Review: Winter's Passage

by Julie Kagawa
Start Date: 6 August 2011
End Date: 7 August 2011
ebook, 59 pages
Published June 1st 2010

Summary (from Goodreads):
Meghan Chase used to be an ordinary girl...until she discovered that she is really a faery princess. After escaping from the clutches of the deadly Iron fey, Meghan must follow through on her promise to return to the equally dangerous Winter Court with her forbidden love, Prince Ash. But first, Meghan has one request: that they visit Puck--Meghan's best friend and servant of her father, King Oberon--who was gravely injured defending Meghan from the Iron Fey.

Yet Meghan and Ash's detour does not go unnoticed. They have caught the attention of an ancient, powerful hunter--a foe that even Ash may not be able to defeat....

Although not long enough to be a novel on its own, Winter's Passage is the perfect transition book between The Iron King and The Iron Daughter. It incorporated just enough review so that I can start The Iron Daughter without worrying about having forgotten important characters or plot points from The Iron King, and it also was a good story in itself. The writing is definitely up to par with the quality of Kagawa's full-length novels.

I appreciated that Winter's Passage set up a good place to start The Iron Daughter. It allows the Iron Daughter to start off at a good place, rather than having to go through the whole journey at the beginning of the novel, which would slow it down considerably.

I would have preferred reading Winter's Passage as a hard copy, but it was fine to read it digitally simply because it was short enough that I didn't get frustrated. If it had been a 200+ page novel, I wouldn't have wanted to put up with having it on my computer. It was a totally different reading experience for me to have the book on my computer than in an actual, physical book. And the constant scrolling.... gah!

The plot didn't really end up being as "epic" as the summary would suggest, just because it wasn't really long enough to have a huge build-up and story arc. Its main purpose was to re-introduce the characters, re-familiarize me with the plot, and provide a jumping-off point for The Iron Daughter - and those purposes it fulfilled wonderfully.

P.S. I started The Iron Daughter last night, and I was pleasantly surprised to find how well it fits in with Winter's Passage. I originally thought that Winter's Passage was published after The Iron Daughter, but I just found out that it was published a few months before. Now that I've started The Iron Daughter, I think Winter's Passage works even better as a transition book.

Want to read another review of Winter's Passage? Small Review convinced me to read it in the first place. Click here for her review.