Review: The Iron Daughter

by Julie Kagawa
Start Date: 7 August 2011
End Date: 10 August 2011
Paperback, 359 pages
Published August 1st 2010

Summary (from 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.

My Review:
The Iron Daughter turned out a lot better than I had expected. Looking back, I see that I did read a couple reviews that said The Iron Daughter was better than The Iron King, but for the most part I was expecting it to be not very good. The beginning was sort of "meh," but it got steadily better until the end, and I am now very excited to read the next in the series, The Iron Queen, especially since other reviewers have said The Iron Queen is the best of the series so far. By the end, I was fully engrossed, and overall I enjoy reading The Iron Daughter. The night after I (stayed up to) finish it, I couldn't fully take myself out of the story, and it even wormed its way into my dreams that night.

Even though I ended up really enjoying The Iron Daughter, there was one flaw that stood out to me. That flaw was Meghan herself. Although I didn't mind it too much when I was in the middle of the story, looking back once I've closed the book, Meghan is a really weak character. Most of the time, even though I understood her situation and where she was coming from as a character (which is always a plus), she didn't think anything through at all. Not only does she repeatedly put herself and others in danger without a second thought, she has no magical abilities (okay, she had the iron magic, which I think is clever foreshadowing meaning she is the true ruler of the iron fey) (Big spoiler, highlight to view), she also can't fight, she had no sense of strategy, and can think of nothing but Ash and Puck. For goodness sakes.

Other than Meghan's weaknesses as a character, the rest of the book was very well done. All of the supporting characters are fantastic - readers of The Iron King (which should be everyone reading The Iron Daughter) will be pleased to hear of the return of Grim and Ironhorse, and the introduction of some new characters like Leanansidhe. Those supporting characters are what give the story life because honestly, Meghan can't hold it up by herself.

Surprisingly, one of my favorite parts of The Iron Daughter was the love triangle. You have to keep in mind, I usually hate *ahem* strongly dislike love triangles. They just bug me, and a lot of the time it just seems like an unnecessary distraction from the plot. (Ironically, the story I'm writing with my friend The Politick on The Bookbird and the Wordgirl revolves around a love triangle.... well, really it's more of a lopsided love star. Anyway, moving on.) But The Iron Daughter has a really, really great love triangle - I don't even know who I'm rooting for most of the time, but I kind of suspect Meghan is going to end up with Ash, based on how things have gone so far (Spoiler, highlight to view).

Final Thoughts: I enjoyed The Iron Daughter a lot more than I was expecting. Although Meghan was a weaker character than I would have liked, the story was really good, and the writing was definitely a step up from The Iron King.