Title: A Crown of Iron & Silver
Series: Soulbound: Book Three
Author: Hailey Turner
Publisher: Amazon/Kindle Unlimited
Length: 379 Pages
Category: Urban Fantasy
At a Glance: Hailey Turner gives such great diction. Every scene manifests into something beautiful, and that’s wholly attributed to her ability to turn a phrase. A Crown of Iron & Silver is a must-read book in a must-read series.
Reviewed By: Lisa
Blurb: Never promise a life that isn’t yours to give.
New York City is decked out for the holidays, and Special Agent Patrick Collins is looking forward to a reunion with his old team when he gets assigned a new case. A human child is missing, and the changeling left in her place causes a prominent witch family to demand justice from the fae.
Meanwhile, continued harassment from the New York City god pack forces Jonothon de Vere to formally establish his own with Patrick. Doing so will mean a civil war within the werecreature community—a war they risk losing from the start without alliances. Making bargains with the fae is never wise, but Patrick and Jono have nothing to lose when a fae lord comes asking for their help.
The Summer Lady has been kidnapped from the Seelie Court, and if they can find her, Patrick and Jono will cement an alliance with the fae. But the clues to her disappearance are found in Tír na nÓg, and the Otherworld has never been kind to mortals.
Venturing past the veil, Patrick and Jono risk losing territory, time, and their very lives while searching for answers. Because the Queen of Air and Darkness knows they are coming—and the ruler of the Unseelie Court has an offer for them they can’t possibly refuse.
Review: Read this book. That’s it. That’s the review.
Not really, but if you’ve become as avid a fan of this series as I have, I don’t need to tell you that you shouldn’t wait to sink your reading chops into this installment of the Soulbound series. It. Is. Glorious.
Any author who dedicates their word count to the fae and the old gods—and does so with an obvious appreciation for the rich robustness of the source material—gets bonus points for keeping those legends alive in all their forms. That Turner has summoned these characters into a setting that straddles the urban, the rugged natural landscapes of the isles, and the time-out-of-time Otherworld, thrusting the characters into battle scenes with creatures both dead and alive, gods and monsters alike, and that raised my blood pressure considerably, is a masterstroke of storytelling. It’s one of the feats that has been carried out so religiously through these first three novels, this knack for drawing readers into adrenaline-pumping situations while simultaneously exploring the characters and their relationship to each other in a way that means bonds and found family and, of course, love and affection and loyalty and trust. I don’t see that coming to an end any time soon, not until the author puts paid to the series.
A changeling child is but one puzzle piece in the overall mission Patrick’s been assigned in A Crown of Iron & Silver. There’s also the kidnapping of the Summer Lady, who has a personal connection to someone from Patrick’s past, as well as a quest to retrieve the Morrígan’s staff from a foe before Ethan Green, Patrick’s own father and arch nemesis, can get his hands on it. The long arc of the story and the role Ethan plays in it remains a factor going into the fourth Soulbound novel, so there will be much more danger forthcoming. I would imagine that we will be seeing more visits from the Greek pantheon as well, as Persephone still owns Patrick’s soul debt, and owing a god is an obligation with as many snares as striking a bargain with the fae.
The depths of the pack bond forged between Jonothon de Vere and Patrick, their dire Sage, and their teenage ward and fledgling dragon Wade, gives such a warm emotional context to the action and suspense. It’s the definition of finding people who become home, and that continues to thrive here as Jono comes to embrace his fate and coexistence with the god who rides his soul, and to use that to his advantage to protect the people who mean everything to him, Patrick in particular. The way Patrick has eased into his relationship with Jono, and into what their soulbond means, doesn’t blunt Patrick’s sharp edges—he’s still fierce and vigilant and protective of who is his, and he discovers a secret that challenges him in this book—but it has offered him the gift of having someone he can lean on and know that he’ll get the unconditional support he needs. It’s a welcome and lovely development of his character and how he relates to Jono now.
Hailey Turner gives such great diction. Every scene manifests into something beautiful, and that’s wholly attributed to her ability to turn a phrase. “She wore a patchwork dress made out of the skin of dead enemies, each piece sewn together with silver thread” is a single example of some of the best lines I’ve ever had the pleasure to experience in a book. It provokes the proper awe, evokes the picture of a formidable adversary, and showcases the way Turner conjures the essence of every character and scene.
A Crown of Iron & Silver is a must-read book in a must-read series.
You can buy A Crown of Iron & Silver here:
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