The Iron Warrior by Julie Kagawa

The Iron Warrior by Julie Kagawa
(Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads)Also by this author: Soldier, Legion
Published by Harlequin on November 1st 2015
Genres: Action & Adventure, Fairy Tales & Folklore, Fantasy & Magic, General, Love & Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 304
Format: Paperback

The Iron Prince—my nephew—betrayed us all. He killed me. Then, I woke up. Waking after a month on the brink of death, Ethan Chase is stunned to learn that the Veil that conceals the fey from human sight was temporarily torn away. Although humankind's glimpse of the world of Faery lasted just a brief moment, the human world was cast into chaos, and the emotion and glamour produced by fear and wonder has renewed the tremendous power of the Forgotten Queen. Now she is at the forefront of an uprising against the courts of Faery—a reckoning that will have cataclysmic effects on the Nevernever. Leading the Lady's Forgotten Army is Keirran himself: Ethan's nephew, and the traitor son of the Iron Queen, Meghan Chase.To stop Keirran, Ethan must disobey his sister once again as he and his girlfriend, Kenzie, search for answers long forgotten. In the face of unprecedented evil and unfathomable power, Ethan's enemies must become his allies, and the fey and human worlds will be changed forevermore.

I don’t know you guys… I feel like my interest and investment in this book was seriously waned by the fact that I had read the previous book 2 year ago. Which makes me horribly sad. I mean… it took me over a week to read this!

I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy the final book, I just think I struggled to be as invested in the story and the characters as I had the previous books. Admittedly, I will say that from the first book in this spin-off series, I wasn’t as invested in these characters as I was the Iron Fey series. I liked Ethan, but I didn’t love him and so that was always a bit of a struggle for me with this series anyway.

In this final installment, Kagawa had left us with a pretty dramatic ending to book 2, so I was excited to see what kind of a ride she was going to take us on, and I was happy to see that it was filled with all kinds of drama and adventure. Which you know Julie is amazing at!

Have you read the other books? No? I’m going to try to do this without revealing anything from the previous books but be warned… I might slip.

So Ethan has to deal with the ultimate betrayal from his nephew Kieran… when I say ultimate, I mean ultimate. However there are extenuating circumstances surrounding this and Kieran is now leading the Forgotten Queen and her army right into the Never Never to overthrow the courts, including his mother, family and friends. He no longer cares about them, focused solely on getting his new queen back on the throne in charge of all fey.

Kagawa does relationship dynamics incredibly well and this series is no exception. She deftly explores the relationships between Ethan and Kenzie, Meghan, Ash and of course Kieran and despite there being so many, they are all layered and complicated and really, really well done. Plus it was wonderful to see so many of the characters from the Iron Fey series make appearances (Ash & Puck!)

I am definitely curious to see if, because of the way that this book wrapped up, if we might possibly see something (a series) in the future surrounding Kieran and his new circumstances. If so, I’d definitely pick it up, simply because I truly loved him from the start (more than Ethan dare I admit) and I feel like where his life might be headed could definitely use a wrap-up!

If you love paranormal YA and you haven’t read the Iron Fey series it is a must… and you’ll definitely want to grab this series once you finish that one. Kagawa is one of my favorite authors, she tells amazing stories filled with action, adventure and characters that you’ll find yourself completely invested in. The Iron Fey Series definitely remains at the top of my “you all must-read this” list! So get to it!

About Julie Kagawa

Julie Kagawa, the New York Times bestselling author of the Iron Fey and Blood of Eden series was born in Sacramento, California. But nothing exciting really happened to her there. So, at the age of nine she and her family moved to Hawaii, which she soon discovered was inhabited by large carnivorous insects, colonies of house geckos, and frequent hurricanes. She spent much of her time in the ocean, when she wasn’t getting chased out of it by reef sharks, jellyfish, and the odd eel.
When not swimming for her life, Julie immersed herself in books, often to the chagrin of her schoolteachers, who would find she hid novels behind her Math textbooks during class. Her love of reading led her to pen some very dark and gruesome stories, complete with colored illustrations, to shock her hapless teachers. The gory tales faded with time (okay, at least the illustrations did), but the passion for writing remained, long after she graduated and was supposed to get a
real job.

To pay the rent, Julie worked in different bookstores over the years, but discovered the managers frowned upon her reading the books she was supposed to be shelving. So she turned to her other passion: training animals. She worked as a professional dog trainer for several years, dodging Chihuahua bites and overly enthusiastic Labradors, until her first book sold and she stopped training to write full time.

Julie now lives in Louisville, Kentucky, where the frequency of shark attacks are at an all time low. She lives with her husband, an obnoxious cat, an Australian Shepherd who is too smart for his own good, and a hyper-active Papillion.

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