The Lost Prince (Call of the Forgotten #1)
by Julie Kagawa
Genre: YA Paranormal Fantasy
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Publication date: October 23rd 2012
Pages: 379 (paperback)
Source: ARC from publisher
Author's website | GoodReads
Don’t look at Them. Never let Them know you can see Them.
That is Ethan Chase’s unbreakable rule. Until the fey he avoids at all costs—including his reputation—begin to disappear, and Ethan is attacked. Now he must change the rules to protect his family. To save a girl he never thought he’d dare to fall for.
Ethan thought he had protected himself from his older sister’s world—the land of Faery. His previous time in the Iron Realm left him with nothing but fear and disgust for the world Meghan Chase has made her home, a land of myth and talking cats, of magic and seductive enemies. But when destiny comes for Ethan, there is no escape from a danger long, long forgotten.
More than a decade has passed since Ethan Chase was kidnapped and taken to the Never Never. A lot of things have changed since then- her sister Meghan rescued him from the world of fey thirteen years ago, became the Iron Queen and has decided to stay in the fae realm for good, but the world of fey refuses to leave Ethan alone. He can see them, and they know it, making life a living hell for him and getting him into sticky situations.
Ethan grows up and becomes a pessimistic and snarly teenage boy who doesn't just stay away from fairies, but stays away from people too. Thinking that his sister has betrayed him and still tormented by the fey, Ethan has chosen to close himself off to the world. He goes to such lengths such as placing iron beside every window and learning a form of filipino martial arts called Kali. He hates the fey and he hates his sister, and does everything he can to avoid coming into contact with them.
A crazy accident at his old school gets him suspended, so he has to start over again at a new one where he ruins his first day by unwillingly helping Todd, a half breed who was being manhandled by the resident jock-bully. His bad boy swag and air of mystery also attracts the attention of Kenzie, who writes for the school newspaper and has zeroed in on Ethan as her latest article. Both cannot keep him from coming into contact with the fey, just when things take a turn for the worse- another kind of fey has resurfaced, one that has been forgotten by both humans and fairies, one that cannot be defeated easily. They're coming back to get what they want- at any cost.
I love everything Julie Kagawa has written, and due to the excitement over this book, I guess everyone else does too. Going into this book, I didn't know what to expect but I definitely had high expectations. I already had an initial idea of what I was going to feel about the book, but halfway into the story it had completely broken out of the confines I was placing it into. The Lost Prince surpassed my expectations by a mile, and it definitely delivered.
Julie Kagawa's writing style is still simple, but goes well into detail without becoming too expansive. She is a master at world building and creates a cast of compellingly complicated characters whose adventures will have you flipping the pages. The story is mainly set in the human world, but we get a glimpse of the Nevernever as well. Old friends and personal favorites like Grimalkin and Puck make a welcome appearance (cue fangirlisms), and some new characters come packaged with surprising revelations that will shock you to the core.
Speaking of new characters, I am so in love with Ethan. He is definitely a better protagonist than his sister. Yeah, he's rude, pessimistic, and stubborn; always wanting things to go his way, but he has his reasons. His childhood experiences really left a mark on him, but in the book we see him overcome his fears and turns them into something that fuels his strength. Kenzie is harder to explain. A lot of questions about her pop up at the start of the book, and Kagawa answers these towards the end but I felt that it was somewhat lacking and rushed. I couldn't really see any spark between her and Ethan, and I think that the romance between them was bland and unnecessary.
The Lost Prince is best read if you finished The Iron Fey series, but works as a stand-alone as well. Fans of the original series will easily spot a few similarities between the old characters and the new ones, but it doesn't go to the extent where everything feels like a replication. Julie Kagawa has in The Lost Prince much of what we already know from previous books, but in the end it makes it more fun. This new spin-off series definitely has a lot of potential and I can't wait to see where it goes. This first book felt like a pilot episode that was setting up the major plot points, but everything was so interesting and captivating that I didn't mind in the slightest. There are plenty of details and questions that are far from being answered though, and left me hanging off a cliff. I for one am looking forward to what is coming.
THE NUB AND GIST: 4 STARS
Buy the book from: The Book Depository | Amazon (paperback) | Amazon (ebook)
