Review: Iron Crowned

Iron Crowned

By Richelle Mead

• Publisher: Kensington Publishing
• Published: 22 February 2011
• Format: Paperback 352 pages
• ISBN 13: 9781420111798 ISBN 10: 1420111795

Shaman-for-hire Eugenie Markham is the best at banishing entities trespassing in the mortal realm. But as the Thorn Land’s queen, she’s fast running out of ways to end the brutal war devastating her kingdom. Her only hope: the Iron Crown, a legendary object even the most powerful gentry fear…

Who Eugenie can trust is the hardest part. Fairy king Dorian has his own agenda for aiding her search. And Kiyo, her shape-shifter ex-boyfriend, has every reason to betray her along the way. To control the Crown’s ever-consuming powers, Eugenie will have to confront an unimaginable temptation--one that will put her soul and the fate of two worlds in mortal peril…


I'm not entirely sure where to start with this review. Be it because I haven't done one in such a long time, or it could also have something to do with the fact that I didn't enjoy this one as much as I anticipated I would.

I am a HUUUUGE fan of the Dark Swan books, but this one failed to keep me as entertained as the first two in the series. Don't get me wrong there are some good twists and turns here and there but it just felt like it fell short of the mark I subconsciously set for it.


With everything that was going on in the main part of the story it seemed the relationships between characters missed a bit of the depth I thought they had in previous books. In Thorn Queen you could feel the attraction between Dorian and Eugenie jump off the pages. Very quickly into Iron Crowned it seemed that relationship was muted. It was very two dimensional and made it a little hard for me to continue on.

Once I did get past that, I found quite a bit of the story was easily predicted. Plot twists that I knew should be shocking and clever just seemed a little lame and due to clues earlier on the book really did come across as predictable. I had a few "Ahhh, they finally spit it out" moments.


I hate reviews that spoil the plot for those who haven't read the book yet, so I will leave it at that for now because things change pretty early in the story and frankly it's been so long since I wrote a review I don't want you guys to get bored of my inane dribble just yet :)

All in all I actually still give this one a 4/5. But that is purely because of my love of the books and because I am really hoping things pick up a bit in the next one.

October Obsessions Give Away Week 2

Disclaimer....
I totally goofed, I posted the link to this post rather than just my blog page in the linky things for the Friday hops (damn you Ctrl V) 
So if you are just saying hi, pretty please with cherries on top go to the post after this one and comment there.
If you want to enter my give away you are more than welcome to do so in the comments link for this post.
Sorry about that guys 

Chazz 

This is the third time I have tried to post this now, so here goes...

Starting today we are taking entries for the second week of my give away. I am a bit early as it is Thursday night here, but I was so excited I just couldn't wait! I will announce the winner of week one once I am home from work tomorrow (yes you still have about 18 hours to enter!)

So this week I will be giving away 

 Storm Born and Thorn Queen

  

By Richelle Mead

Published in Aug 2008 & 2009

Publisher: Zebra

 Paperback Pages: 374 & 384

ISBN 13: 9781420100969 

ISBN 10: 1420100963 

ISBN 13: 9781420100976

ISBN 10: 1420100971

 Because this is a series I won't post the synopsis for each because I feel like reading the synopsis for the second book if you haven't read the first actually spoils it a little. I will just give a brief review of my reaction to the books instead. If you want to read the synopsis you can click in the link above.

After finishing the 4th Vampire Academy book I was lost. No idea what to read or where to turn. I went to the House of Night series and it just wasn't the same. I needed more VA but where could I get it? Light bulb moment hit... Maybe I could see if Richelle Mead had written any other books... Yeah I know, pretty stupid revelation really. So I looked her up and found she indeed had 2 other series of books. I was a bit dubious about them. There were no vampires so I wasn't sure they would fulfill my reading needs. 

The Succubus series looked like a goer until for some reason I couldn't get a preview on my Kindle app. I really had no interest in the Dark Swan series at all but was desperate and Kindle was allowing me a preivew so I loaded it up and started to read.

BOY OH BOY was my face red! Not only did it fulfill my reading wants and desires, it exceeded them. I thought there were some steamy scenes in VA but Storm Born kicked those scenes arses. I read the preview in record time and purchased the book as soon as the app gave me that "Want to see more?" message. I think the total time to read this one was about 2 days. I just couldn't stop reading.

Eugenie Markham is like Buffy without the vampires and I imagine her to be tougher (after all Eugenie doesn't have side kicks.) She does have some allies who know who she is, I particularly love the "receptionist" who has never actually met Eugenie but knows what she needs when she needs it anyway. 

There is the typical Mead love triangle as per her other books. I did enjoy this one much more than the others I must say. I usually roll my eyes a bit when there is 2 guys to pick but with this one I found myself begging Eugenie to pick the other guy. 

I don't want to give anything away, but I will say my favorite thing in any book is when you have characters who you know should just be black and white bad, there shouldn't be any gray area. You know who is good and who isn't. But, and this is a big but, you find the gray area and fall in love (or lust) with them anyway. The character I am talking about is Dorian, if you haven't read the book, it will be worth reading just for him. I think if he were real I could very well be his groupie jumping up and down in front of him saying "Pick me! Pick me!" or maybe I would just slap Eugenie out of the way and jump him myself *sigh*, oh to dream.

All in all I give this book 5/5 I loved it, I still love it, and I would kick my husband out of our bed to make room for the book if the three of us wouldn't fit together (my poor husband is lucky books are so compact)

Anyway, on to the give away finer details...

You need to post a comment on this post to enter. 

I honestly can't be bothered with the whole adding up points thing (tried it last week and seemed to make this very uneven) so I will give each person who comments on this post one entry.

If you choose to do a post or grab my button I will give you two additional entries. But you must post the links in your comment here. My grab button is to the right ---->

So you can have 3 entries in total. Remember to comment on this post go to the top of this post for the comment link.

If you entered last week you have to re-enter on this post for this week.

If books depository delivers to you you are eligible to enter, this is an international give away.

If you want instant satisfaction, I will be happy to send it to you on Kindle as another option.

Entries for this one close next Friday on the 15th. I will post when it is closed as I am in Australia so time zones can get a little confusing.

If you want to know what is happening for next week click here.

Not wanting to make this post too many miles longer, don't forget it is nearly time for the Friday book blog hops!

I will make my official posts on them after work tomorrow, but here are the buttons to go check out the host blogs