Off the Bookshelf: IRON DAUGHTER, by Julie Kagawa

Okay, call this the Overdrive Effect.

Take a print book off the to-be-read pile. Read it. Really like it. Want MORE. Go to Overdrive and find e-book versions of the next couple books in the series. Borrow the next 3 books from the library, in e-book format. Instant gratification.

And then you have a deadline to read those 3 books in the next 3 weeks. And you DO it. Because the stories are good. And it also helps if 2 of the 3 books are novellas ...

This is the 2nd novel, and the third story in the Iron Fey series.

IRON DAUGHTER takes up after the novella, Winter's Passage, in which Meghan fulfills her promise to go to the Unseelie Court/Winter Court in payment for Prince Ash helping to rescue her brother from the Iron King's realm.

When the story starts, she is still a miserable guest in the Winter Court. Ash is either not there, or he's pretty nasty to her. Not a good time for a girl who beat the Iron King and finds out she's a half-breed faerie princess, but basically nobody likes her. You'd think the girl would be finally coming into her own. Learning magic, finding out she's a princess, and all that. Except that her magic doesn't seem to work. Bummer.

Things get worse when she's accused of murder and theft and blamed for starting a war. Fortunately, some old friends and allies show up, and former nemeses turn into allies, as they set off on a quest -- and run from people who want to kill them all, starting with Meghan -- to return a magic scepter and stop the war. Major heartbreak. Major danger. Meghan proves she's a pretty tough kid, doing what's right no matter how much it hurts. And yeah, messing up when it comes to her love life because after all, she is still a kid in high school.

Loved it when she got to attend the prom -- purely for magical energy-gathering purposes, of course -- and the jerks who snubbed and mocked her end up hitting on her, and she's the envy of every single girl in the school because of the two guys who are her escorts. Yes, two escorts.

Can I say I'm totally tempted to download the next 3 or 4 books in the series and binge-read them, too? Alas, I must desist, because I have some deadlines to make, writing-wise. Best to save more Iron Fey books as rewards for getting work done. Reward yourself and read as many of these as you can!

Off the Bookshelf: SUMMER'S CROSSING, by Julie Kagawa

Another novella in the Iron Fey series.

This one is told through the eyes of Puck, Robin Goodfellow, and a dozen other names among the Fey. Puck is the ultimate mischief-maker and rabble-rouser. A good ally to have on your side, if you can trust him to stay on your side.

Puck was once good friends with Ash, prince of the Winter Fey, otherwise known as the Unseelie Court. Ash has vowed to kill Puck, blaming him for the death of the girl he loved. Now things are complicated because Ash and Puck are both in love with Meghan Chase, heroine of the Iron Fey books.

Ash has a vow to fulfill to Meghan, and a promise to fulfill to a rebel Fey queen that he can't get out of. Before Ash can find their ally, Grimalkin, he has to steal something from the Seelie Court. Much against his will, he accepts Puck's help.

Things get a lot more complicated when Oberon shows up and points out to Puck that if he betrays Ash while he's in the Summer Court, then his rival will be destroyed ... and Puck can finally win Meghan's heart.

Will Puck double and triple-cross and pay his debts or just add to them?
Read and find out!

Off the Bookshelf: WINTER'S PASSAGE, by Julie Kagawa

The next book in the Iron Fey series is a novella.

Right on the heels of the events of THE IRON KING, Meghan and Ash head back into the land of faery. She made a deal with Ash and now she has to follow through. In return for his help in rescuing her brother, kidnapped by the Iron King, Meghan must go with him to the court of Queen Mab.

Of course, magical creatures -- frightening ones -- are hunting for the half-blood daughter of King Oberon.

Their chase takes readers into some more creepy yet fascinating spots where the world of the faery overlaps the Human world, with magical creatures living opening among them -- and Humans don't see, or at least don't notice.

Of course, when Meghan finally gets to the icy underground kingdom of the Unseelie Court, things don't look very good at all. And that's the subject of the next book, IRON DAUGHTER.

Thank goodness for Overdrive and borrowing e-books from the library, and being able to download and start reading instantly. I wanna know what happens next!

Book of the Week, FELIN-RU, Wildvine Book 3

Wildvine Series
Book 3
Fantasy

From Writers Exchange

            “Doc?” Daniel resisted the urge to yank on his guardian’s sleeve. He felt very small and lost.

            

A rocky mountainside spread around him, sloping downward to the foot of the Silver Mountains reservation. This was where all the rangers and investigators and scientists who had studied wind and rain directions and angle of descent said he should have come through the mountains, that day he was found.

            “Daniel?” Khyber stood on his other side, bracketing him between her and their teacher. “Are you okay?” she said, dropping to a whisper, and squeezed his shoulder. “You’re white.”

            He shook his head, though now that she said it, he did feel a little queasy.

            This was wrong. Very wrong. He looked at a row of three trees and his mind told him he should see a pile of boulders instead. He saw a gouge in the landscape where water runoff had worn away softer soil between the bedrock of this slope -- memory said he should find slabs of moss in scarlet and purple, and a slight mound instead of a gap in the rock. Daniel tried to remember the wind and rain and flashes of lightning Khyber had described when she went through the same storm only a few hundred yards away.

            Nothing.

            Something did flicker at the back of his mind, a memory trying to surface, but he got hazy images of sunshine and trees and emerald lawns and heard flickers of laughter.

            Those shadowy creatures from his dreams were there, though. Big and black, towering over him, only the jewel-toned eyes distinct in sapphire, emerald, and a deep purple that made him think of snow-topped mountains at dusk.

            Dr. Harland linked their arms and drew him close. “What’s wrong?” He signaled the ranger retracing the “scene of the crime” to stop.

            “Sit him down,” Khyber urged.

            Daniel grinned crookedly as he realized that the world was tilting. He leaned against Dr. Harland while Khyber dabbed at his face with her red bandanna and the contents of her canteen.

            A cat-like creature with green and silver fur peered through Khyber’s loose hair, perched on her left shoulder, watching Daniel most solemnly.

            That was enough. He shut his eyes tight and clenched his fists and wished the illusions to go away.

Book of the Week, FELIN-RU, Wildvine Book 3

Wildvine Series
Book 3
Fantasy

From Writers Exchange

            She knew mud and cold and darkness and the ache in her head and the squirming little boy in her arms. He took a deep breath and she instantly pressed her hand over his mouth to smother another squall. He struggled for a little bit, until she tightened her arms around him. Then he quieted. Just like all the other times he had tried to protest their silence and stillness.

            They had to be quiet. They had to sit perfectly still here in the darkness. They had to stay where they were and never move again.

            “Why” had no part in survival.

            The world consisted of the darkness and the smell of rotting wood around her, the slimy feeling against her bare arms and the sharpness of splinters against her back, the chill mud squishing between her bare toes -- and the smell of dirty diaper coming from the little boy.

            After a time, the darkness grew grainy and turned to gray. She looked up into an immense, reeking darkness. She looked straight forward and watched the darkness shift into more gray with patterns running through it.

            Gradually, in time with the pulsing of growing ache in her head, the patterns turned into trees. She sat inside a huge, rotted hollow tree, holding a blond, filthy little boy in her arms.

            She wore shredded green flannel pajamas. The little boy wore a diaper and a T-shirt. Both of them were streaked with mud and darker marks.

            Her mind shied away from examining too closely to see what those darker marks were.

Book of the Week, FELIN-RU, Wildvine Book 3

Wildvine Series
Book 3
Fantasy

From Writers Exchange

Daniel was a mystery, found injured, lost, and unconscious on a mountainside after a freak storm. His miracle recovery and then his brilliant mind made medical history. 

Wren lost all her memory after witnessing the murders of her parents. The trauma in their childhoods unlocked Talents that it would take years for them to explore and understand.

Grown, Daniel escaped his university existence, and set out to explore and search for answers to the mysteries in his life. Taking refuge with a school friend's family, he met Wren, and the two discovered an instant bond of mind and soul and heart. Guarded by the mysterious, interdimensional shadow creatures Daniel knew only as the felin-ru, they dared to try to make a life together.

Off the Bookshelf: THE IRON KING, Julie Kagawa

Book 1 of the Iron Fey series.

Be honest -- what girl wouldn't want to find out she was a faery princess?

Read Meghan's story, and you'll probably change your mind. For one thing, there's finding out that your father isn't your father, and this cold-hearted, coldly beautiful faery king has just announced you're his little girl, but he really, really didn't want a father-daughter reunion. Ever. Then there's the faery king's wife to deal with. She can be kind of nasty toward the illegitimate daughter. Then there are the other denizens of the faery world, who make the political game players in Congress look like a bunch of runny-nose Kindergarteners in need of a nap and a diaper change. (Well ... yeah! And a good paddling and a looooong time out. But that's another story altogether.)

Then there's the whole problem of iron being deadly to the residents of the faery realms.

So when a new king shows up, with not only immunity to, but power over iron, things are starting to get shaken up pretty badly. It's war, like the realms of faery have never known it.

And guess who's in the middle, because as a half-breed,she's immune to iron? Yep. And Meghan thought being teased by the pretty and popular and nasty kids at school was rough. Oh, yeah, and the Iron King has kidnapped her little brother and left a pretty nasty, matricidal changeling in his place. Just to force Meghan to come to him, on his turf. Because he has big plans for her. This girl's got a lot on her plate. Fortunately -- or maybe unfortunately -- she's got some magical friends, or at least allies on her side. Maybe. Turns out one isn't sure if he should help her or kill her.

Yeah, and you wanted to be a faery princess?

I gotta remember to look for the next book in the Iron Fey series when I hit the bookstore tomorrow. Fascinating.

Book of the Week, ISTORICA, Wildvine Book 2

Wildvine Series
Book 2
Fantasy

From Writers Exchange

“They’re kinda stupid, aren’t they?” Bree whispered when they reached the top of the stairs.

Twist-feather hit the door with her elongated tail so it banged shut without Khyber having to reach back and close it.

“They’re just jealous of us,” Khyber answered after a moment of thought. She shared a grin with Bree, then choked a moment later when the little girl reached up and twined her warm little fingers through hers.

There, very clear, like a zap of lightning from her toes to the ends of her hair, yet cool and refreshing -- that was the sealing of their filar bond.

Now Khyber believed.

She slid her books into the crook of her other arm and turned her hand to grip Bree’s little hand. They started down the hallway to the living room where the Council waited.

Can you hear me?

Bree’s wide-eyed delight brought a bubble of laughter into Khyber’s throat.

Filar, remember? She tipped her head back, gesturing with her chin toward the door of the living room. “We’ve got some work to do. Let’s get it done so we can get away from everybody and figure things out.”

“Like what?” Bree reached up her free hand, offering to take some of Khyber’s books.

“Well … do you like the top bunk or the bottom? You’re probably staying with us, and I have bunk beds.”

“We’re sisters now, aren’t we?”

“Better than sisters,” Khyber said, two steps away from the living room door.

They paused in the doorway and the pleased smile and nod from her grandmother and from Kirstan made her feel several feet taller.