Review: Recommended Read! Best Book!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 21, 2013
Not everyone will make it out of the battle against Zeus unscathed.The Iron Queen picks up exactly where the intense cliffhanger in Daughter of the Earth and Sky ended. Readers wanting to enjoy this book must read the previous two books in the series in order to fully understand the events in this tale.Persephone continues to amaze me with her strength and resilience. She suffers unthinkable and sometimes graphic acts of torture at the hands of Zeus, her own father. Zeus believes he can break her, but I think he seriously underestimates Persephone. As I read, I was on pins and needles wondering how in the world she would escape.Throughout this series, Persephone has undergone a lot of changes. She continues to grow and mature in this book as well. I really like Persephone and have come to think of her as a friend. I truly wish I could have spared her some of the physical and emotional pain. However, everything that Persephone has been through has helped shape her into a very strong woman. I know that she will be a wonderful and very powerful goddess who genuinely cares about the Earth and humanity.Hades continues to fascinate and scare me. His love and passion for Persephone is so powerful that I have no doubt that he would "break the world" for her. The situation with Zeus seems so dire at times that I was beginning to wonder if it would really come to that.I didn't get to see Hades and Persephone interact as much as I would have liked in this book, but Zeus couldn't keep them apart for long. I've enjoyed watching them grow as a couple throughout the series, and I was very satisfied with their happy ending.Ms. Bevis introduces a host of gods and goddesses in this story along with a brief description of each character's powers. Since I'm familiar with Greek mythology, I didn't have a problem following all the new additions. However, readers unfamiliar to mythology might be a bit overwhelmed. I assume the new gods and goddesses will make appearances in future installments of the series.Aphrodite has several chapters devoted to her in this book. In Daughter of the Earth and Sky, Aphrodite came off as very superficial and flighty. Consequently, she wasn't exactly my favorite character. However, the chapters devoted to her in The Iron Queen provide some much needed insight into Aphrodite's character that helped me begin warm to her. The fourth book in the series will focus on Aphrodite, and I'm curious to see what Ms. Bevis has planned.I thought the previous book was emotional, but this one is even more so. The final solution for dealing with Zeus literally had me sobbing. I understand why a certain character chose to make a huge sacrifice, but that didn't make it any easier to bear. This character's selfless action definitely illustrated the fact that Ms. Bevis is not afraid to have her characters make tough choices and some of them don't get a completely happy ending. Even though the storyline involving Persephone, Hades, and their conflict with Zeus has a very satisfying conclusion, Ms. Bevis has once again left the door open for another adventure. There are a few unanswered questions that have left me craving the fourth book.The Iron Queen is an intense and touching tale. Ms. Bevis has created a captivating world filled with great characters that I've come to know and love. I can't wait to see what happens to them next. I highly recommend The Iron Queen as well as the rest of the series to readers looking for a gripping young adult fantasy.Originally posted at Long and Short Reviews