do with the vampires next.