Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Iron King (Iron Fey #1) by Julie Kagawa
Release Date: February 1st 2010
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Add it: Goodreads
Overall: ♥♥♥♥♥ 

Most of the books that I rate 5 stars (which I know, is a fair amount - I'm easily pleased haha), are books that I find myself dreaming about after I put it down to go to sleep. And I'm not just talking about dreaming of the characters/plot/what will happen next? I'm talking about dreaming of READING the next chapter WORD-FOR-WORD in the book. I've had that with books such as Unearthly/Hallowed, Daughter of Smoke, Hunting Lila and The Last Vampire series. THESE are the kinds of books I wish every book was like because they stick in my mind for ages and they make me all giddy just thinking about them!

For those who haven't read this masterpiece yet, Iron King is about a girl named Meghan Chase, who's four year old brother is stolen and replaced with a Changeling and taken into the faery realms. Meghan goes on an adventure (I'm sorry, I know it's a lame word, but I just like saying it) and discovers her best friend, Robbie is actually Puck-a faery, and meets a cait sith named Grimalkin along the way. Oh, and she meets a faery winter prince named Ash, who carries a sword and is moody and stuff.

Iron King was brilliant, I don't know why it took me so long to finally pick it up! It was fast paced, action-packed and the world building was phenomenal. As I've been researching faery folklore myself for my own attempt at a writing project, it was great to see that Julie Kagawa had obviously done her research to the nth degree.

As for the characters, lets start with Meghan... I loved her. She was well developed and she wasn't a heroine who just had supposed "flaws", she actually had flaws, she was real. Meghan was cheeky, fiery and she made me laugh. For example,
[Grimalkin]: "Try not to bleed so much on the thorns," ... "Right now anyone could follow us, and you are leaving a very easy trail."
[Meghan]: "Right, 'cause I'm bleeding all over the place for shits and giggles."
HAHAHA!

I love how faeries aren't portrayed as friendly fluttery things like Tinkerbell, and how they're actually badass, ferocious creatures.

Puck? TEAM PUCK. I AM TEAM PUCK. That's all I'm saying. I like Puck. I wish we saw more of him! He is caring, funny, exciting, adventure-seeking, a bit reckless and (I'm going to assume as he's a faery) gorgeous. He would do anything for Meghan and had nothing but her best interests at heart so WHY COULDN'T THAT BLOKE CATCH A BREAK? Seriously. He caught the shit end of the stick so many times! *cries* I want to see Puck :(

Okay, I lie. There was ONE thing I didn't like, and please excuse me for going on a tangent here, but I could understand if Meghan fell for Puck, but she falls in love with Ash. This is probably my ONLY pet peeve in the entire novel. I mean yeah, he was hot, could battle and could freeze things and whatnot but they barely knew eachother. Plus, Ash is a bit too moody, 'mysterious' and has too much angst for my liking. I just felt the whole thing between them was a little rushed and unexpected.

But seriously, the overall epicness of everything else made up for that. I couldn't stop reading and as I said, I dreamed I was reading it. So that's a good sign to me! And, if you haven't read Iron King yet, DO SO NOW! It's awesome! I need the others immediately.

Julie Kagawa, I love you. (I know this is a rushed proclomation, but you've stolen my heart)