Book Review: The Lost Prince by Julie Kagawa

Title: The Lost Prince

Author: Julie Kagawa
Series: The Call of the Forgotten, #1
Pages: 379
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Date of Publication: 23rd October 2012
Source: Publisher via NetGalley*
Synopsis from 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’s 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 myths and talking cats, of magic and seductive enemies. But when destiny comes for Ethan, there is no escape from a danger long, long forgotten.

My name is Ethan Chase. And I may not live to see my eighteenth birthday.

My Thoughts:
The Lost Prince is the first in the new series from Julie Kagawa, The Call of the Forgotten. Being a huge fan of The Iron Fey series, I read this as soon as I could (back in August now) and devoured it in less than 24 hours. It's the story of Meghan's little brother, Ethan, and his adventures in the land of the faeries, and I really, really enjoyed it.

If you're a fan of The Iron Fey series, this book is a must read. It's got the essences of The Iron Fey, so much at times that it could quite happily be in that series instead, but for the most part there are significant differences that make it able to stand on its own as a new series. Ethan was similar to Meghan, yet somehow even more stubborn and determined. I thought Meghan was bad but Ethan was so set in his ways that he sometimes put himself in the most stupid of situations that easily could have been avoided... And he just couldn't contain his curiosity, especially when it came to the Fey. He knew he had to stay away at the beginning, but he still didn't and got into more than a little bit of trouble because of it, and that made me laugh, because it was so typical that he takes after his sister in that way. But he always got himself out of his problems and made them as right as he could, so it wasn't so bad.

I really liked how the first third or so of the book was set in the mortal world, our world. It was nice to read about how people who can see faeries cope with living in the real world, something that we rarely saw in The Iron Fey. I liked watching Ethan try to pretend that he didn't know that Todd was half-fey, and it was exciting to think that he could see these weird new Fey, the Forgotten, when no one else could. He also took  these martial arts kind of lessons (Rattan, or something, maybe?) and reading about him fighting and demonstrating was amazing. I've said it many times before in my reviews of Julie Kagawa's other books, but she is excellent at descriptive writing, she really is.

As usual with Julie Kagawa, the writing is flawless. I could read her books forever... I will quite happily read everything she writes in the future, even if it's something that I'm not really interested in, because I really do feel like she could write the dictionary and I'd still enjoy it (well, okay no, that's a slight exaggeration). It's full of action, fast paced and exciting, but not too fast that it feels rushed or like it's missing things out. There's a smidgen of romance too, a romance that will hopefully blossom into something amazing in the next books, and of course massive twists throughout to throw everything off balance. It felt so good to be back in Faery, especially as I didn't think I'd get to read anything new set there, and Julie's writing always brings something new to it. I loved it!

My favourite thing about the book, however, was Kenzie. I adored her. Also, she made me like my middle name a lot more... Anyway, she was so cute and funny and she brought out the good in Ethan, and showed him that he didn't have to hide away just because he could see the faeries. She made him realise that it wasn't all about him (he could be a little arrogant at times) and showed him that sometimes just because *he* didn't want something to happen, it didn't mean that it wouldn't. She also made him become a lot more open and friendly, and by the end I liked him a lot more than I did at the beginning, and I don't think I would have, had Kenzie not had a huge part to play.

Then there were all the little things (and some quite big things) from The Iron Fey series that I recognised that made me smile. For example, the reappearance of both Grimalkin and Puck! My two favourite characters from Meghan's story appeared and I couldn't stop grinning. They're funny and so frustrating but I love them both to pieces. It was also nice to see how Meghan's life has progressed since she became The Iron Queen. Seeing her embrace her role as leader of the Iron Fey was awesome, as was how she put her own little personal tweaks on her realm to make it more friendly and not such a daunting place to be.

The Lost Prince was a brilliant book. I'm sorry for such a long review, but I just have so many things that are awesome about it to share with you! If you're an Iron Fey fan, this is an absolute must-read. I would say that you'd probably need to have read the whole of The Iron Fey series first, starting with The Iron King, but if you don't mind spoilers (and they'll be massive) you could probably get by without reading them, though I don't recommend it! It definitely does not disappoint and I am most excited for the next book in the series.

*Huge thanks to Harlequin Teen and NetGalley for giving me access to this egalley in exchange for an honest review! In no way has this affected my opinion of the book.