{Review} Ironskin by Tina Connolly

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.

My Review

I received this from Tor/Forge for my honest review.

Ok so where to begin, how about the beginning. Jane had been cursed by the fey when she was just a young girl. Ever since then she has had to wear an iron mask from keeping the curse from causing other people rage. She keeps losing jobs b/c no one wants to have a fey cursed working for them. So, she gladly accepts the position to help a little girl who is cursed like her. But the little girl is not cursed like her at all. She is something else entirely and the girl’s father is even more so. Jane wonders how these women come in plain and leave beautiful. She thinks she knows but she has absolutely no idea what is really going on.

I was so excited to start reading this book. Once I was accepted I plunged right into the book. It was nothing fancy at first and nothing was really catching my interest. It was just pretty good for the first half. The second part of the book is where it started to get good. Even before then the book stays with you and keeps you guessing. I didn’t stay away for long and when I started to read the second half I was entranced. I couldn’t stop reading. I had to know what was going on. I had my guesses but they were totally off. I thought I was real clever and figured ever thing out, but nope. So if you think you know what is going on you probably have it wrong. It's just that good. The beginning on the book seemed to drag on and felt like a lot of unnecessary parts. But as the story goes on you realize that they are very important and they play a very important part in the story. This was not the best story but it was a very good one. It followed me around my house when I wasn’t reading it. I was trying to figure out the mystery of it all. Overall this was a great read and I can't wait to read what happens next.

Jane was a very strong girl. She lost her mother, father and brother at a young age. So it’s been Helen and her for a while. She was fey cursed and she deals with it the best that she can. She was infuriating because she would look at someone beautiful and not feel like she was worth anything. I would feel the same way but she's dealt with it for 5 years and I think she is beautiful the way she is. (I'm totally crying writing this, that’s' how much I care for this character). I loved Jane, she was strong but not to strong, she had deep feeling about some things. I wanted so badly for her to feel beautiful and for her to see her as I did. I can't wait to see what’s in store for her.

Edward as he wants Jane to call him is very mysterious. I could not figure him out until the book ended. He eluded everything and let nothing pass. He lost his wife a year before Jane came and he is still feeling her loss. You can also tell he has other demons eating at him. What are the demons, you'll just have to wait and see for yourself.

Dorie is a stubborn little girl if I ever saw one. I can understand the way she is because she has gotten away with everything for a long time. (Gotten away with what, you'll find out soon enough). I loved watching her grow in the book. She goes from a stubborn little girl into an almost well behaved little girl. Let’s just face it she’ll always be stubborn.

Helen is Jane's younger sister. I really didn't care for her that much. She just seemed real fake to me and only cared about how she looked. She surely didn’t care about Jane's feelings….AT ALL.

There are other characters that I could talk about like Mrs. Poule but I’m just going to stick with those, although I did love Mrs. Poule.