"The Iron Daughter"

Finally finished this book, the sequel to The Iron King.  It didn't really take me long at all, but now that I'm on a roll, I want to rocket through the many books I want to read (I still have a huge stack of books by my bed and now two books to read for book club meetings in November - The Help and one other, probably Juliet Naked). 

I liked the book a lot.  I must be PMSing, because I got pretty upset reading Ash saying "kill me" - it struck me as so sad and hopeless.  I hate that.  But the book rebounded from that low point, I thought it was a very creative and interesting story.  A terrific and worthy sequel.

One minor complaint - I thought the love triangle story line was awfully similar to New Moon - Ash realizes that he can never be with Meghan, so he leaves.  In the meantime, Meghan discovers that her longtime friend, Robin, has been in love with her all along.  They share a very compelling kiss.  Then Ash returns, only to help Meghan in an important quest and to protect her during a dire showdown with his mother.  And then, well, you can imagine who she ends up with.  I realize that Stephenie Meyer did not invent the love triangle, and Julie Kagawa might have plotted out this story long before New Moon (though that's unlikely - New Moon predated it by almost exactly 4 years - September 2006).  But even if JK has never read the Twilight series, its such a part of the culture now, I thought she made an error in copying the story arc so closely.

The bad news is that now I have to wait for the next one - The Iron Queen due in February 2011!  (I wondered abot the title, which I had known about when I read the first book - now it's clear who the Iron Queen is - it's Meghan!!)  Maybe Julie Kagawa will write another bridge story in the meantime.

As a total aside, I picked up a cute book at the library, called The Family Fortune, a modern retelling of Persuasion.  But the more I thought about it, the more I'm convinced that I actually read this years ago, when I was obsessed with Persuasion.  I wish I'd had goodreads years ago, so I'd know for sure!