Nothing here is real, nothing here is right.

I’ve gotten to the point of CBR where I’ve got too many books banked, and I haven’t written any of the reviews for them, which means that by the time I get around to writing the review, I barely remember what the book is about. MUST BE MARCH.

The Iron Fey is one of those YA series that I picked up because I ran across it on Goodreads, and it had goodish reviews, and I was bored, and MAGIC, but I’m not sure I’ll continue with the series. The first book in the series, The Iron King, is about a young woman named Meghan Chase, who lives on a quiet farm in a quiet town and dreams of bigger and better things. Her father disappeared when she was very young, and she now lives with her mother, step-father, and much younger half-brother. Her world changes quite quickly when she discovers that A) her brother has been replaced by a changeling, B) her BFF is not at all what he seems and C) she’s the progeny of a faery king. I mean, who hasn’t had to deal with all of that at some point? At the same time, even? I don’t even have a brother but I assume it’s because he turned into a changeling and scampered off back to faery land at some point (after erasing my memory, obviously).

ANYWAY and most importantly, her crush is also a total dick to her, which might be the most traumatizing thing to happen to a sixteen-year-old.

All of this throws Meghan into the faery realm, where she must try to rescue her brother, while navigating a world she knows nothing about. She has her best friend, Puck (yes that Puck), along for help and meets all manner of faery, good and bad. We still aren’t super sold on which her biological father is.

This book was…fine. It wasn’t great, it wasn’t terrible, but if it had been a wee bit longer, I’m not sure I would have finished it. Meghan was OK as far as typical YA heroines go. She had her moments of brilliance with a healthy dose of bad decisions. But she wasn’t exactly memorable or likable. She didn’t feel fully THERE.

All in all, this felt a bit like a YA fantasy just going through the motions (walking through the part). The ideas were there, I’m just not sure they were fleshed out enough. I’m tempted to pick up the second one to see if it gets better, as I’m wondering if this first novel suffered from just having to set everything up for later novels. Will I find out? WE MAY NEVER KNOW.