The Iron King

In this first book in the Iron Fey series, Meghan Chase is turning 16, and odd things are happening. Her four-year-old half-brother, Ethan, is clingier than usual, and a tutoring session with the school hunk goes horribly wrong. But her best friend, Robbie, is always there for her, even when Meghan comes home to find her mother unconscious and her brother snarling like an animal. Robbie knows what’s happened: Ethan has been taken by the fey, a changeling left in his place, and the only way Ethan can be brought back is if Meghan embraces the truth—that the fey are real and that she is half-fey herself. She agrees, but her agreement is nearly the most active part she plays in her own adventure. After that, Meghan generally gets help from a series of male characters and is towed along by their decisions and actions. It’s an odd, throwback faerie tale, and while first-time author Kagawa is a talented writer and her descriptions are lush, Meghan’s ongoing passivity disappoints, though she has the potential to develop more fully in later books. Ages 13–18. (Feb.)