I just want to start this off by asking if anyone reasonable, who isn't on "Team" anyone, can tell me if this series is even worth completing? I am approximately 3/4ths of the way through the The Iron Prince (Book 2) and I have seriously put it down and picked up another book or two, twice. This morning I went for shot number three and made it through about 4 pages before I had to stop and re-evaluate, and try to remember things I planned on reading next. Even though it is starting to happen more and more often recently, it takes a lot for me to put a book down… I mean… for crying out loud, I've completed the existing Celestra series because the first book was .99 cents!! Which was one of the worst series I have, literally, ever read. If not the worst.
Honestly the first book wasn't so terrible. You've got your protagonist, a one, Megan Chase. She really isn't awful from the start. She's in high school, from a poor family, and has worked for most things in life up to this point. Her father disappeared when she was younger, but she doesn't totally sulk over it all the time in an annoying manner. So really she's not half bad, with the exception of her initial, and way too middle school crush on the captain of the football team… really? And then she has her BFF "Robbie" who is clearly in love with her, but of course she is completely clueless to something so obvious. Surprise, Surprise!! She's not just any girl, but a half faerie half girl! And not just any half faerie half girl, but the half faerie half girl daughter of the Summer King, whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? Who saw that coming??! Anyway, turns out her BFF Robbie is actually a faerie as well, and not just any faerie, but the famed Robin Goodfellow AKA Puck of Shakespearean legend. I find this little piece of the puzzle a little awkward to take in at first, it didn't really seem necessary at the time, but I suppose she is trying to work together myths and legends about faeries into the story, but give it another spin, which I can admire.
Once they decide to go to the Nevernever to rescue her step brother, things start to get a little too Alice in Wonderland-y for my taste. She even meets up with what is pretty much the Cheshire Cat, who calls himself Grimalkin instead (cliché aside, this cat turns out to be probably the best character in the series so far) This style is something that I generally don't appreciate, however, eventually things slip away from the amazement and discovery, and get back to the actual problems at hand. Princess, as I will here to for refer to this Megan Chase, is brought to the Summer court by this cat, and ends up meeting the Winter Prince, Ash, who has seriously already tried to kill her and Puck once. Anyway she dances with this dude and all hell breaks lose in the form of dragons with multiple heads. Red flag anyone? Anyway… she escapes again with kitty to continue on her quest to find her little brother. Eventually they meet back up with Puck, and this Ash dude who has promised to help them find her brother, if she goes with him to the Winter court upon his return. Soooo… they keep hearing about this Iron King guy everywhere and decide that’s where they need to go. Apparently humans really fucked up when we started dreaming up computers and shit and inadvertently created this race of evil faeries that not only are immune to the effects of iron, but thrive on it instead. There we go screwing everything up again.
Overall once I got to the actual meat and potatoes of the first book I found that I did enjoy it quite a bit. It was well written, and did nice job of weaving in the legend and lore of faeries with present times, and turning it into an original story. The love story was quite a different thing altogether, but I was able to put it on the back burner through the first book. The second book however, has been just straight up terrible! If I were able to ignore for one second the ill-founded love story, it would be perfectly fine. But it has gotten to the point where Princess is soooo consumed with love, that it has become nearly unreadable. Seriously… every other thought is, "but I love him so much"… "I can't think without him" … "all I think of is him"… "I would die for him" … blah blah blah blah. This is terrible anyway, but even worse when the him in question has made it clear many times that he cannot make the sacrifice needed to be with her. I mean… ugh… just move on already and get the hell over it. So as I have said, 3/4ths of the way through the second book I have had to finally give up on it, unless someone can convince me that things are going to get better. I feel like perhaps if the first book had just been a stand alone novel and was wrapped up in the end, I may have enjoyed it better. But, you know, there is always the possibility that I am wrong. Ha!
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