Hasn’t everyone dreamed of having magical powers? Growing up, I always wished I could fly, or turn invisible, or shape-shift. But in The Iron King by Julie Kagawa, when Meghan Chase’s little brother is captured and brought into the faerie realm, magic suddenly turns from a fantasy into a reality.

Meghan soon discovers that her best friend Robbie is actually Puck, the trickster from a Midsummer Night’s Dream, and to make matters worse, she learns that her father is King Oberon and she is the princess of the Summer Court. As technology spreads throughout the human world, a new race of faeries called the Iron Fey begin to destroy the Spring and Winter Courts, and Meghan realizes that her only chance to find her brother is to defeat the Iron King and stop the Iron Fey from ruining the world.

Julie Kagawa brings the characters into the story wonderfully and the audience can’t help but fall in love with Puck’s jokes, Meghan’s bravery, and the mystery and charm that is Prince Ash of the Winter Court. The pages keep turning as their adventure twists through the faerie wyldwood and the iron realm, and each character continues to make sacrifice after sacrifice to help Meghan defeat the Iron Court.

Although the plot may seem a little far-fetched, Kagawa laces the story with an important moral, making the reader wonder just how far they would go to save their own loved ones. The tension is clear throughout the book and the reader is on their toes, waiting to see if Meghan, an average 16 year old girl, can truly defeat an evil king.

Kagawa ends with a heroic finish, but the reader is left hanging at the suspenseful ending, wondering what could possibly happen next. The only way to learn how the adventure will end is for the reader to pick up the sequel,  The Iron Daughter, and continue with the rest of the gripping series.