The Iron Flower

The book was fantastic!!! The author uses the plot and the characters to create this thrilling novel that keeps you on your toes. Twists and turns keeping it in your hands never letting go. She divides the book into parts with a prologue from different points of view letting you know what else is going on so you’re not blind sided thinking that she is trying to create action with no base but you still don’t know what will happen. I love it and I hope I can read more of her work in the future because this is an author I would love to indulge in again. A must read for anyone!!

Loved this book so much!! I love all the books and I can’t wait for the next!

I loved it!! A great sequel, and I would recommend. However, I have some beefs with the books. I liked the love relationship between Ivan and Elloren, but the whole “I want to, but we can’t” scenario felt very overplayed and stretched. I also felt (spoiler coming up) it was against Ivan’s character to not tell Elloren he was the prophesied Iracal. First, it wasn’t a shocker for the reader; we see it coming from the very beginning. I understand he was protecting her in the beginning by not telling her, but halfway through the book all hell breaks lose, it almost seems insulting he doesn’t tell her. Especially since Elloren spends all her energy trying to save her roommate Iracal friends. I also felt like it was against Ellorens character to not take a stand against her Aunt. She never stood up to her, and that doesn’t jive with her character. I loved we get to see the Kelt and Amaz lands. I loved that Elloren doesn’t have magic in this book, but yet still makes good powerful influences and changes. Overall, a fun read that I enjoyed. Thank you Laurie Forest for going against the odds to create this special series.

We start out when Elloren is given the White Wand in the first book by a woman who was a childhood friend, Sage. Elloren is carted off to University with her brothers, where she’s promptly beaten by Bleddyn and Iris. In response, she tells the guy who wants to be married to her, Lukas, and he makes sure that she is no longer physically beaten. Elloren continues to have a ton of guilt for someone making sure she is no longer abused, which I personally thought was absurd. I liked the first book anyhow. The second book is where a lot of stuff set up in the first book happens. They keep talking about the Yule celebration, and the first time Lukas meets her, he asks her to it. And one of the first things that happens in this book is the big dance. Aislinn gets to show off how TSTL she is while Jarod is angry because he doesn’t like seeing her being pushed into a corner. Meanwhile, Elloren is having the classic Edward vs. Jacob choice of the guy her family approves of vs. the guy who is bad news. She, of course, wants to go with the guy who is bad news. I was very excited by the liberation of the Selkies. I think it demonstrates that Elloren, despite herself, can find alliances to ensure good treatment and fairness for all the races. Lukas is a foil for Elloren, I believe, because they’re both from powerful Gardnerian families but Lukas toes the party line while Elloren refuses to. The time when Aunt Vyvian commits fratricide was pretty intense. I didn’t think that she’d go that far, but evidently she wanted Elloren to be wandfasted to Lukas enough to murder her own brother. I was deeply disturbed by what went on in this book, including the ear-chopping called cropping that happened on their version of Kristallnacht. I recognize that this book is about the importance of tolerance for one another, but the book makes its points in a very gruesome way. I would not recommend this book to young children. I suppose it’s suitable for older teens.