The Lost Prince by Julie Kagawa

The Iron Fey: Call of the Forgotten #1

Published by:  Harlequin Teen
Rating: 4.5/5

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.

I really liked this book, more so than it's predecessors. The writing has greatly improved, charactarisation is better, and it just seemed to gel better for me as a whole. What I really liked though was seeing how the characters had developed since the end of the previous series, especially Ethan. This is not the cute, sweet little Ethan we read about in The Iron Fey series, he's all grown up and hasn't exactly been coping well with his sister leaving and the knowledge of the existance of the fey. He's mean, closed off, rude and all round unapproachable, at least that's what he likes to make everyone think but you can see that it's all just a mask he created as a way to deal with everything and underneath it all is the same boy we were introdiced to in The Iron King. I did find him a bit whiny at times but I understood the need for it, you don't get over a hatred of something just like that, it takes time and there will be whiny-ness along the way.

Keirran...I'm not really sure where I stand with him. At times I liked him and other times I wan't whack him upside the head. There's also the fact the the event of Iron's Prophecy hanging over this book so I can't help but dislkie him a little bit, especially at the end of the book where he needed a good kick to his nether regions to knock some sense into him.

Kenzie was kinda cool, she showed enough strength and vulnerability to be three dimensional and enjoyable to read. I also enjoyed how we got to see some of our old faves from the The Iron Fey. I only wish the first scene with Puck didn't seem so pointless, it felt like he only appeared to show the readers he was still around and satisfy their Puck needs. Ash was awesome, while I wasn't on the Ash bandwagon through the original series I liked the parental role he took on in this book, it really worked for me.

Overall, this was an excellent additon to the series and fans will eat it up before demanding seconds and probably thirds. I look forward to reading the next book in the series.