The Iron Witch

The Iron Witch by Karen Mahoney follows Donna who has hands that are laced with iron giving her extra strength.  Donna whose father died while saving her from wood elves and whose mother is insane has been dealing with the alchemist world alone and unable to tell anyone when her best friend Navin finds out about the world.  She also meets Xan a half breed fairy who helps her find Navin when he is kidnapped by the wood elves.


This book suffered from too much world building and introduction.  It takes half the book before anything major happens and much of what we are told is unnecessary for the plot, I'm not sure if the author was setting everything up for the trilogy but it made for a very slow read.  About three quarters of the way through the plot sped up and it became more interesting.  The book ended nicely with room for a sequel.


Appropriateness:  There are some vague drug references that I missed on my first read though.  The main character is in her late teens.  I would place the interest level at 13+ and I would only recommend this book for hard core fairy fans.