The Iron Daughter by Julie Kagawa

This is book 2 of 8 in the Iron Fey Series.

I have mixed feelings about this book. It is well written. The plot is well thought out and a lot occurs throughout the book. I enjoyed many of the characters: grimalkin, Ash, Puck, Leanansidhe, Ironhorse. However, there was one character...the most important character that drove me insane enough to stop reading the books many times. Meghan Chase!

I will give the briefest of summaries (it will be brief because 1.) it took me so long to read it that I have forgotten many aspects and 2.) there are many little subplots that seemed to take forever to accomplish something larger). It starts out with Meghan being in the Winter Court. This part of the book was absolutely the most annoying and hardest to get through. Ash has apparently abandoned her and (without giving too much away), Meghan is too obtuse to understand what is happening. She came across as desperate, immature, whiney and not very intelligent. I cringed many times will reading that section and was so embarrassed for her.

Events unfold that force Ash and Meghan to flee the Winter Court on a mission to get the scepter of the seasons back from the iron fey (yes they are back and more annoying that last time those little rascals!). Ash goes his own way and Meghan, with the help of Ironhorse, Grimalkin and Puck set out to get the scepter themselves. There was a section in the briars that Grimalkin was downright mean and I wanted to pull his tiny little whiskers! This was also another time when Meghan got on my nerves. It was obvious that one should be quiet in the briars, but even with people shushing her, Meghan is regrettably loud, drawing the attention of a dragon upon them. Shut your trap Meghan!

At 50% through the book, my goodreads update says, "slow goings." Clearly I don't remember what was going on because I have been reading this same book for 2 months (while I read an additional ten or so books in between trying to finish this one). The last 30% went very quickly the end resolution packed with lots of action. (This is not the briefest of summaries as promised!)

I didn't like the love triangle going on either. I really liked Puck and it broke my heart that Meghan kept jerking him around. Ash was trying to push Meghan away for their own good, but Meghan kept throwing herself at him. None of the affection was believable except (at times) Puck's affection for Meghan.

There is something about this story line that keeps calling to me despite these things that drive me crazy. I am hoping that for Meghan, these are growing pains for her character and that she will mature into someone that I will enjoy reading about. Perhaps I am just a glutton for punishment to be annoyed by Meghan but I simply must know what will happen in the next book!

Penmort Castle By Kristen Ashley

4.5 Stars

Abby has moved to England after the death of her husband to love in her mother’s ancestral home.  Abby has lost everyone near and dear to her (mother, father, grandmother and now husband) except her best friend.  This same best friend concocts a scandalous way for Abby to get herself out of the debt she has fallen into trying to restore her grandmother’s house (the only thing left of her family).  She has arranged for Abby to pose as Cash Fraser’s girlfriend for a time.  The price was exorbitant, but Abby was posing as a high priced escort. 

It just so happens that Penmort Castle is also haunted by the malevolent ghost of a spurned lover from one of Cash’s ancestors.  Also, interesting to note is that this ghost only goes after the true loves of the current heir to Penmort Castle.  So why, if Abby is just posing as a girlfriend in a business deal does this ghost have it out for her. 

The rest of the book was trying to devise a plan to divest this specter from her headquarters, Penmort Castle. 

This was a typical Kristen Ashley book.  I have loved reading her books that take place in National Trust properties.   I’ve made it a goal to visit as many of those properties as possible (someday)!   I loved Cash and Abby.  I don’t think it is my favorite that our heroine has a beloved dead husband.   Still, I loved the premise and the characters and the castle!

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

5 Stars
A graceling is someone who is born with or develops eyes that are two different colors.  Being a graceling means that person will possess some extraordinary talent.  Throughout the book we are introduced into the wide array that graces can take.  But just for example, it could be swimming, mind reading, telling the weather, or fighting (or many others).    

At the start, Katsa, is on a mission to rescue a Lienid prince from the dungeons of another king.  Katsa takes out 18 guards single handedly and the rest of her crew grab the prince as they make their getaway.  Katsa runs into another  Lienid on the way out.  They race back to their own nation with their stolen prince before Katsa’s king will notice she is gone and Katsa wonders if she was wrong to have let the other lienid live. 

On one hand Katsa is the strong arm of King Randa, forced to do his dirty work against people who might only disagree with him.  On the other hand, Katsa is the founder and leader of a group called The Council.  The Council works throughout all seven kingdoms to right injustices.  Katsa’s grace is killing and she feels she is a monster.  We see her transformation throughout the book, but the following quote shows her thought process as she starts to rethink being under King Randa’s control:

“Katsa didn’t think a person should thank her for not causing pain.  Causing joy was worthy of thanks, and causing pain worthy of disgust.  Causing neither was neither, it was nothing, and nothing didn’t warrant thanks.”

Katsa has met her match in Po, the lienid she met at the beginning.  He is graced in fighting and is the best competition that she has in fighting.  They practice together and grow to be friends.  Katsa agrees to go with Po to uncover the plot to kidnap his grandfather.  The plot is so much more dangerous than they could have imagined as Katsa’s grace cannot help them.  She if forced to flee from the first adversary she can’t best. 

This story was fast paced and never boring.  I liked watching the friendship grow between Katsa and Po.  It was so sad in places I almost cried.  Katsa grows so much as a person.  I absolutely loved her.  Usually the heroine will annoy me at some point, but Katsa never did.  She did make me laugh though.  I do wish she would reconsider her pledge to never marry.

My only regret is my stupid book allowance won’t let me buy the next book in the series until November (boo to husbands who thinks that food and electricity are more important than books!) 

Favorite Quote:

Katsa practically spit back at him.  “Do you imagine that I need a guard to protect them from the soldiers of Monsea?”

“No,” Ror snapped.  “I have no doubt that you are more than capable of bringing the Monsean queen and my son and the rest of my sons and a hundred Nanderan kittens through an onslaught of howling raiders if you chose.”

The Shattered Dark

The Shattered Dark

I can't wait for this second installment of the Shadow Reader series!  *doing my happy dance which includes lots of wiggling and jiggling*

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Throne of Glass: 5 stars

First, I must agree with others.  You really need to read the four prequels to fully appreciate this novel and to also understand the growth of Celaena over the past 2 years. 

Throne of Glass picks up one year after The Assassin and the Empire (the last of the prequels) left off.  We were left with Celaena being delivered into the tender clutches of the Endovier Salt Mines, where no one lasts longer than a month.  However, the king orders special care be taken of Celaena so that she might be able to appreciate the hospitality of this death camp for as long as possible.  Dorian Havillier, the crown prince and Chaol, the Captain of the Guard go to Endovier to retrieve Celaena. 

The king is holding a competition to determine who shall be his champion.  This champion would do as directed by the king for four years time, after which, they shall be free.  At least, that is Celaena’s agreement and since it is either die in Endovier or die in the competition, she chooses to fight.  Only after a year in the salt mines she is not much more than a starving street urchin.  Her training begins immediately upon arriving at the glass castle.  Celaena quickly learns that she is thought of nothing more than a dangerous criminal.  The other competitors must not know her true identity. 

However, the champions are being murdered one by one by a creature with claws sharp enough to gouge stone.  The murders are gruesome and for many reasons Celaena begins trying to figure out what/who is doing the killing before she ends up the next victim. 

The secondary characters are great.  I loved Nehemia and that Celaena is finally able to find a true friend in her.  Duke Perrington is gross and is Graves.  Phillipa, her maid, is likeable and a good ally for Celaena.  Kaltain and Cain are easy to dislike.  I thoroughly enjoyed Nox, he was a friend without asking for anything in return.  And what an awesome scene when she dove off the wall to save him.

I really enjoyed the scenes with Celaena fighting Graves and Verin.  They were such fun and she has such great parting lines.  We got to really see her flex her assassin skills with them.

I tend to shy away from stories with love triangles or anything described as “will the heroine have to give up her love in order to save her fill-in-the-blank.”  While there clearly was a little love triangle going on with Chaol and Dorian I didn’t find it annoying or as heart rending as I usually do.  The romance develops slowly and is believable.  

Celaena, Elentiya, Elena.  Celaena: the name of the heroine.  Elentiya: the name given to Celaena by her friend, Nehemia.  Elena: the name of the first queen of Adarlan, originally from Tarassen (where Celaena is from) and half god.  Is it a coincidence that both of Celaena’s names have Elena’s name within it?  And what is with Elena's parting, "Blood ties can't be broken."?  What does that mean?  Am I really expected to wait to find out?  What does Celaena's wyrdmark mean?  Come on Sarah, cough it up! 

Favorite quote:
Celaena: “What’s the point in having a mind if you don’t use it to make judgments?”
Dorian: “What’s the point in having a heart if you don’t use it to spare others from the harsh judgments of your mind?”

Fury's Kiss by Karen Chance (Midnight's Daughter #3)

Fury’s Kiss: 5 stars

It has been so long since I read the first two books in the Dorina Basarab series that I can’t tell you how long after the last book finished that this book picks up.  Sorry. 

It starts out with Dory on a mission.  She is working contractually with the North American Vampire Senate.  Her partner is Lawrence.  He is a first level master with three gifts: smell (they call him a hound), he can essentially split his body up into tiny particles, move around and put them back together, and mental abilities (similar to Mircea’s).  He asked to be paired with Dory, but she doesn’t usually work with others.  The mission goes terribly wrong, and we find Dory in some sort of experimental lab with the lovely Louis-Cesare trying to get her out.  Only she is Dorina and doesn’t remember who Louis-Cesare is so she does NOT make it easy on him.

The vampires are under attack and they don’t even know from whom.  Is it the Dark Circle, the Fey, the Irin, other vampires, smugglers, an unknown entity?  Marlowe and Mircea are leading the hunt and running themselves ragged.  Dory doesn’t remember anything and so they must use Mircea’s mental capabilities to search Dory memory as to what happened the night with Lawrence.  This isn’t as easy as they thought, but does yield some clues, but they have to go back to her memory another time.  There is so much else that happens with the story line and I can’t go into most of it because you must just read it to get the whole picture, but I adored the ending!  I am so happy for Dory!  I believe there was a small cameo from Cassie Palmer, but we never see her again so she still doesn’t know that Dory is Mircea’s daughter and not the “other woman”.  I am assuming we will see more of this in the next Cassie Palmer novel.    

The secondary characters are some of the best I’ve ever encountered!  I absolutely loved the character development of Ray in this novel.  Prior to this, he was sniveling and annoying.  Which is how he is when he is in stressed situations, and is the baseline for most Karen Chance books, but we got to experience him as smart, resourceful, thoughtful and funny.  I also really grew to appreciate Zheng-zi.  I love Stinky’s contributions (although Dory is lucky that Claire hasn’t left for Faerie because he IS a baby and she spends minimal time with him as a caregiver).  I even loved the little maniac troll chess piece.  I loved Louis-Cesare’s chef, Verelle! He was quite adorable.  I’m not sure how I feel about Ǣsubrand and I definitely do not know how to pronounce that name.      

Cons:

• While all of the scenes in the book are necessary to the story line, each scene individually goes on too long.  It’s like having a conversation with that person who is telling a story and you just want to say, “T-t-today, junior!”  This is not new to Fury’s Kiss.  I have found all of Karen Chance’s books to be this way. 
• Some of the scenes leave me confused.  The author’s writing style is that she will describe a situation or person in detail before telling you who it is or where we are.  It is usually someone or somewhere familiar so that along the line at some point, the reader is able to figure out who it is.  This is a great technique, except that in writing paranormal books there is undoubtedly people and places that are unfamiliar because they don’t exist anywhere but in the author’s head.  And the author uses this same technique for the places/people that we don’t know.  The reader is left wondering if they missed something and should recognize this new entity.

Unanswered Questions (these, admittedly, could be unanswered because I, as a reader, am obtuse):

• I still don’t know who was behind Lawrence in the last scene that we saw him in.  Was it Mircea?  Was it Dorina?
• What were those lava lamp blobs in the Consul’s secret passageways?
• What is going on with the Irin?  We’ve never met them before and they just flew in and out of scenes saying things like, “You don’t know what you are doing.  Stay out of this,” and then fly off.  

Favorite quote:

“Mine,” I murmured, as blue eyes met mine, wide and startled.  And then closed again as he took my breath in a kiss so consuming that I barely noticed when the storm continued on toward the horizon, the midnight wings showing vague starlight through in patches as it passed overhead.  As it missed us. 

“Yours,” Louis-Cesare groaned.

Free Online Serial Book from Ilona Andrews

So I will admit that I am a bit of an Ilona Andrews junkie and anything they write, I simply must get my grubby little hands on.  They will be releasing Steel's Edge (The Edge Series #4) on November 27, 2012, but to hold us addicts over until it is released you can check out their experiment here:

http://demo.ilona-andrews.com/category/clean-sweep/

They are posting a free book online, bit by bit as they write it, and as usual, it sucks you right in.