What We’re Reading

Ironside | Holly Black

Rating:

When I started reading, I immediately regretted having read Tithe and Valiant so long ago. Although it’s probably more all the stories I read in between that filled my head up so that I forgot some of the important pieces to this one. But once the story starts to pick up, you get past what you might not remember.

After a brief prologue explaining Roiben’s beginnings at the Unseelie Court, we jump to his present, where he’s about to be crowned its King. Immediately after his coronation, things take a turn for the worse. Kaye, egged on by some ill-wishing faeries, makes a declaration–something she doesn’t fully understand–and Roiben sets her an impossible task, which she takes to mean he doesn’t love her. Of course he means it in an entirely different way, but since they can’t talk until she completes her task, there’s no great way to discover that fact. Shortly after this, the court is attacked and must flee.

Back in the human side of things, Corny has gotten himself cursed, and Kaye has informed her mother that she’s a changeling and is really a pixie, not a human girl. The result is not quite what she had hoped, which leads she and Corny to take off in search of the Fixer, who’s said to be able to lead them to Silarial, who has requested an audience with Kaye.

Upon arriving at the Bright Court, Kaye quickly realizes that what Silarial wants is her help in controlling Roiben, which Kaye could provide, as the one living being to know his true name. She has absolutely no intention of using it against him that way, of course.

After a lot of unwanted adventure, and a few further mishaps, the gang figures out a few key answers, and stumbles upon some good luck. Will it be enough to save the day?

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The Ironside | Holly Black by Jaemi, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 13th, 2007 at 1:01 pm by Jaemi and is filed under Book Review, Series. Find similar posts by selecting and of the following tags: death/loss, faeries, fantasy, holly black, magic, ya fiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.