Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa

Synopsis (From Julie Kagawa's Official Website)

My name—my True Name—is Ashallayn'darkmyr Tallyn.

I am the last remaining son of Mab, Queen of the Unseelie Court. And I am dead to her.

My fall began, as many stories do, with a girl… 

What I Have to Say

I'm splitting this section into two parts so as to give both the book and the series justice whilst not spoiling anyone who hasn't read the previous books. If you don't want any of the previous books in the series please don't read the section about Iron Knight.

About the Iron Fey series in General

Julie Kagawa is one of my favourite authors. I will buy everyone book she writes without question (or even stopping to read the blurb). The Iron Fey series is a really original but still pretty classic fey story. She intertwines the normal rules of Faerie with this new idea of combining fey creatures with iron to show the human effect on Faerie. Then she goes to show how damaging this is to the original fey. 

I love reading about fey. I love the stories people are finding to tell about them. But Kagawa takes it even further by finding something new that she can create by basing her iron fey on the age of technology. Her inventions range from powerful creatures such as Iron Horse, Glitch and Virus to adorable little things like packrats and gremlins (even if the latter is a bit of a nuisance xD). 

So not only has Kagawa described in wonderful detail her interpretation of the land of Faerie, she's also made it very original and interesting to read. 

If you haven't read the other books in the series I strongly recommend you read them before reading the rest of my review. It's your choice, of course, but they're amazing and you should read them :p. You can get them all off Amazon or from a decent bookshop (Order them from your local independent bookshop!!! They need the profit. Amazon will survive without your money!!!!)  

About Iron Knight in Particular (contains spoilers for previous books in the series) 

I think that Iron Knight is my favourite of the Iron Fey series. First of all because it contains Ash who I absolutely love, even if he's gone soft since falling for Megan. He's change a lot from his hard, cold, unseelie self, but there's still traces of the ice prince in there as well as flashbacks of him in his prime. I like evil guys!! I can't help it!!! 

I also really love him and Puck together. I love the way they bicker and threaten each other even though they kind of like each other really. They also make a really good team, which goes some way to show what they were like before their feud got in the way. 

All that said, I think the thing that made me love the book so much more from the rest of the series (which I didn't even think was possible before I read it) was the whole Arthurian feel it had about it. It was set out as a traditional Knight's tale: a group of companions setting out to face challenges together with the purpose of gaining the power to go back to the side of their leaders one True Love. You can imagine that it could big King Arthur trying to get back to Guinevere. Or you could if Arthur was an unseelie fey who'll throw ice daggers at anyone who annoyed him anyway xD. 

The book is also so emotional. You go through the trials that Ash faces with him and experience what he has to give up in the hope of being able to be with Megan again. 

I strongly recommend the whole of the Iron Fey series.