Ash made a promise to Meghan – he would find a way to be
with her in the Iron Realm, a realm poisonous to the fae. Even if that means
becoming human.
Which calls for a quest – first to find Grimalkin because
he normally knows, well, everything and from there a quest to make Ash mortal.
To find him a human soul. All the while accompanied with Puck for his own brand
of randomness – and the deep underlying pain that still strains their broken
friendship.
A pain that only becomes more acute when they find the surprising
identity of the seer that can guide Ash to humanity – and to Meghan’s side
This book, as can be guessed by the title, focuses on
Ash. Hmmmm…
Ok I’m going to confess a “your mileage may vary” moment,
but I don’t like Ash. I don’t like the whole centuries old immortal falling
head over heels for a teenager after spending 5 minutes with them trope. I don’t
like the idea of a centuries old immortal deciding to give up his life, his
allegiances – just about everything that defines him – to dedicate his whole
being to a teenager he’s known for a month, if that. The whole concept of Ash
from book 1 has annoyed me.
Especially since this relationship defines Ash. His
relationship with Meghan and his relationship with Ariella are pretty much all
there is to Ash. I’ll go a step further and say that the only defining
characteristic about Ash is his angst. He angsts over Meghan and being with
her. He angsts over Ariella and her dying. He angsts over Puck causing Ariella’s
death and further angsts over their broken friendship. He angsts over being an
Unseelie fae and the darkness within him and what that could mean. He angsts
over the politics of the court. He even angsts over all the bad things he’s
done in the past as an Unseelie fae.
Add to this that Ash isn’t exactly romantic and glamorous
in his angst. He sulks, he pouts, he becomes passive aggressive and snarky and
doles out the silent treatment. He’s moody and just a little petulant; I
suspect he looks like a teenager, but he’s supposed to be several centuries
old, we would hope for a little more maturity.
And this book feels like a grand show case for the angst
and every encounter feels like another way to develop more angst into the tale.
Puck comes along with him – allowing lots of angst about Ariella being dead,
lots of angst about Puck loving Meghan and even a side order of angst from Puck
about how he never took his chance to be with Meghan. (And, side point again –
but uckies, ew, creepy! Puck has been watching Megahn since she was a baby. He
watched her all her life until the age of 16. The idea that he missed the
chance to make his feelings known is just intensely, skin crawly creepy here.
She’s 16! He knew her as a baby! Get away from her you creepy creepy person
you).
