Book Review: The Iron Daughter

TITLE: The Iron Daughter
Book 2 in the Iron Fey series
AUTHOR: Julie Kagawa
PUBLISHED: 2010
CATEGORY: Young adult
GENRE: Faeries, romance, adventure
PREMISE: Meghan Chase has saved her brother only to now be stuck in the Winter realm abandoned by Ash and trying to convince the fey of the growing threat of the Iron Kingdom.
MY REVIEW: Okay, I love this series. Really I do. Kagawa has created something with lots of potential here. I love reading about this world because everything is so wonderfully described and planned out that I can easily picture it all and have no problem believing it exists. Also, I love Puck and Grimalken. There needs to be a Grimalken plushie (hint hint publishers, if you want promotion ideas...).
Now that said, I still feel this series could stand for some improvement. Because while Kagawa has an awesome world building imagination I feel like her plotting/romance skills...are somewhat genaric. For instance a lot of the scenarios in this book have been done before in fantasy books/movies in the past. I mean the whole mind control bit? Done. The idea forming about Meghan's powers that I can't talk about because it's a spoiler? Done. As for the romance part...while I definitely see potential in the relationships (although I still think Ash and Meghan's relationship could have stood for more slow developement) it's all so terribly cliche. I mean how many love triangles of this sort have we seen lately? Tons. Forbidden love? Been there, done that. These particular issues to me bring down an otherwise really good book series.
Since I know people are wondering, I'm Team Puck. But not Team Puck for Meghan. I'm Team Puck because Puck is an awesome character and I like him more then Ash. After this book, I personally don't think Meghan deserves him. Not that she even looks at him twice with hunky sullen Ash around. That was another thing that annoyed me in this briefly was how Meghan was practically Ash, Ash, Ash throughout the whole book. It was like all that personal strength she got near the end of the first book went away. Though luckily she never got as bad as Bella Swan. So that said, I still enjoy this series, and I think it's good. I just think that Kagawa is capable of so much more. But this is only her first series so maybe she'll improve even more and then her next books will be even more awesome because she's more creative with the plot.
WHO SHOULD READ: Those that read the first book, fans of faerie books, Wicked Lovely fans, Twilight fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five dresses sewn by dwarfs

FOR THE FOLLOWING CHALLENGES:
12 by 12 in November
One Hundred Plus Books
YA Challenge