Valiant

Valiant is set in the same world as Holly Black's first novel, Tithe, and there are even some characters that overlap, but Valiant is a self-contained, stand-alone novel that is not diminished if you haven't read Tithe. The story and world that Black creates here is pretty interesting. The book takes place mainly in New York City and concerns a group of homeless teens working for a troll delivering potions to other exiled fey living in the city to help relieve the pain and suffering inherent to living around so much iron. Then fey who have recently received deliveries start dying. Oh, and did I mention that kids shoot up the potions, which they call Never, like a drug, and are imbued with magical powers as a result, if only for a little while. The plot gets moved on along quickly, and includes them trying to discover the truth of the mysterious deaths, some political maneuvering in the different faerie courts and a bit of a love story between the main character Val and the troll Ravus (this is a YA book, after all). The result is a bit formulaic but the setting makes up for a lot of that. I enjoyed Valiant more than Tithe but will still read the final book in the series, Ironside, which is more of a direct sequel to Tithe.