Author Crush - Julie Kagawa!

Fantasy readers everywhere: if you haven’t read anything by Julie Kagawa, it’s time to add her to your reading list because she’s amazing! Her world-building skills are off the charts and her characters always feel like real people, regardless of the type of story she’s telling. Whether it’s vampires, faeries, or dragons, there’s never a shortage of romance or action, though some of her writing can get a bit violent.

In the world of the Talon Saga, dragons are nearly extinct and are able to pass as human by shape-shifting, but humanity isn’t satisfied with near-extinct and sends soldiers out to slay any dragons that might still live in hiding. Dragon siblings Ember and Dante Hill have been assimilated into the human world for training on how to coexist unnoticed before being assigned to their permanent positions in human society, but one dragon hunter, Garrett, is determined to hunt them down. As he tracks Ember, his main quarry, he is surprised to find that she isn’t the ruthless killer he’d been trained to believe that she would be. Talon is a fast-paced and complex enemies-to-lovers kind of story and Julie Kagawa doesn’t miss a beat in developing these characters into believable people. Not to mention that cliffhanger at the end of book one will have you running to the shelf to get the next one - it’s a good thing Inferno, the last book in the series, was just released!

The Blood of Eden trilogy is a fast-paced and dark series about a girl who gives up everything to save the ones she loves after a plague killed most humans or turned them into vampires. In this world, vampires keep humans around only for blood, but Allison lives under the radar as an unregistered human. Then the inevitable happens - she is discovered by a vampire. Instead of killing her outright, he gives her a choice to either be turned or die - she of course chooses to live as a vampire, but after she is turned, Allison must flee the city and pass as human when she meets up with a group seeking a cure for vampirism. If you’re a fan of the Underworld movies, this is definitely the book series for you! Julie Kagawa does an excellent job of rendering the world without losing the characters and plot and a trilogy was the perfect length to tell this story, though beware of cliffhangers and have the next book ready for reading!

The Iron Fae series is the first series that Julie Kagawa wrote and it’s my personal favorite - I’m a sucker for anything having to do with faeries, especially if romance is involved. This series also has a spin off called Iron Fae: Call of the Forgotten, which she began right after she finished the original series. Both are complex and atmospheric, but it doesn’t slow down the plot one bit. Meghan’s story begins in The Iron King, right after she finds out that she’s the daughter of the summer faery king, when her half-brother is kidnapped. She must journey into the land of the fae to save the ones she loves, but all things come with a price in the realm of the fae and many dangers lie ahead of her.

For more information about Julie Kagawa, check out her website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. If you read and enjoyed her books, you might also enjoy books by these authors: Holly Black (start with Tithe Jh BLA or The Coldest Girl in Coldtown Jh BLA), Daniel Jose Older (start with Shadowshaper TN OLD), and Christopher Paolini (start with Eragon Jh PAO).