The Iron Daughter - Julie Kagawa - 4.5 stars

I am reading this series for a read along with friends. One of the concerns I had for the series was that they would not get increasingly better than the last because I had been told that book 1 was the best of them. This is book 2 in the series and I liked it even more than the first one and that made me very happy. The only real issue I had was trying to figure out why the book was titled The Iron Daughter. I guess I had expected in some weird way she would instead end up being Iron fey rather than the Summer Princess, daughter of Oberon. I fel like that was left wide open.

After the death of Machina and the rescue of Ethan, Meghan's brother, she now becomes a prisoner of the Winter Queen. Fighting feelings that she has for Ash, the son of the Winter Queen, and getting increasingly tired of being in Faery, she must decide what her next move will be as she finds herself thrown into the middle of a war between kingdoms. She must learn who she can and can not trust.

One thing I love in this series is the world building and the imagery used to do that. I think the world building has improved so much from the first book. All the details of the world are brought to the reader's attention and you cant help but find yourself there among the creatures, the characters, and all the magic of the world. This series could definitely be among the greatest of fairy tales.

I find that the characters grow so much more in this installment which is what I was hoping would happen. Old characters come back to the story and new ones are introduced. Among my favorites are of course Meghan, who is no longer whiny, Ash, Puck, and surprisingly the Ironhorse who I actually fell in love with in this story. The villains are much more villainous and the readers will absolutely love to hate them.

I really think the Author took this in the right direction and I am so excited to continue on with this story and jump back into this world of magic and intrigue. I would recommend this book to absolutely anyone who loves any genre. This book gets a 4.5 star from me.