(Background: Iron Traitor isn't supposed to come out till Tuesday, I know, but I ordered mine from a small local bookstore and so they just kind of called me as soon as it came in... heh. I promise i will keep this rant spoiler-free, though expect posts about it come Tuesday.)

So I picked up this book from the bookstore around 6:30 or so and then I came home,did some chores, and went up to my bedroom around 7ish. When I closed the back flap three hours later, I realized I was hungry, cold, and needing to go to the bathroom. Someone said that this is the best Iron Fey book of them all, and I disagree - you can never replace the original series for me - but I can see why they said that.

Kierran. Ohmigod, Kierran. I read ARC reviews before it came out but I never thought he would be THAT crazy, THAT desperate. He's like the part of Ash that died when Ash got a soul, the mirror-Ash, except he's Kierran. He doesn't have any boundaries, doesn't have much of a conscience and I'm seriously debating whether of not we can actually count him as human, despite what his heritage/genetics say. I would love to get inside his mind, but I'm not sure if I would really want to have to fight the demons that are in there. He was truthfully the best part of this entire book, despite the fact that half the time I wanted to scream at him to get a hold of himself, that the world might not actually die if Annwyl did. He was fascinating, gorgeous (as a character), and scary, all at once, though in this novel and can't even think of him as Meghan's kid -there was too much Ash, the scary, dark Ash - to begin putting him in with Meghan's lightness. 

And okay, I hated Annwyl in the The Lost Prince, but in this she begins to redeem herself. She actually acts like she loves Kierran and seeing her Fading that takes place throughout the novel is heartbreaking. I don't think I'll ever ship them though. I definitely don't feel for them as much as I did Meghan and Ash. Which makes me sad, because I love falling in love with imaginary characters, and I love falling in love with imaginary couples. 

And I'm not sure if I'm the only one, but in the original series, I feel like Julie didn't show the darkness of the fey well enough. In this one, she actually does. And as awful as it is, and as much as a part of me shies away from it, the rest of me revels in it.