Thank you, Holly Black. I have restored faith in you. Ironside is the third book in the Modern Faerie Tale series, and I gave it four stars.

Tithe was okay for me. Valiant fell extremely flat. I didn't enjoy it at all, so I was a bit skeptical going into Ironside. I REALLY liked Ironside. It actually makes me want to re-read Tithe. I think I should have skipped over Valiant completely, but what's done is done.

Ironside basically picks up not long after the end of Tithe. Roiben is becoming King of the Unseelie court, and Kaye decides to pledge her love to him as a declaration. Roiben sends her on an impossible quest, to find a faerie who cannot tell an "untruth". Kaye assumes this is his way of telling her to hit the road. Meanwhile, there is tension between the Seelie and Unseelie courts, imminent war, trial and deception, love, etc.

We see some of the characters from Valiant. Luis is a big part of Ironside, which I liked. I never had an issue with Luis. It was the other three I couldn't stand. The ONLY good thing reading Valiant did for me was introduce me to these secondary characters. But honestly, if I didn't know the backstory to Luis and Dave, Ironside would not have suffered from it. We see a bit of Dave. We get some...ahem...*closure* with Dave. Like I said in my Valiant review...good riddance. We don't see Lolli, which concerns me that there may be a sequel to Valiant.

The book itself was very fast-paced, and never had any "down time". The entire book has the reader wondering what a certain characters *real* motives are, where their *real* allegiances lie, and who is on whose side. It kept it exciting! It also had a happy ending, for the most part. We see Kaye grow up and start to think about her future and where she stands with her family, as well as the Faerie courts. We also see Corny achieve some level of happiness. One of my complaints in my Tithe review was that I didn't really feel the Kaye/Roiben relationship. Ironside helped draw that together. By the end of the book, I had a bit more confidence in the characters feelings. I'd love to see more of the Kaye/Roiben/Corny/Luis world. I liked the dynamics of the group, the dialogue was witty and fun, and Kaye is more likable than she was in Tithe. All in all, good book. I enjoyed it, and flew through it in 2 days. I highly recommend this book, and I hope to see great things from this author in the future.

Favorite line in the book? You really want to know? Well, ok!

"You still haven't told me," he said softly.

She stretched her arms out over her head, then came to an abrupt halt in front of him. "Told you what?"

He grinned. "How you managed to complete the quest. How you claimed to be able to lie."

"Oh, it's simple." Kaye lay down on her back on the snowy beach, looking up at him. "This is me," she said, her voice full of mischief as she reached out with one long-fingered hand. "See? This is me lying."