Harlequin Teen
October 23, 2012
370 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depo/or Amazon
Buffy almost had it easier in the 'pretending to be normal' department too: vampires couldn't come out in the sunlight and everyone else could see them. The fae, however, are entirely different. Not restricted to nighttime hours, they're around always . . . but only other fae see them, unless they want to be seen.
Which has led to Ethan Chase, Meghan Chase from Julie Kagawa's Iron Fey quartet's younger half brother, being labelled as a trouble maker - as a suspected high school arsonist.
Ready to start over now at another school, Ethan plans to keep to his rule not to look at Them, not to let Them know he can see. If they don't know he can see, the fae can torment him, can bring trouble his way - like they did before. They'll think he's like everyone else.
Ethan thinks he's done a fine job of keeping away the world that took his sister Meghan away from him and their family.Iron, salt, wards, he does everything he can to keep Them out, to stay unnoticed.
But it seems not to be working when he's pulled back into a world he thought he'd never be a part of again - and with someone he'd already vowed to stay away from.
The Lost Prince is the first book in The Iron Fey: Call of the Forgotten, both a continuation of The Iron Fey series - with Meghan, Ash and Puck that contains four novels and three short stories - and the start to a new series starring Ethan.
While it's clear that The Lost Prince is a new series - with new characters, settings, events, etc - Kagawa found a pretty perfect blend of continuing The Iron Fey series and starting Call of the Forgotten. Ethan Chase, at the start of the book, is a teenager, twelve years removed from the events of The Iron King.
It's a great way to start the series because those familiar with the previous books get to see what's happened to Meghan's adorable baby brother in the interim years and it also makes it possible for new readers to pick-up the series. There's enough information (recap for old readers, introduction for new ones) to get everyone up-to-date with the fae lore, what happened to Ethan already, but not so much that you get bogged down in previous events. (Old readers will be happy that it's not all catch-up and new readers won't be left thinking, "Hunh?!")
<spoiler-y . . . maybe?>
In earlier books, we got a glimpse of the Iron Realm, a new fae court - along with Summer and Winter - that the author created for this series. In The Lost Prince we get to see it fully imagined. I loved the parts we saw from Meghan's trips to it before, but always seemed to still have a better picture of Summer and Winter. Not anymore. Imagination is so apparent in the creation of the Iron court, you can picture it all. The Iron court has become as real, as easy to picture as the Seelie or Unseelie courts of Summer and Winter.
</spoiler-y>
The characters are new this time around - tiny pre-schooler Ethan? Have you seen Ethan on the cover? Yeah, new guy - but we do get some visits from some old favorites (or not so favorites depending on how you interpret that/view them). It was nice to have some of them back.
Ethan's probably what made this book so fantastic. (Seriously, this book is pretty much made of awesome and I blame Ethan - and Julie Kagawa's writing/creation of him.) He's grown up, lived almost his whole life up to this point, knowing about - and seeing - the fae. Knowing that's where his sister is. It's wreaked havoc on his life in more ways than one. It seems to have not only changed but really shaped who he's become.
Ethan's a kind of brilliant character. And the other new characters? Not so bad themselves.
I really can't wait to see where this new series/part of the series goes. I'll be eagerly awaiting Book #2 The Traitor Son.
Rating: 10/10
The Iron Fey: Call of the Forgotten on Goodreads
The whole Iron Fey series on Goodreads
Another Book You Might Also Enjoy: Stolen Away by Alyxandra Harvey
thank you to HarlequinTEEN and NetGalley for my e-galleya
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