The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa

The Iron Knight is I believe the last installment in the series for Meghan, Puck and Ash. I have really enjoyed this series and had mixed feelings about it ending. Here’s the description from Goodreads:

To cold, emotionless faery prince Ash, love was a weakness for mortals and fools. His own love had died a horrible death, killing any gentler feelings the Winter prince might have had. Or so he thought.

Then Meghan Chase—a half human, half fey slip of a girl— smashed through his barricades, binding him to her irrevocably with his oath to be her knight. And when all of Faery nearly fell to the Iron fey, she severed their bond to save his life. Meghan is now the Iron Queen, ruler of a realm where no Winter or Summer fey can survive.

With the (unwelcome) company of his archrival, Summer Court prankster Puck, and the infuriating cait sith Grimalkin, Ash begins a journey he is bound to see through to its end— a quest to find a way to honor his solemn vow to stand by Meghan’s side.

To survive in the Iron realm, Ash must have a soul and a mortal body. But the tests he must face to earn these things are impossible. At least, no one has ever passed to tell the tale.

And then Ash learns something that changes everything. A truth that turns reality upside down, challenges his darkest beliefs and shows him that, sometimes, it takes more than courage to make the ultimate sacrifice.

I want to first say how much I loved the other books in this series and that I had a lot of expectations for this book based on that. However, I found myself disappointed with this book. I struggled to make it through the text. I always loved the interaction between Meghan, Ash and Puck. However, for most of the book it is simply Ash and Puck on a quest to make Ash mortal. I think this is why I had so much trouble staying interested in the book. It wasn’t until about halfway through the book I was able to stay interested in the story line. While I found Ash’s quest to be very romantic and interesting for the first 30 or so pages it became a bit long.

With that said, I did like how the relationship between Puck and Ash evolves and seems to come to some sort of an understanding. I guess if Meghan was involved the story couldn’t have wound up where it needed to. 

I also liked seeing a fair amount of Grimalkin. He has really become quite an amusing character. However, I am still left wondering why he helped them so much over the course of the stories. Maybe I need to read the story again to puzzle through his true motives.

All in all I am a bit sad to see everything wrapped up in this story. I give this book a 3/5 because at the end there are many redeeming qualities that I can’t share without giving out spoilers. All I can say is stick through it and you won’t regret it if you have read the rest of the series.