Tuesday, 22 February 2011

Review & Interview: The Iron King by Julie Kagawa (Blog Tour)

For Review: Mira Ink.  Published January 2011
From Goodreads: Meghan Chase has a secret destiny—one she could never have imagined…

Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan's life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school…or at home.

When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she's known is about to change.

But she could never have guessed the truth—that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she'll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil no faery creature dare face…and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.


I have been looking forward to reading this one for ages.  I kept reading great reviews for it so as soon as I heard it was being published in the UK I knew I had to read it straight away.

The story is centered around Meghan.  Her father disappeared when she was young and her mother has now remarried.  She doesn't really fit in at school, her mother and step-father seem oblivious to her, but she dotes on her baby brother Ethan.  But when he begins acting strange,  Meghan's whole life is turned upside down and she learns the truth of who she really is...

I really liked Meghan.  I thought she was easy to relate to and I like how determined she is.   As for Puck and Ash - I loved them both and no I cannot decide who I like the best!  Puck is fun and I loved his humour, whereas Ash is very mysterious and brooding - I found myself very intrigued by him!  And I adored Grimalkin - for me he pretty much stole every scene he was in!

I also really loved the mythology and the idea behind the faery world.  It felt unique and original and I really enjoyed discovering it all alongside Meghan.  So much happens in the book - I thought it all  felt rather epic actually - and I really enjoyed the ending.  It sets up the next book perfectly!

I went into this one expecting more of a paranormal book but (for me at least) it was more fantasy - not a bad thing - it just made it different then I was expecting.  It kind of reminded me of a cross between the films The Princess Bride and Labyrinth but with faeries!  I really liked that it was dark but also had humour in it, and Julie Kagawa has a very descriptive writing style that makes the faery world come alive.

I'm really looking forward to reading  The Iron Daughter.  I have a few suspicions for what I think may happen in future installments so I am very excited to find out if I am right!  And, of course,  I'm eagerly awaiting more Ash and Puck!




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As part of her UK blog tour, Julie Kagawa kindly took the time to answer a few of my questions...

How did you come up with the idea for the Iron Fey series?
Faeries, the old, ancient fey, not the glittery winged sprites, have always fascinated me. But I wanted to write a book that was different than other faery books. So I began thinking: what are the fey afraid of? The answer, in most ancient mythos, is iron. Faeries can’t stand the touch of iron and steel. So, what if there was a new type of fey that had evolved with progress over the years? What if they weren’t only immune to iron, their existence was slowly poisoning and corrupting the lands of the traditional fey? And I realized we already have “monsters” in machines: gremlins, bugs, viruses, ect. And from that thought, the Iron fey were born.

How many books are planned? And can you give us any hints for what's in store for the characters?
There are four books in the Iron Fey series. And no hints from me, lol! That would just be spoilery, and who wants that? ;-)

I really loved Puck and Ash! Do you have a favourite character from the series?
I have to say my favourite character is Ash, because I have a thing for dark, brooding bad boys who can wield pointy weapons. But Grimalkin runs a very, very close second.

What is a typical writing day like for you? Do you have any 'must haves' before you can sit down to write?
I try to write at least 1000-1200 words a day. And I must have caffeine while writing, otherwise I turn into a snarling, cranky monster and all my characters die.

Are there any YA books you can recommend? Perhaps something you read recently that really blew you away?
I love Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder (mostly because of a certain dark assassin). I just finished Firelight by Sophie Jordan and really enjoyed it. And I devour anything by Neil Gaiman, who is my author hero.

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Thanks Julie! I loved Grimalkin too:)

To find out more about The Iron King and for information on forthcoming releases from Mira Ink you can visit their website http://www.miraink.co.uk/

Also, Mira Ink and the Sunday Express have teamed up to give away 1,000 free eBooks of The Iron King - see here for details.

4 comments:

TheBookAddictedGirl said...

This is brilliant! I love this whole blog-tour idea, and I loved the review and interview.
Brilliant, and I soo badly want to read this series!

Unknown said...

Hello, sorry to bother you, I'm trying to set something up and I'm looking for UK Bloggers. It seems that ARC (Advance Reading Copy) book tours are becoming increasingly US restricted and I am trying to gather a large amount of people exclusively from the UK to set up our own ARC tours. Of course, I need a lot of people of I'm going to prise some good ARC's off of the Publisher's grubby hands...
If you're interested please visit me!

http://comacalm.blogspot.com/2011/02/calling-all-uk-bloggers.html

Anonymous said...

Great review and it was lovely to read what Julie had to say. I have this series sitting on my bookshelf waiting for me to finish up with my review books :)

Jéssica said...

The world that Julie built suck me in and keep me hooked. I looooooove this series!

Thank you for the great review and for the interview :D

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