Given the fact that this is my very first venture into the Faery world, I'm going to review this book without previous notions about Faeries. 
 The Iron King was a fast-paced book filled with action and adventure. For the first book in the series, I can definitely say it was able to grab my interest from the moment I picked it up to read. 
 The book follows Joseph Campbell's monomyth, with Meghan Chase as the heroine of the story. Right from the beginning, you can tell that there's more to her than being just an ordinary sixteen year old. 
 From the mystery surrounding her father's disappearance into a lake, the fact that her family moved to another place to the idea that she seems to sense and see things that are not there, already tells you that Meghan Chase isn't just another ordinary girl. 
 And when her brother is captured by a Changeling, we discover that she's actually the daughter of the Summer King, Oberon, who's the King in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream . She also discovers that her best friend, Robbie Goodfellow, is actually Puck, Oberon's jester. 
 Her "call to adventure" can be seen as her step up to save her brother in the Faery world by bringing him back home, (view spoiler)[ except her brother hasn't been captured by the Summer or Winter fey but by the Iron Fey (hide spoiler)]. 
 The book also follows the bildungsroman pattern, as Meghan Chase journeys into the Faery world in search for her brother, Ethan, she also discovers her true identity and her supernatural powers. 
 Meghan meets some interesting characters on her journey. Grimalkin was an interesting cat. Although, I thought he wasn't a well-fleshed out character. He seemed a bit wooden, but still funny nonetheless. 
 Ash, the Winter Prince and the object of Meghan's crush, was also an entertaining character. I think a lot of intrigue was built with the fact that he wanted to kill Meghan. He seemed so cold and distant, which is what I guess you can expect from a Winter Prince. 
 And while I liked the fact that Kagawa didn't particularly focus on the romance between Ash and Meghan, I felt she didn't really fully build on it and illustrate how their love started growing. 
 In addition, Kagawa's prose isn't purple. It's straight, descriptive and to the point, which I found a little refreshing. I found that the concept of faeries being brought out from imagination, and the idea of technology damaging their world intriguing. 
 Overall, it was an interesting book.