Book Review: Iron Crowned
Book Title: Iron Crowned (Dark Swan #3)
Author: Richelle Mead
Purchase: Amazon
Rating: ⭐️⭐️
Description from Goodreads:
Shaman-for-hire Eugenie Markham is the best at banishing entities trespassing in the mortal realm. But as the Thorn Land's queen, she's fast running out of ways to end the brutal war devastating her kingdom. Her only hope: the Iron Crown, a legendary object even the most powerful gentry fear. . .
Who Eugenie can trust is the hardest part. Fairy king Dorian has his own agenda for aiding her search. And Kiyo, her shape-shifter ex-boyfriend, has every reason to betray her along the way. To control the Crown's ever-consuming powers, Eugenie will have to confront an unimaginable temptation—one that will put her soul and the fate of two worlds in mortal peril. . .
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Trigger Warning: This book and review discuss rape.
I honestly have no idea why I have continued to read this series. It’s not good, and yet I keep hoping and praying it will get better. Richelle Mead, what happened with this one?
This is the third book in the series and Eugenie is back at it again. After Dorian kills a prince from another kingdom, Thornland is at war. In order to win the war with less bloodshed, Eugenie goes on a search for a powerful fey object, the Iron Crown. In between all that, she continues her shamanic duties and takes on client cases.
What truly blows me away in this series is the weird love triangle that occurs. Eugenie ping-pongs back and forth between Dorian and Kiyo. I don’t even understand why she claims to be in love with either of these men. It feels like neither relationship truly develops and both men constantly question her choices and leave her in the dark on certain matters. It seems like there’s only sexual chemistry bringing them together. And both relationships have a lot of conflicts and never talk about their issues or resolve them. Way too much time in the book is given to this drama and I don’t think it adds anything.
Eugenie overall as a character just really bothers me. Her choices literally make no sense. She constantly ignores her duties in the Thornland, even though she knows that she needs to be there, helping her subjects. She is super immature, letting a fight with Dorian impact how she handles the war. It’s a war! You need to be in your kingdom for it, Eugenie! Instead, she hides away at her house in Tucson for good chunks of the novel. It also bothers me that she never seems to question anything or conduct research in order to assess a situation. Instead, she is content being fed information, then acts upset when it turns out she wasn’t given the whole story. She consistently leaves her advisers to take care of the kingdom instead of learning about battle strategy, financials, or planning anything herself. I understand she’s still battling between wanting to feel human and not gentry, but it’s so weird how sometimes she is all about helping gentry and then other times, she just seems to give up and run away, even when knowing it’s not what is best for the kingdom.
I also think the author did a poor job dealing with Eugenie’s rape. Eugenie is able to move on within a couple of days and put the ordeal behind her. This seems impossible, especially considering she was raped continuously for weeks. If someone experienced this, they would be suffering from severe PTSD. The author had a chance to show someone grieving, dealing with anger and loss during a difficult time. Instead, it felt like it was swept under the rug and she immediately jumped into a relationship. I can kind of understand starting a relationship thinking maybe it could help you heal… somehow… but she and Dorian never address the issue, which I found very weird.
I will say, Eugenie’s sister Jasmine started to grow on me in this book. I enjoyed her barbs and the fact that she remains staunch in her ideals. I was able to see her more as a teenager and to understand how she was influenced to believe that she should have a son and take over the kingdom. I also enjoyed that she and Eugenie grew closer and formed more of a sisterly relationship.
If you manage to make it to the end of the novel, you are in for a shock! It left me angry, confused, and a little flabbergasted. I don’t want to give too much away, but I think you’ll be surprised by some choices that Eugenie and Kiyo make. The ending, at least, made me excited to finish the book.
It’s frustrating because there was such potential with this series. The idea of having someone half-human and half-gentry who becomes the ruler of a kingdom is super interesting. If Eugenie had been a stronger, more consistent main character and if there had been less emphasis on the love triangle, this could have been a great book.
