(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)

Half Summer faery princess, half human, Meghan has never fit in anywhere.  Deserted by the Winter prince she thought loved her, she is prisoner to the Winter faery queen.  As war looms between Summer and Winter, Meghan knows that the real danger comes from the Iron fey—ironbound faeries that only she and her absent prince have seen.  But no one believes her.

Worse, Meghan’s own fey powers have been cut off.  She’s stuck in Faery with only her wits for help.  Trusting anyone would be foolish.  Trusting a seeming traitor could be deadly.  But even as she grows a backbone of iron, Meghan can’t help but hear the whispers of longing in her all-too-human heart.

Once I picked up The Iron Daughter and started reading it, I knew I wouldn’t be able to stop until I was done.  Not only is it even more spellbinding than the first book, The Iron King, the characterization is brilliant and the plot is superb.  Unlike many second books, it does not suffer from Book 2 Disease.

In the beginning, Meghan manages to frustrate me as she pines for Ash, openly displaying her feelings for him at court.  Ash had told her emotions were a weakness at court, so she should have hidden them, but she did not.  What stopped me from hurtling the book at the wall was the fact that soon she figured out how to hide her feelings.  I can also forgive her because Ash is her first love and your first love makes you do incredibly stupid things.

Despite this temporary nuisance, there is really nothing much to complain about.  The plot zips by and I flipped through the pages as fast as I could.  There is something about Julie Kagawa’s writing that keeps you spellbound and makes you (quite literally) gasp for breath after you’ve finished the last page.  And of course her true talent lies in leaving readers desperate for the next book, if only to find out who Meghan chooses: Puck, her best friend or Ash.

I give this book 5/5 stars.

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