THE IRON KING
From the Iron Fey series, volume 1
by Julie Kagawa
Paranormal romance in the style of Melissa Marr and Cassandra Clare. Meghan Chase loves her family, but she doesn’t love living on a pig farm in the Louisiana swamps. At least she’s got one friend—spindly prankster Robbie Goodfell. On Meghan’s 16th birthday, everything changes: Her four-year-old brother is replaced by a changeling, and Robbie admits he is a faery (Puck, of course). Robbie escorts Meghan into the Nevernever on a dangerous rescue mission, where she unsurprisingly discovers she is more than your everyday bayou schoolgirl. Good thing she’s got a crew of helpers: Puck, who seems awfully affectionate; Grimalkin, a vanishing cat with motives of his own; and Ash, an Unseelie prince of cold, unearthly beauty. Though Kagawa’s faeryland initially appears decorated with the stock set dressing of the genre, the novel’s eponymous villain adds a clever, unexpected twist. Genre fans won’t be disappointed, and surely the rest of the series will reveal the truly important answer: Team Ash or Team Robbie? (Paranormal romance. 12-14)