Iron Daughter by Julie Kagawa

Publisher's Summary: 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 Take: I truly love the magical, fun and sometimes disturbing world that Julie Kagawa has created for The Iron Fey series.

Iron Daughter begins with Meghan being held prisoner at The Winter Court by Mab, the Unseelie Queen (Ash’s mother). At The Winter Court, I saw a side of Ash that just plain pissed me off. Poor Meghan is all alone at the Court with fae all around who are tempted to harm her, tease her and some are even tempted to eat her! All the while, Ash simply ignores Meghan, and when she does try to speak with him, he’s an outright cruel prick, giving the fae the opportunity to treat her even worse!

Since it’s the time of year for the seasons to change from summer to winter, Oberon, the King of Seelie Court (and Meghan’s biological father), delivers the scepter of the seasons to the Unseelie Court. Oberon tries to get his daughter released, but since Meghan made a foolish deal with Ash to rescue her brother, she must stay at the Court until released. Unfortunately, this means Meghan just plain happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time! Because, while the Unseelie Court is in celebration for the changing of the seasons, a knight of the Iron Court comes to steal the scepter and murders one of the Unseelie princes. Mab doesn’t believe there are Iron Fey, so she thinks that Meghan assisted the Seelie Court in killing the prince and stealing back the scepter.

The Unseelie Court declares war on the Seelie Court and, during the chaos, Ash helps Meghan escape.

There’s another fae queen who’s thrown into the mix, and this new queen once again proves how twisted the fae can be. She is someone I wouldn’t want to cross or come in contact with . . . EVER! Well, now that I think about it, I wouldn’t want to come into contact with any of the fae queens I’ve read about in this series! They are all crazy!

The remainder of the book is a wild journey to find the scepter and, during this wild ride, my attachment for Puck grew; he’s always there to assist and protect Meghan as he’s been from the very beginning. And, while Ash is on his own journey to find the scepter, something horrifying happens to him! And, near the very end of the book, we learn of a huge betrayal . . . and this discovery had me in tears...I was literally sobbing.

What I love most about both Iron King and Iron Daughter is at the end of both books Meghan shows how powerful she is and can be. The ending to Iron Daughter is phenomenal, and I immediately dove into the next book of the series, Iron Queen. This is a series that I would highly recommend!

Purchased with my own money.