304p.
Publisher: Tor Books
Available Now
Source: From publisher for review
Helen Huntingdon is beautiful—so beautiful she has to wear an iron mask. Six months ago her sister Jane uncovered a fey plot to take over the city. Too late for Helen, who opted for fey beauty in her face—and now has to cover her face with iron so she won’t be taken over, her personality erased by the bodiless fey.
Not that Helen would mind that some days. Stuck in a marriage with the wealthy and controlling Alistair, she lives at the edges of her life, secretly helping Jane remove the dangerous fey beauty from the wealthy society women who paid for it. But when the chancy procedure turns deadly, Jane goes missing—and is implicated in the murder.
Meanwhile, Alistair’s influential clique Copperhead—whose emblem is the poisonous copperhead hydra—is out to restore humans to their “rightful” place, even to the point of destroying the dwarvven who have always been allies.
Helen is determined to find her missing sister, as well as continue the good fight against the fey. But when that pits her against her own husband—and when she meets an enigmatic young revolutionary—she’s pushed to discover how far she’ll bend society’s rules to do what’s right. It may be more than her beauty at stake. It may be her honor...and her heart.My thoughts:
I read the first book Ironskin and I just loved the cover. I like this cover too, but I admit not as much. Now to what is inside that cover. :)
If you didn't already know, this is a retelling of Jane Eyre. The characters names are the same, but the relationships are very different. And although we get some of the same personalities, they are also quite different. In this one we follow Helen who we did not get to know much past childhood in the original book. In this series, Helen is selfish, beautiful, and vain. She also has quite a bit of a self esteem problem. This can be a problem for a character unless they have a lot of growth in the story. Rest assured, she does grow exponentially.
My biggest problems stem from some of her relationships. I would have liked to have had them further developed. Rook is an interesting character, but he just seemed a bit underdeveloped for me. Granted he was a secondary character, but an important one. I didn't quite buy their romance nor he ability to keep within society with her background. I also didn't get all my questions answered about Jane from the first book and this one even added a couple. Hopefully there will be further installments where I will finally get those answers. Still, I do enjoy growth in a book so these problems didn't seem overly pronounced to me.
I give this book 3 1/2 stars. I enjoyed it more than the first book, and I enjoyed this ending much more than the first. I still want that ending in the first book (you will probably know what I'm referring if you have read the book) explained. Looking forward in getting those answers. :)
I read Ironskin (but didn't enjoy it too much) and was surprised this didn't follow Jane's arc as there were so many unanswered questions after the first book. I hate being left with more questions than answers, so I might just skip this or wait till the rest of the series releases before giving it a try. Thanks for your honest review, Melissa!
ReplyDeleteI liked the world building of the first, but I didn't care for that ending at all.
DeleteI wasn't the biggest fan of the first book, sadly. Reading it, I felt as if I was moving in slow motion, through molasses or something, because there seemed to be so little forward progress. I did like the gothic feel and the bad fey, though.
ReplyDeleteYea, that ending killed me. This one sort of goes back and forth with fast and slow. I do think it is much better than the first.
DeleteI haven't read the first book nor have I read Jane Eyre, so I'm not sure I'm going to be in a rush to read this one Melissa, especially since you mentioned you're still waiting on a few answers from the first book. My curiosity is likely going to kill me one day, as my patience for unanswered questions just seems to be dwindling the more I read:) I'm glad you felt this book was better than the first though, and had a much better ending, lovely review!
ReplyDeleteYou've probably seen at least one adaptation of the book, Jane Eyre... I'm betting. :) Yea, you might want to wait until the questions are answered. I was frustrated that this one didn't quite answer all my questions.
DeleteI was so hoping you were gong to love this one as it really is such an amazing cover - a perfect mix of fantasy and historical fiction at the same time, don't you think?
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't bad and did surpass the first book, IMO.
Deleteoh yes I really liked rook! I haven't read the first one but I liked this one. But I think I missed the Jane Eyre reference because I haven't read the book either.
ReplyDeleteThe reference is much more pronounced in the first book. I did like this one better.
DeleteOh Melissa you have me so curious about the endings and your questions. Of course I love Jane Eyre, so I guess I need to be reading these..LOL
ReplyDeleteOh if you like Eyre... you might want to read this one just to see who is in the book. :)
DeleteI keep seeing nothing but praise for this series, but I honestly had no idea it was connected to Jane Eyre! It's actually kind of a bad thing for me since I dislike retellings, but all the wonderful review certainly work in its favor.
ReplyDeleteOh well, if you don't like retellings... still it is quite different than the original book.
DeleteI am so curious about book 1 :D
ReplyDeleteI would love to see what you think of it.
DeleteOh! No answers yet? There better be in the 3rd or you are going to have tell the puppies to get after them :)
ReplyDeleteOooh, I had to go back and look at the previous book through your link. I remember it now. :) Yea, I remember the cover of that one and like it a tad better too.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a very good series though. :) Thank you!
I never finished the first one, but liked what I read. I would think though that the storyline in the first book would be continued on in this book. Strange way to do it, but the author must have her reasons. I need to finish that first one, I got it because of Jane Eyre, and yes, the cover. And the fey. Oh, those fey! Maybe I'll wait for the whole series. I'm such an impatient waiter. Do you think it steals from the enjoyment of the book if you're not waiting with the rest of the series lovers for the next book??
ReplyDeleteHmm, I read the first book and really loved it. I will most likely picked up this one as well. I loved your review :)
ReplyDeleteI never liked Jane Eyre ...
ReplyDeleteI've been curious about this series. I believe the author is local and I do have a tendency to read local authors. It sounds interesting but I've heard a lot of mixed things.
ReplyDeleteHmm...I don't like that you're still waiting for answers from the first book, but it is encouraging that book two is better. Not sure if I want to try this series, but maybe I'll wait until the next book is out and decide then. Thanks for your honest, lovely review!
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