Review: Summer's Crossing

by Julie Kagawa
Start Date: 4 October 2011
End Date: 4 October 2011
ebook, 72 pages
Published June 1st 2011 by Harlequin Teen

Summary(from Goodreads):
A Midsummer's Nightmare? Robin Goodfellow. Puck. Summer Court prankster, King Oberon's right hand, bane of many a faery queen's existence—and secret friend to Prince Ash of the Winter Court. Until one girl's death came between them, and another girl stole both their hearts.

Now Ash has granted one favor too many and someone's come to collect, forcing the prince to a place he cannot go without Puck's help—into the heart of the Summer Court. And Puck faces the ultimate choice—betray Ash and possibly win the girl they both love, or help his former friend turned bitter enemy pull off a deception that no true faery prankster could possibly resist.

Summer's Crossing is book No. 3.5 of The Iron Fey series. 
Click here for my review of book No. 1.5, Winter's Passage.
Click here for my review of book No. 2, The Iron Daughter.  
Click here for my review of book No. 3, The Iron Queen.

My Review:
Julie Kagawa can write really good books. This may seem obvious to anyone who has read her Iron Queen series, but that was the first thought that popped into my head when I finished Summer's Crossing. When I was trying to finish up my review for The Iron Queen yesterday, I realized that I'd already forgotten a lot of the finer details. Summer's Crossing was perfect for bringing it all back (just in time for The Iron Knight, yippee!) and it was a fun little story in itself.

I generally have trouble with novellas - they're too long to be a short story, and too short to be a full book - but I had none with Summer's Crossing. Summer's Crossing is very similar to Winter's Passage in that it doesn't contribute much (that I can tell) to the main storyline, but it is great for getting back into the world, and is mainly a side-story. Like Winter's Passage, it was written as an "in-between book."

One thing I was not prepared for, but ended up being one of my favorite parts: the entire novella is from Puck's POV. And Meghan is not in it at all. I just posted review yesterday where I talked about how Meghan is no longer as ridiculous and impulsive as she had been in the previous books, but I can't help but hold a slight grudge against her for the first 2 books. My point being that having a story only about Puck and Ash was lots of fun.

The interaction between Puck and Ash was a pleasure to read about, and it gave a good point of reference as to their friendship/rivalry, so it will be far easier getting into The Iron Knight, since I won't have to be constantly guessing whether they're friends or not (something I had to do a bit in the previous books).

*references to spoilers below, although I don't say anything directly*
The twist was, in hindsight, a bit obvious, although at the time, I had no idea what was coming (but then, I never do, do I?) I knew that Puck would pull off something clever, I just didn't know what it would be.

Overall thoughts: A fun and light "in-between book." Quick and Clever. Recommended to anyone who enjoyed the first three books of the Iron Fey series.