Tuesday, October 29, 2013

The Iron Traitor by Julie Kagawa [ARC REVIEW]

TITLE: The Iron Traitor
(Call of the Forgotten #2)

AUTHOR: Julie Kagawa
PUBLISHER: Harlequin TEEN
PUB DATE: Oct 29 2013
Summary from Goodreads:

"IN THE REAL WORLD, WHEN YOU VANISH INTO THIN AIR FOR A WEEK, PEOPLE TEND TO NOTICE

After his unexpected journey into the lands of the fey, Ethan Chase just wants to get back to normal. Well, as "normal" as you can be when you see faeries every day of your life. Suddenly the former loner with the bad reputation has someone to try for-his girlfriend, Kenzie. Never mind that he's forbidden to see her again.

But when your name is Ethan Chase and your sister is one of the most powerful faeries in the Nevernever, "normal" simply isn't to be. For Ethan's nephew, Keirran, is missing, and may be on the verge of doing something unthinkable in the name of saving his own love. Something that will fracture the human and faery worlds forever, and give rise to the dangerous fey known as the Forgotten. As Ethan's and Keirran's fates entwine and Keirran slips further into darkness, Ethan's next choice may decide the fate of them all."

Rating:


- Click HERE to see my review of The Lost Prince -

"Trouble? Me?" Puck gave him a wide-eyed, innocent look as we started after the cat. "I'm hurt, Furball. It's like you don't trust me or something."

Do you ever have one of those authors that you auto-click the to-read button on Goodreads whenever you see they have a new book coming up without any idea of what it’s about or that you didn’t even bother reading the summary provided? Julie Kagawa is one of those authors for me.

Having so much love for The Iron Fey series, the spin-off series, Call of the Forgotten, was something I looked forward to. After a very interesting first book, The Lost Prince, I expected The Iron Traitor to pick up the pace. Thankfully it did – although it did not end well…

While the introductions of our heroes in The Lost Prince made me a little weary, not to mention the sense of déjà vu that I felt over meeting them, but Ethan, Kenzie and Kierran did make a better show of themselves here in the second book. I said in my review of The Lost Prince that Ethan was too angst-y, Kenzie was annoying, and I hated that I didn’t get enough of Kierran then. Now at least, Ethan and Kenzie are kind of growing on me, Ethan in particular. I loved the scene where he was a bit embarrassed about telling his mom that he had a date, such normalcy in his life was a rare treat that it looked so cute!

As for Kierran, well I got my wish. I definitely got a lot more of him here… and I cannot imagine a more appropriate moment for the saying “Be careful what you wish for, it might just come true” slap me in face. Wow… I cannot believe he just did that! I was really getting agitated over the damn prophecy. I mean, hello? – it was up for speculations since The Iron King, and that was like years ago (2010, I think). It was so about time it finally took place. Not that I want bad things to happen or something, but the wait was just really disconcerting. I’m not the most patient person when it comes to mysteries, in case you didn’t notice.

I expected the prophecy to come about one way or the other at some point in the series but I did not expect it to be like that! Such a cold-hearted, confusing and nerve wrecking scene! While Ash went from the dark winter prince to a redeeming hero – a faery with a soul, Kierran falls into a pit of darkness… all for love. Is Kierran beyond redemption? I sure hope not!

I’ve been elaborate on voicing out the Filipino terms used in the first book during my review and while it doesn’t change my opinion over how I feel about the story, the errors still caught me off guard. I still cringe over seeing the word “guro” used as a proper noun, and the slip-up on using the Filipino word for amulet. It was written as “ating-ating” which was supposed to be “anting-anting” – probably a “you say tomato, I say tomahto” moment here for some. Maybe it would have been better off using “agimat” instead to lessen the mispronunciation/misspelling. At least they got “Tuhon” right.

The Iron Traitor has shown a lot more action scenes than its predecessor which I for one, love so much in JKagawa’s books. And the significant appearances of our protagonists from the Iron Fey series was something I truly savored! Seeing Grim being, well… Grim, Puck bringing up trouble as he always does, and Ash being the ever awesome hero appearing just in the nick of time to save the day [even just standing there looking dark and hot I’d be all good with that too] – my heart just melted! In spite of the tragedies that came with this story, I am so eager to see the next book.

Seriously though, Kierran’s going to redeem himself, right? Right? Answer me, dammit!

*Thank you, Harlequin Teen and NetGalley for the copy of The Iron Traitor.