The Iron Fey Series: Exclusive Review With Reading Order

Meghan’s life isn’t what you can call ‘extraordinary’, what with her stepfather always forgetting her, her real father having vanished at a picnic, and girls at school teasing her. Not to mention the strange events that happen when she’s around. But since her sixteenth birthday, some strange turn of events makes things even worse. 

Robbie, her best friend and a notorious prankster at school, reveals himself as the Puck from the Summer Court of Fey. His archnemesis, Ash, the youngest prince of the Winter Court starts following Meghan around. What’s more, her little brother Ethan is kidnapped by someone from the fey, leaving in his place a violent changeling.

Now Meghan must journey into the Nevernever, the dangerous lands of the fey, and rescue not only her brother but also learn secrets about her identity and her missing father. 

In this remarkable debut of Julie Kagawa, enter into the fascinating lands of fey with dangerous princes, a powerful heroine, and devilish villains, where Kagawa asks readers one simple question: What happens when the deathly fey become immune to the only thing they are afraid of?

Ash, prince of the Winter Court and Queen Mab’s favorite son, deserts Meghan amongst the cruelty of Tir Na Nog. Meghan Chase, who thought Ash loved her, is disheartened by his cold behavior. But this would shortly become her smallest worry. Because the eldest son of Queen Mab, Prince Sage is murdered with the blame thrown wrongly at Ash. 

However, Meghan fiercely believes that the Iron Fey are responsible for the savage murder, but their presence isn’t believed by any of the fae.

With no option but to escape for their lives, Meghan and Ash leave Tir Na Nog and take shelter in the human world. Soon Puck joins them.

Still, with Meghan unable to use her Summer glamor and an unknown dangerous foe marching up the ranks of Iron Fey into the Nevernever, Meghan must defeat her enemies, dealing at the same time with her heartbreak; because Ash has made sure they’d never meet again.

The third book of The Iron Fey series begins with Meghan and Ash, now exiled forever from the Nevernever. Trapped in the human world, Meghan learns of the tragic incident that made her real father disappear in her childhood. Soon she decides to master the art of sword fighting, for she had the fate of all the fae resting on her shoulders.

Regardless, the exile seems to be short-lived. A delegation from the Summer and Winter Courts offers Meghan, Ash, and Puck a safe return to the Nevernever on one condition that might cost them nothing short of their lives: Meghan must help the courts win a war against the Iron fey. 

The Iron Knight is a very touching encounter of Ash’s adventures, when bound by an oath to never enter the Iron realm, he becomes desperate. Forbidden by Meghan to ever put his foot in her kingdom, he seeks Grimalkin, the cait sithe, and pleads for a way out of his vow.

But fae are creatures bound to live upon their vows, forever. Intent on meeting with Meghan, Ash chooses a fate none of the fey have ever accomplished in getting- journeying to the end of the world, finding a soul, and becoming human. Only then would he be able to break his vow and join Meghan in the Iron Realm.

Originally planned to be a trilogy, the fourth and final book, The Iron Knight, is an emotional conclusion to Ash and Meghan’s story. Bonus points since it has Ash’s POV.

My name is Ethan Chase. And I may not live to see my eighteenth birthday.

Ethan Chase’s rule#1 is: Never look for the fey. That’s because his time in the Nevernever, kidnapped by the malicious fey, had been terrible. He also hates them because her sister fell in love with one of them, leaving her family behind. But then he’s suddenly attacked by the ‘Forgotten’, dangerous breed of faeries. Now Ethan will have to break his rule for good, journeying into the Nevernever and save someone he never thought to fall for.

When your name is Ethan Chase, you can’t pursue a normal life. Despite his hatred of fey and their land ‘Nevernever’ he finds himself smack dab in it: and twice now. But no matter how desperate he is to spend his time in the human world ignoring the fey, fate has other plans.

When Ethan’s nephew Kierran suddenly goes missing one day, he must abandon his normal life and find Kierran; who may just do be on the brink of doing something incredulous in the name of love.

The Iron Traitor is the second book of Iron Fey: Call of the Forgotten. It follows Ethan Chase’s misadventures as he tries, and fails, to live a normal life.

I was immediately drawn by the plot of Iron Fey Series. The story has a magical feel to it, and Kagawa has excelled at building the world of Iron Fey, which is amazingly new yet retaining the characteristic ‘cruel’ stroke of fey stories. Iron Fey’s plot is inspired heavily from Shakespeare’s ‘A Midnight Summer’s Dream’ and many other fantasy classics, still it’s story seems fresh due to the concept of ‘Iron Fey’ in it.

The Iron Warrior begins like this: the veil that separates the human world and the Nevernever is temporarily torn. And Ethan’s nephew, Kierran, is responsible. Now the human world is thrown into chaos, the fear and glamor of the Fey creating havoc all over.

To make things even worse, one of the Fey, the Forgotten Queen, is raising an army to declare war against the Summer and Winter courts. Leading the army is the Iron Prince, Kierran himself, who has betrayed his own family.

Read this marvelous urban fantasy adventure, when Ethan will once again bear the burden of a falling world and fix it once and for all.

Puck, a notorious prankster, fool and King Oberon’s right hand is bad news to anybody not his friend. But when he comes one-on-one with a threatening enemy that is ‘himself’, he begins a new and outlandish adventure. Allying with friends and enemies- both new and old, he will fight a shadow looming over the land of faeries.

The Iron Raven follows Puck’s POV for the first time in The Iron Fey series, with some of its events happening many years before he first met Meghan.

Ash, prince of the Winter Court, has done the unimaginabe, facing adversities no fey has ever faced. And for a reason as inferior to fey as love. He has traveled to the End of the World, solving riddles and facing challenges, all to earn a soul and become human.

Now, he faces a new problem. His son, Kierran, the Iron Prince has gone missing. His absence may have a sinister reason, because something more wicked than the courts of fey is uprising.

As Evenfall grows near, the dangers seem to be escalating in Nevernever. Another book told in Ash’s POV, this gripping adventure is sure to transport you among the magical lands of the fey.

Iron Vow will be the epic conclusion of Evenfall, and the whole Iron Fey Series. Readers’ hopes are up that Julie Kagawa will be featuring Meghan’s POV in The Iron Vow! Here’s a short synopsis released by Julie Kagawa on Iron Vow:

After leaping through the portal to Evenfall, Meghan and her companions find themselves in a terrifying new world where Nightmares roam and glamour is nearly nonexistent. As their magic wanes and the creatures of Evenfall rise against them, the race to find the Nightmare King grows ever more desperate. But what they discover– about Evenfall, about the Nightmare King, about themselves –will shake everything they thought they knew to the core.

The Nightmare King stirs. A world hangs in the balance. And as twilight descends upon all the realms of Faery, Meghan and her allies must make one more impossible choice.