Book Review: Ironskin by Tina Connolly

Release Date: October 1, 2012
Author: Tina Connolly
Publisher: Tor/Forge Publishing
Length: 304 pages

"Jane Eliot wears an iron mask. 

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."

Review:

Characters: After learning that this book was inspired by Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte I was intrigued to see how Ironskin's Jane developed. Even though I have yet to read Jane Eyre I know the basic plot outline, and I'd have to say that there isn't very much in common between either Jane. This Jane has been a social outcast for the past five years since she risked her life to save her brother's and wound up becoming cursed by Fey shrapnel. This makes her a social pariah and creates issues with her self-esteem. Throughout the book, she begins to see herself for who she truly is and not how others see her. 

Romance: This was one area that seemed a bit spontaneous and disjointed. Not only does Jane suddenly decide, nearly out of the blue, that she's in love with Edward Rochart, but then begins to feel inadequate almost immediately after. Not to mention the fact that she had probably only seen him seven times prior to claiming her love for him. I felt like this connection was forced and didn't flow as well as I would have liked.

Pacing: This book was extremely hard to get into at first. It is not bad enough to where you would want to just stop reading, but almost nothing happens for the first half of the book, which practically killed me. However, after that it escalates and does a complete 180, sucking you in at every page.

Predictability: Overall, this was a pretty predictable book, and it isn't because this book is inspired by Jane Eyre, since this book has many major differences, but it's just that kind of thing that is full of easily predictable moments. Not to say that there aren't some unexpected twist, however these aren't the larger twists that change the course of the novel.

Ending: Hands down, I have to say that I loved the ending. It was full of everything a good ending needs, it leaves room for a sequel, or more, and ties a good amount of things up as well as opening some new doors to explore. I was delightfully impressed at how it came together at the end and made me want to find out what happens next.

Overall, I'm giving this book 3.5 out of 5 stars. Though it was hard to get into, and it was fairly predictable, after the first half of the book you won't want to put this book down. So, pick it up on October 1st.

P.S. I am so sorry that I've been away for almost 2 weeks I've been really busy with school, designs for this blog, the upcoming contest, as well as the fact that my computer broke down and I've had some depression issues to deal with. I have a new computer and my depression is temporarily gone, however I'm still working on the other stuff. I'm going to try and tweet more to let you guys know what's up, I know I haven't been doing that but I wanted to tell you guys a date that I'd be back and I never really could. So, please follow me on Twitter @FlyeZachary93 and by E-mail using the form in the sidebar. 

Next up: The Golden Door by Emily Rodda.