Ironskin by Tina Connolly
- Pub. Date: October 2, 2012
- Publisher: Tor Books
- Pages: 304
- Series: Iron Skin #1
It’s the only way to contain the fey curse that scars her cheek. The Great War is five years gone, but its scattered victims remain—the ironskin.
When a carefully worded listing appears for a governess to assist with a "delicate situation"—a child born during the Great War—Jane is certain the child is fey-cursed, and that she can help.
Teaching the unruly Dorie to suppress her curse is hard enough; she certainly didn’t expect to fall for the girl’s father, the enigmatic artist Edward Rochart. But her blossoming crush is stifled by her own scars, and by his parade of women. Ugly women, who enter his closed studio...and come out as beautiful as the fey.
Jane knows Rochart cannot love her, just as she knows that she must wear iron for the rest of her life. But what if neither of these things is true? Step by step Jane unlocks the secrets of her new life—and discovers just how far she will go to become whole again.
First Line: The moor was grey, battlefield grey.
Review: I had such high hopes for this book, the cover the blurb everything screamed this has to be a 5 star book but no not the case. I was a little disappointed the book had so much potential especially with that blurb but in the end it didn't live up to it entirely. Also if you have read Jane Eyre this is a retelling... a very loose retelling.
The book starts off letting us know that the Fey war has been over for the past five years. We are introduced to Jane who has to wear an iron mask since she was struck with the shrapnel's of a fey bomb and in turn she is cursed with rage and the iron mask keeps her curse in check. The people who wear ironskin are looked down upon and Jane has a hard time keeping a job until she gets the chance to work in the home of Edward Rochart who has a fey cursed child.
I was expecting a fast paced thrilling read, what I wasn't expecting was to be bored for the first half of the book. The majority of the book was Jane trying to teach the child (Dorie) how to stop using her powers and use her hands to do things. I was tempted to mark this as dnf but I was stubborn, I was determined to see this one to the end and I'm actually glad I did, it got a lot better in the second half. It was more fast paced and we finally had other interesting characters to read about. I was expecting romance but there wasn't much and what did develop did not seem believable. Jane and Edward barely saw each other, didn't have much interaction but somehow fell in love.
I did like the world building it was done very well, I was able to really picture it all with vivid detail. I really liked the fantasy aspect of the world. I also actually really liked Jane. She is half the reason I continued reading when I normally would have put this one aside, she wasn't a damsel in distress when things got tough and chaotic she took action.
Overall this book was not for me, There were a few things I liked but not enough to where I want to pick up the second book when it comes out.
