Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa

Publisher's Summary: Ash, former prince of the Winter Court, gave up everything. His title, his home, even his vow of loyalty. All for a girl… and all for nothing.

Unless he can earn a soul.

To cold, emotionless faery prince Ash, love was a weakness for mortals and fools. His own love had died a horrible death, killing any gentler feelings the Winter prince might have had. Or so he thought.

Then Meghan Chase—a half human, half fey slip of a girl— smashed through his barricades, binding him to her
irrevocably with his oath to be her knight. And when all of Faery nearly fell to the Iron fey, she severed their bond to save his life. Meghan is now the Iron Queen, ruler of a realm where no Winter or Summer fey can survive.

With the (unwelcome) company of his archrival, Summer Court prankster Puck, and the infuriating cait sith Grimalkin, Ash begins a journey he is bound to see through to its end— a quest to find a way to honor his solemn vow to stand by Meghan’s side.

To survive in the Iron realm, Ash must have a soul and a mortal body. But the tests he must face to earn these things are impossible. At least, no one has ever passed to tell the tale.

And then Ash learns something that changes everything. A truth that turns reality upside down, challenges his darkest beliefs and shows him that, sometimes, it takes more than courage to make the ultimate sacrifice.

My Take: OK. So the end to Iron Queen…when Meghan totally breaks Ash’s heart (OMG she pissed me off!!!) … was so hard for me to handle that I immediately dove right in to Iron Knight. In Iron Queen I wanted to scream at Meghan and tell her …”Let Ash die with you!!!” Or, I’d be happy with just saying to her, “Who cares about Nevernever, just stay with ASH!!!” I know, I know… she HAD to do what she did in Iron Queen to play the roll that was obviously her destiny and for Iron Knight to come about! I was truly amazed that Ash was so determined to make it back with her! But he made a promise to return with Meghan, and a promise made by the fae cannot be broken…or if they choose to break a promise, they must suffer serious consequences.

Since Puck won my affection back again with his sense of humor and with everything he was willing to risk for Meghan and even risk for Ash in Iron Queen, I was actually really happy that Ash and Puck were together in the journey to the End of the World so Ash could gain a soul and return to Meghan in the Iron Realm.

There were so many things that I’m fascinated by in Iron Knight. Iron Knight seemed a lot more cryptic to me than the previous three books in the series. Not only does Ash and Puck have to endure many twisted and horrific things in their journey, but EVERYTHING from Ash’s past comes back to haunt him…literally!!! And it is truly horrifying! The first thing that haunts him from his past actually pissed me off that it even had to come back…more complications! Grrrr. But later on I actually was truly happy that it happened because it made the story so much better…it made me care for Ash even more, and it becomes truly essential to Ash’s journey. There was something that happens near the end of Iron Knight that once again had me crying like a little baby. It was so bad that I actually had to put my Nook down to give myself some time to WOOOOSAHHHH!!!

In the previous books in the series, and even in this book, I was left with so many questions! One being, “Is this journey something that Ash really wants to do because he loves Meghan?” Or, “Is he only doing it because of his promise?” But all the questions I had in my head were all tied up nicely in this book, and I can honestly say that this is my favorite book of the entire series.

I would TOTALLY recommend this series to anyone looking for a very creative, beautiful, twisted faerie world, one that can bring you to tears over and over again. And to top it all off, one with an amazingly intense romance.

Purchased with my own money & received to review with Netgalley