Review: The Iron Traitor by Julie Kagawa

Oh, I'm going to have trouble writing this review of mine. I wanted to love this book, but I did not. I'm going to rate it a three star, though sometimes it felt like less than that for me. But, if I had read this book a year ago it probably would have been a five star for me. Most likely. But, I read it now. And I'm sorry I didn't love it.

It's been a year since I read the first book, The Lost Prince. I remember loving it, and I gave it five stars. But oh, since then I have gotten very picky with how I need the writing to be. I cannot enjoy something if I don't like the writing. And I did not enjoy the writing in this book at all. Not one bit. Which makes me sad.

Thing is, I have read a lot of books by Julie. And while it has been a year since I read the Iron Fey books by her, it's been just six months since I read The Eternity Cure. I don't remember any of her books being written like this one was. And I enjoyed her other books so much, and loved the writing. So it upsets be a bit that I couldn't enjoy the writing in The Iron Traitor. But that's just the way it is, I suppose. I can't love everything, all the time.

But even though I did not like the writing in this book, I did enjoy the story. For the most part. It is exciting and I loved being back in the Fey world that Julie has created. It's pretty amazing to read about. I just had issues with the way Ethan thought. And some clichés. They annoyed me a tiny bit, but I didn't really mind them that much, because I did enjoy most of this book. I liked the characters, though I might have liked Keirran the most, and he isn't even the main character. But he was pretty awesome.

We get to know more about Ethan, and I'm sorry, I just didn't feel much for him. Didn't connect that well with him. And I don't know why. Probably my fault. Sigh. It makes me sad, but I am still glad that I read this book, because I do adore Julie. Anyway. I won't say too much about the plot in this book. Though I will talk a little bit about it. And a little bit about the characters. And all the betrayal and heartbreak. Though I felt some things were a bit cliché, I still enjoyed reading about them. Mostly, I think :)

We get to read more of Ethan and Kenzie. First a bit of school time, though that doesn't last for long. We learn more about Kenzie's family; like her father. I didn't like him. Though I felt a little bit like he wasn't done well enough. Wish he had cared more. We see more of Ethan's parents too, and I liked them a little bit better. We see some of the old characters from the Iron Fey series. A little bit of Grimalkin; whom I still adore. A bit of Puck too. Still don't like him much :D Though I loved Razor.

There are some other characters in this book too, and I mostly liked them. I think I liked Annwyl. She was interesting to read about. I did feel sorry for her. An interesting character was the Thin Man. I enjoyed reading about him. We also see a bunch of other faeries. And we see more of the Forgotten. Though not as much as I had hoped. I did enjoy reading about them a lot. Though I should have read the short story before reading this book.. regretting that a bit, but I still understood mostly everything.

Anyway. Don't really have much else to say about this book. There are some interesting scenes that I enjoyed reading about, though I couldn't ever start liking Ethan's thinking method. It kind of drove me nuts. Didn't manage to forget about it for a moment. Sad face. But I did manage to enjoy the plot, because it is interesting. Truly. Though some things were a bit creepy. Some things sad. There is a lot of sad things in this book. I enjoyed them. Anyway. I do suggest reading this book if you read the first one.

The ending in this book is cruel. Very cruel. Though that is getting usual with Julie :D I love it. Though it was heartbreaking. And I'm worried. Though I doubt it can be that bad; new book coming and all. <3 But yeah. I am worried. Though I am also very excited for the third book, and I do hope I will enjoy it more than this one. It's just, it upsets me that I could not enjoy this. I wanted to, so much. Hmm. Might be because I missed Ash? Maybe. He and Meghan was not in this book much at all. Sad face. Still :)

Okay. Yes, I did not like this book. Though I am giving it a three star. Though probably a two point five star. I wish I could have loved it more, like I did the other books by Julie. But I just didn't. Anyway. Just also wanted to mention that I adore Julie, and I think she's an amazing person and author. And I will still be reading all the upcoming books by her, even though I was disappointed with The Iron Traitor. I still cannot wait for the last book, book three. I am very excited to read the end of the trilogy :)

I wanted to thank Mira Ink for the print ARC of this gorgeous book. <3 I love the cover; it's so pretty. Also thank you to Harlequin Teen for the auto-approval on Netgalley, though I ended up reading my print ARC :) I am happy that I got to read this book early. And I am still getting my pre-orders. <3

Goodreads - Pre-Order: US - UK