I love a good Saturday read, and I love a good romance novel... This is the sequel to The Iron King, and both are Harlequin Teen Fiction. Based on characters from Much Ado About Nothing, we have Puck, Queen Mab, Oberon, and a host of other Fey who are in NeverNever and locked in a dance between the upper Sidhe and Unseelie Court. This is definitely Faery Fiction at it's finest. This is not Shakespeare.
Our plucky romantic lead is played by Meghan Chase, daughter of Oberon, and a member of the Summer Court (a half-human Sidhe) and she is the Juliet to our Romeo, Prince Ash, son of Queen Mab of the Unseelie Winter Court. Meghan is currently a prisoner in the Winter court...
1. It's an up and down love story, and it does require reading the first book in the series. However, it's not predictable and has several nice twists in the story. While the characters might feel predictable, the story is new. There are two lovers who are forbidden to be together, not just for one reason, but for several, and they aren't all clear from the outset. That's one of the nice twists of the story. 1 star.
2. The characters are nicely rounded. The heroine is strong. She spends the entire story discovering that she doesn't need the men to rescue her, she doesn't need magic to rescue her, and she doesn't need her father or her parents to rescue her. All of those things are nice, but everything necessary is inside her. She can choose any one of those things as extras, but who she is inside is enough. That's a message not often found, and is so incredibly rare in a romance novel that I'm going to give this book 2 stars just for having the message at all! She fights the demons, and all of the most important, most strong characters, including powerful characters in the book, are female. Love it. Love it, love it. Julie, you are clever. That the male characters are also nice people is great, too. Don't get me wrong. The two men who are in love with her are nice men. She has a choice between two nice men, and it's not an easy choice. Julie. Again. A great reason for 2 stars.
3. I like that Meghan's story has a happy ending at this point. At the end of book 1, she had a good resolution. At the end of book 2, she has a great resolution. However, it's very obvious to me where Kagawa is headed with this story. I know what the only possible truly happy ending can be. I hope there's a twist I haven't seen yet. I'm pulling for ya, because I've just read book 4 Radiant Shadows in Melissa Marr's series, and I want something new. Give me something new... No, really.
At this point, it's a really solid series. Girls will enjoy it. I did. It's also a clean read, which is hard to find!! There was NO SEX in it!! It gets another star for that. You don't find that very often in teen lit...
4 stars, recommend.
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