Author: Tina Connolly
Publisher: TOR Books
Publication Date: October 2, 2012
Genre: YA Paranormal
Format: Kindle 461 kb | Hardcover 304 pages
Buy this book on Amazon: Kindle Version | Hardcover
Author's Website: http://www.tinaconnolly.com/
Author's Goodreads Profile: Tina Connolly
Synopsis from Goodreads:
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.
Diving in...
I don't really know where to start with this review. I had really high hopes for this book based on the synopsis and the stunning cover. I don't really think that the actual story lived up to the expectations that I had. I realize that this is a liberal "re-telling" of the Jane Eyre story and I must admit that it's been SO long since I have read Jane Eyre that it was like a whole new story to me. I won't even begin to say that I could compare the two stories because, honestly, I tend to not remember plots of books after so many years. So I didn't have any issues with that like I know some readers did.
I really did like the plot and I think that while Ms. Connolly did a great job building her world there were a lot of things that were confusing about it. There seemed to be a lot of missing information concerning the Great War and details about why it ended, etc... that I think really needed to be elaborated on. I also really wanted to know what year it was, but that's just something that bugs me personally.
I did like her descriptions of the Fae and how they needed to use human bodies because they didn't have corporeal forms of their own. I also liked that in this story the Fae and the "bad guys". I know in a lot of YA books the Fae are glamorized, not so in this case!
For some reason I never really connected with Jane, I don't know why. She was a likable enough character. My favorite character was probably the butler, Poule. I also really was unsatisfied by how the romance between Edward and Jane was left off. It seemed really unfinished it and it wasn't a very satisfying end, for me anyway. I never really got a great feeling about Edward anyway, I think his character needed more work. Overall, I think there needed to be a lot more character development.
The ending seemed really rushed to me. I think that it was great that Jane was able to help Dorie and that she learns about her curse and how to deal with it in a better way. I just think that the pacing and flow of the story needed help. I think this had the potential to be a really great story, I just think that in actuality the execution here was just a little off for me.
I am sure that there are a lot of readers who really enjoyed or will enjoy this book, I just didn't like it quite as much as I was prepared to. I know that there is another book coming in this series, but I don't know if I will read it or not.
*Disclaimer: I was provided with an ARC Galley copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*
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