Winter's Passage (edition 2011)

So this is a short quick little interlude between stories… there was a lot of reiteration of stuff that happened in the first book. If it’s been a while since you read Iron King (#1) then this would be a nice little refresher for you. I had just finished Iron King though so the reiteration was a little, well, repetitive. :)
This story is about Ash taking Meghan back to his Queen in accordance with their agreement and the introduction of yet another elusive creature following her; the Hunter (Or the self-proclaimed Wolf from Little Red Riding Hood. Yeah… okay. lol) Grimalkin joins them on their journey as well, and I don’t know why but I love Grim. Although when I envision the story as it progresses, I imagine Grimalkin looks like the white fluffy Fancy Feast cat for some reason. lol

Of course since Grim is supposed to be a ‘faery cat’ (whatever that means) I’m sure that’s not the case. But to me, that’s Grim. Grim and his Fancy Feast.
As far as Ash and Meghan go… as much as I love Ash, the storyline is getting old. Boy likes girl, girl likes boy… they’re not supposed to like each other, it’s not allowed, but they just can’t help it! So boy acts like he cares, but wait! Boy turns into a prick faster than a speeding bullet! Come on… *sigh* I’m still a sucker for these books and will keep reading this series. This mini-book actually made me more interested in the series overall so that works, mainly because I’m interested to see what happens once they actually reach the Winter Court and what all these weird dreams are all about.
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A fun novella explaining what happens between books one and two in the Iron Fey series. (You definitely must read The Iron King first, otherwise much in here won't make sense.) It does a nice job of filling the gap between the novels, as well as giving some relief to those of us who need more "Ash and Meghan" time. :-) ( )

Meh, this was some stop-gap ebook between books one and two. I'm not sure what the point was to these, but as I've read the rest, may as well. I suppose if there had been any indication before book four as to the order in which to read them (I don't know, inside cover?), I might have been more bothered with the two "inbetween" SHORT ebooks. ( )

I'm not a big fan of novellas and this doesn't prove me wrong about them. It was just-- flat. No characterization, it just seemed like the missing last chapter of iron king or the missing first chapters of iron daughter... It didn't stand on it's own well.
But I'm really excited for Iron Daughter... I feel like the lenth is the fundamental flaw with this one. ( )

This novella describes Ash and Meghan's journey to the winter court, Tir Na Nog.

Along the way, they face a challenge, a mysterious hunter, chasing them for some unknown reason. Frankly though, this conflict was completely predictable and lacked thrill. Mostly, this novella seems to have been written so that Ash and Meghan can trade some disgustingly sappy dialogue before he has to go all ice prince on her ass in front of his mom.

I also found a few silly errors that were either just ridiculous or contradicted something in the previous book. For example, she clambers onto a horse and then watches Ash jump up with grace. She is astounded and thinks that it looks as though "he'd done it a thousand times." Really? I'm completely dumbfounded that a fairy who has been alive for who knows how many centuries in a world where iron does not exist would have climbed onto a horse a thousand times. I'm shocked because it would be so many more. Oy. Meghan also, in the description of Grimalkin, thinks that he will do "nothing for free." Except he led her out of the Nevernever for free at the end of the first book. That's just sloppy.

Mostly though, this book was a brief summary of the first book with a bit of new content that lacks plot.