Nessa's Thoughts

Bailed at page 60.One of my New Year's Resolution that I seem to be sticking to is that I no longer continue to read books that are just a complete drag. Both of the books I rated two stars or less in January this year I bailed on after sampling quite enough of them. I know some people advocate 100 pages, but I'm not really inclined to even get to that part of the book. Don't worry, I will try to finish most of the books I read, but I just couldn't be bothered with this one.Around 9 months has passed since I read The Iron King, and I was hesitant to continue. The titles are so similar and for ages, I had no freaking clue which book to read next in this series. Because of all the in-between e-books that have been released, searching for this series on the Kindle store was a bit of a mess. I also didn't quite enjoy The Iron King as much as I had hoped for it, so it was with a cautious hand that I decided to pick up The Iron Daughter.At the end of the last book, Meghan winds up contracting Ash to save her, and her character does a complete 180. All of a sudden, she's head-over-heels for Ash and heartbroken over his indifference to her. You see, he's the prince of the Winter Court, and naturally his demeanour is going to be ice cold. (Yes, I thought of Mr. Freeze for a while too.)So, Meghan is brought to the castle of the Winter Court, and Queen Mab proceeds to be mean to her. Also, she WAAANGSTS for an eternity about how Ash no longer loves her, even though they had such a special bond when he killed some wolf that King Oberon sent to bring her back to the Summer Court? I don't know.“You're playing with fire, you know that?”“That's weird, considering you're an ice prin-” I didn't get any further, as Ash leaned down and kissed me. I looped my arms around his neck as his snaked around my waist, and for a few moments the cold couldn't touch me. (Page 18 of the UK edition.)Excuse me while I go and vomit. Oh, also, the female characters in this book are another bugbear of mine. So, we have our main character Meghan, who is insecure about her looks because... I guess she's got pointed ears because of her fairy heritage. Okay, fair enough. She also goes on about what a Plain Jane she is, and after a while, I began to picture her as sitting in a boat fishing for compliments.On the other hand, the other female characters in this book are seen as 'dangerous'. Why? Because... they dress fashionably, apparently? Wear make-up?When I saw her last, Mab had worn a flowing black dress that writhed like living shadows. Today, she was dressed in white: a white pantsuit, opal-tinted nails and ivory heels, her dark hair styled elegantly atop her head.Oh, how terribly awful. The villain dresses better than you do. Clearly she is evil! There's also a few other females who do nothing but gossip amongst each other, laugh at Meghan for being a 'half-breed', and... yep, you guessed it. They're all dressed up, popular and naturally beautiful, to contrast with Meghan who, boo hoo, is not as pretty as them. Man, this is like... stock characters from a stupid high school drama, except they're wearing pointy ears and fairy wings.Mercifully, Meghan does have a few moments where she does have a bit of a backbone. She stands up for herself against those mean girls, and she refuses to cry when given bad news about her predicament. Fine, fine. That's good and all... but it doesn't exactly save the reader from all these tedious bouts of Meghan whining about how unfair everything is at the moment.I'd also like to add that the writing is a little bit too flowery for my tastes. There are so many unnecessary descriptions that really do take on a shade of purple after a while. "Rowan smiled at me, a slit-eyed, dangerous smile. (Page 29)"It was the fruit I'd dropped, a single bite taken out of the flesh, like Snow White's poisoned apple. Only it wasn't an apple now, but a big spotted toadstool, the fleshy insides white as bone. My stomach heaved, cramping violently, and I nearly lost the bite I'd taken. (Page 47)The Iron King stood before me, magnificent in his beauty, silver hair whipping about like an unruly waterfall. His long black coat billowed behind him, accenting the pale, angular face and translucent skin, the blue-green veins glowing beneath the surface.Lightning flickered in the depths of his jet-black eyes, and the steel tentacles running the length of his spine and shoulders coiled around him like a cloak of wings, glinting in the light.Like an avenging angel, he floated towards me, hand outstretched, a sad, tender smile on his lips. (Page 10)And the latter quote is just page one... When your book starts with sixty pages of whining, sprinkled with tidbits of recap and purple prose, I'm sorry, but no. Really disappointed in this. 2/5.(This review is also available at my blog: http://book-wyrm.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/book-review-iron-daughter-iron-fey-2-by.html)