Winter's Passage by Julie Kagawa

Winter's Passage (The Iron Fey #1.5)by Julie KagawaRelease: June 2010Pages: 59 (ebook)Publisher: Harlequin TeenSource: NetgalleySummary: 

Meghan Chase used to be an ordinary girl...until she discovered that she is really a faery princess. After escaping from the clutches of the deadly Iron fey, Meghan must follow through on her promise to return to the equally dangerous Winter Court with her forbidden love, Prince Ash. But first, Meghan has one request: that they visit Puck--Meghan's best friend and servant of her father, King Oberon--who was gravely injured defending Meghan from the Iron Fey.
Yet Meghan and Ash's detour does not go unnoticed. They have caught the attention of an ancient, powerful hunter--a foe that even Ash may not be able to defeat....

Mini-Thoughts: Fast and exciting, Winter's Passage fills in the blanks between books 1 and 2 as Ash and Meghan make their way from her home to the chilling Winter Court. A very quick, exciting, and action-packed novella that any fan of the Iron Fey series will enjoy. I chose to read this after reading book 2¹, and while it was not necessary to read Winter's Passage, I found it to be worthwhile. 
Highlights: Ash became a more sympathetic character to me (but I'm still firmly Team Puck). His motivations and internal conflicts seem to really show more readily than they normally do, and it helped me enjoy his character more. And of course, Grimalkin was a definite highlight². 
Lowlights: The conflict was almost too easily fixed. The villain could have easily been more terrifying/intimidating...and no Puck! :(
Rating: 4 out of 5
Reviews of other books in this series:The Iron KingThe Iron Daughter (coming soon)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Footnotes1 I wanted to see if it was even necessary to read the novella, or if I could understand what happened from the second book alone. The Iron Daughter does a good job of quickly summarizing what happened in Winter's Passage, but there's still a bit more that would be worth reading. 2 Isn't he always a highlight? Grimalkin is awesome ;)--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------