The Lost Prince by Julie Kagawa (UK edition cover)

Title: The Lost Prince (The Iron Fey – Call of the Forgotten #1)
Author: Julie Kagawa
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy, Young Adult
Publisher: MiraInk (6th January 2013)
Blurb:

DON’T LOOK AT THEM
DON’T SPEAK OF THEM
NEVER ENTER THEIR WORLD

Those are the rules that Ethan Chase live by when it comes to the dark fairies that robbed him of his sister.

But they are still on his trail and Ethan can’t fight fate forever.

Now the deadly fey are a his school, colliding with his real life, Ethan will sacrifice everything to keep his mortal friends safe, even if it means becoming entangled in the world he’s spent his whole life trying to deny.

His destiny and birthright are calling.

And now their’s no ESCAPE.

Rating: *** (3 stars)
Review:

The Lost Prince is the first book in the spin-off series from The Iron Fey by Julie Kagawa. This time the story focuses on Ethan Chase, brother to the Iron Queen. If you have read the short story collection The Iron Legends then you may have a good idea about what is going on in the background of this book, as I think that one of the short stories in the collection hints at how the events in this new series could play out.

I will admit that I was somewhat disappointed with this book. For me The Lost Prince lacked some of the magic of The Iron Fey series, but I suspect that it was mainly due to the fact that I found Ethan Chase difficult to relate to and understand. For most of The Lost Prince Ethan is a seething ball of hate and disgust for all things fairy – up to and including his sister, and sometimes especially his sister. Whilst there is no denying, if you’ve read The Iron Fey books, that he does have a very good reason for this hate, at times I found it hard to like him because of it.

One of the things I found really interesting to read in The Lost Prince was the fact that a lot of fairies appear to live in the human world. Whilst this is hinted at in The Iron Fey series, there is no real suggestion of the scope because the series is set mainly in the Nevernever. Ethan’s brushes with fairies in the book seem to suggest that the fairy population in the mortal realms is pretty large.

I also thought that Julie Kagawa did a good job on the character front in The Lost Prince. There are some familiar faces that flit in and out of the story, but The Lost Prince focuses mainly on new characters. Ethan is obviously the main protagonist of the book, and whilst I found him a difficult character (as I mentioned earlier) I did find him interesting enough to what to know what was going to happen to him next, and to see how he would react in certain situations. I thought Kagawa did a good job with Todd and Kenzie, who kind of act like foils to Ethan. I also thought Keirran was a very interesting character, and that he is definitely one to watch.

The plot of the book was in some ways pretty similar to the first book of The Iron Fey series, as it provides an excuse for the characters to end up in the Nevernever. If you’ve read The Iron Legends then a couple of the plot reveals won’t be much of a surprise to you. However, the story was an engaging read and there were interesting twists and turns along the way, though these were often character driven (at least for me). The Lost Prince is an interesting spin-off from The Iron Fey series and well worth a read if you enjoyed the series.