The Iron Traitor by Julie Kagawa Review

The Iron Traitor by Julie Kagawa
(The Call of the Forgotten, #2)
Release Date: October 29, 2013
Publisher: HarlequinTEEN; 342 pages

In the real world, when you vanish into thin air for a week, people tend to notice.

After his unexpected journey into the lands of the fey, Ethan Chase just wants to get back to normal. Well, as normal as you can be when you see faeries every day of your life. Suddenly the former loner with the bad reputation has someone to try for; his girlfriend, Kenzie. Never mind that he's forbidden to see her again.

But when your name is Ethan Chase and your sister is one of the most powerful faeries in the Nevernever, normal simply isn't to be. For Ethan's nephew, Keirran, is missing, and may be on the verge of doing something unthinkable in the name of saving his own love. Something that will fracture the human and faery worlds forever, and give rise to the dangerous fey known as the Forgotten. As Ethan's and Keirran's fates entwine and Keirran slips further into darkness, Ethan's next choice may decide the fate of them all.

If you have NOT read The Lost Prince or The Iron Fey series, please read with caution. There are some spoilers that were unavoidable. Proceed with caution . . .

Being warned, by Julie, about the ending and to not hate her really made me not want to read this book. I made her no promises but alas, while the cliffhanger is pretty killer I'm not really bothered by it. Weird, I know. But I'm also not sure how I felt about this book, as a whole. It's weird; I love the world she created, as Iron Fey is one of my all time favorite series; the characters she created are even better than the world, even the newer characters from this series but still, something was missing from this book. The thing that stinks is I can't seem to put my finger on exactly what was missing, which is the problem.

The thing I love most about this series and nothing will ever change my opinion about this is the appearances from the old characters, Grimalkin, Ash, Meghan and most importantly, Robin Goodfellow. The second I see Ravens, I squeal. It's just a reaction this series has done to me. I don't mean in real life - I'm not driving along and squeal every time a Raven flies in the sky, that's silly; just in the book because you know whose coming. MY MAN! But back on subject, I love the appearances of these characters, as slim as they might be, they're who we fell in love with and for some, who we still love over every other fictional character we've ever come across. Yes, Puck is that guy for me - out of the hundreds of books I've read and the hundreds of fictional guys who made me swoon, he's still my number one. So I fangirl every time he's there.

In the first book, The Lost Prince, I really like Ethan and I especially loved his growing relationship with Mackenzie St. James. I loved their relationship even more in this book. It's real, strong and everything a relationship should be. That being said, it's not them who really captured my attention this book; Keirran took that crown there. He loves Annwyl so fiercely, it's almost a completely different side of him. He is willing to risk just about anything to keep her from fading, even if that means giving up her knowing she's at least alive and happy. That's a pretty tough thing to do, let someone you love go. He meddles in dark magic and while it may save her, temporarily, it's also killing him and taking everything away from him that makes him Keirran. It's turning him darker, which is a scary thing to see especially with a talk of a prophecy going around.

Ethan was a bit more tame this book, which I definitely liked seeing. We can thank Kenzie for that; she's truly showed him how to love and also letting him know he shouldn't be letting Them rule his life. He's really starting to grow up and Kenzie reminds me so much of Meghan; it's kind of scary, really.

This whole book felt seflish to me. The whole concept of the book was for Keirran saving Annwyl, which I understand; you don't want to lose the one you love but some of the choices that were made weren't worth the risk. And what made it worse was that he dragged Ethan and Kenzie (whom is the most selfless person ever) into his issues. I understand, they're friends (even family, for Ethan) but some things you can't change or aren't meant to be changed. I understand it's hard knowing you'll lose something as great as love but unfortunately, it's the way it is sometimes. Everything that happened in this book comes back to Annwyl . . . everything. That bothers me.

I didn't feel connected to this story and the above paragraph is probably why. I enjoyed Keirran a lot more, give or take a few things (if you've read it, I'm sure you'll know what I'm talking about) but I really liked him a lot in this book. I actually think I like him more than Ethan even with everything. I know, what am I thinking? I'm not sure, really.

Even though this book was a bit of a disappointment for me and everything, I still recommend it. It wasn't bad, just missing it's usual spark and it's more of the Iron Fey world; how can you say no to that? Plus, the characters are great and the original characters appearances are great. Plus, seeing Ash as a father was pretty fantastic, even coming from a Puck girl.

Thank you so much to Harelquin TEEN for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.