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.
After a bit of a disappointing start to the series, I enjoyed The Iron Daughter more than I was expecting. It's by no means perfect, it had a few big flaws, but it was a nice, fun, interesting read. Also: the cover is just absolutely gorgeous. The color, the design, everything.
I think a lot of what I struggled with in the first book persisted in this second one, though. I thought Meghan was so annoying. She was immature and she was really useless throughout nearly the entire book. There was an attempt to explain off why she was so useless but it really felt like just an excuse to make her weakness seem like it added to the story, which it didn't. Sometimes, and really only a few scenes in the book, she was okay. I felt like love blinded her just way too much and she was so selfish because of it. The way she treated other characters, namely Puck, just made me so angry and frustrated with her.
However, the other characters in the story really made up for my large dislike of Meghan. I loved the different characterizations and personalities. They seemed fun, memorable, entertaining and made the world that much more palpable and easy to imagine. They added so much to the book that I was disappointed we didn't get to follow them instead.
The writing style confused me at times. It wasn't that it didn't flow well or anything. But sometimes, the description didn't really translate through. There were many times that I struggled trying to imagine or understand what Kagawa was trying to describe and it really took me out of the story.
A lot of mythical creatures were talked about without a real description of them. Especially in the beginning, multiple different creature names were thrown out without any sort of background or explanation on them. Which also made the world that much harder to experience, especially for someone who doesn't know much about this type of mythology or hasn't read her previous book in a long time.
Going along with that, at times I felt like Kagawa added too much fantasy and mythological creatures. In a story about Fey, it felt off-putting to see what was a cram of different types of mythologies. It felt forced and childish. Even the plot felt ridiculous at times because of this.
Through this, though, the world Kagawa creates and describes is such a beautiful setting. I loved learning about the courts, the laws and the magic. It felt like we were roaming and learning about the world alongside with Meghan and, that part, I really enjoyed. It was easy to imagine everything and it really felt like you were exploring another world. It was a very well developed world but that also might be because it's the second book in the series.
The plot itself was one of the upsides. I liked the different storylines and struggles, I loved the changes in setting, and I loved the twists and surprises thrown in there. I couldn't really see anything coming and each time something happened that was shocking, swoon worthy or frustrating, I was so into the book that I visibly reacted to everything happening. The connections made between events in this book to the first book and even connections that were going to form for future books were also a big high point. It showed that everything was important and nothing was put in the book for no reason.
The romance was just...extravagant. Though, I'm struggling with Meghan, I still think the romance was cute and I blushed and gushed every time something remotely romantic happened. Which, for me, means that it had really good chemistry . Which is always important in a romance. Though I've already decided which 'team' I'm on in the love triangle sense, I liked both sides and that hardly ever happens. I think this just further serves to prove just how well written and fun the characters were - aside from our lead, unfortunately.
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