Review: The Lost Prince by Julie Kagawa

The Lost Prince by Julie Kagawa
Series: The Iron Fey: Call of the Forgotten #1
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
First published: October 23rd, 2012
Source: NetGalley
Format: eARC
Pages: 379

Goodreads Summary:
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.

My Rating: 4.5 / 5

First thoughts:

As another wonderful addition to one of my favorite series, The Lost Prince turned out to be a very fast and entertaining read that left me craving more. With Julie's amazing style of writing and a new twist in the Nevernever this start of the spin-off series will definitely not disappoint fans of the original series.

More detailed:

Usually I'm a bit wary of spin-offs as they often cannot live up to one's expectations after having read the original series. But considering the fact that I have fallen in love with every single one of Julie's stories, I was actually looking forward to reading The Lost Prince and luckily I wasn't disappointed.

The story is told from Meghan's not-so-little-anymore brother Ethan who tries to live his life while knowing and seeing the hidden faerie world all around him. Of course that complicates his life on more than one occasion, until he is - just like his sister in The Iron King - pulled into the Nevernever and has to deal with many new problems.

I was actually quite surprised by the new plot line Julie came up with, because until I started The Lost Prince I was a bit skeptical as to whether this story could be actually something new. Luckily - or not - new dangers are slowly invading the world of Faery and make sure that Ethan has his own mission in the Nevernever.

Of course we get to meet some old favorite characters again that made me squeal a tiny bit whenever they appeared. But there are also a couple new characters that will definitely make the story even more interesting and whose motives and definite traits have not been revealed completely yet. I'm also very curious about how the love story will develop, because so far it has the potential to be a quite heartbreaking one.

All in all, I recommend you to pick up The Lost Prince if you've already read and loved the first four books of the Iron Fey series. While there are some explanations about what happened in those previous novels, I would definitely recommend though to read these before starting the spin-off - it'll be a lot more fun when you've already met certain characters before.

Have you read The Lost Prince? If yes, what did you think about it?

If no, do you plan to read it?

I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Carina

Short Story Review: Iron's Prophecy by Julie Kagawa

Iron's Prophecy by Julie Kagawa
Series: The Iron Fey #4.5
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
First published: September 1st, 2012
Source: Bought
Format: Paperback (part of The Iron Legends)
Pages: 76

Goodreads Summary:

Meghan Chase is finally getting used to being the Iron Queen, ruler of the Iron Fey. Her life may be strange, but with former Winter prince Ash by her side at last, she wouldn’t have it any other way.

But when they travel to the Summer and Winter courts’ gathering for Elysium, the oracle from Meghan’s past returns with a dire prophecy: “What you carry will either unite the courts, or it will destroy them.” Now Meghan faces a devastating choice that may determine the future of all fey—and her and Ash’s unborn child…

This review might include spoilers for the previous books of the series.

My Rating: 5.0 / 5

What I thought about it:

I've been in love with this series ever since I started reading the first few pages of The Iron King and still cannot get enough of its characters and world-building. Julie Kagawa has managed to create such a beautiful albeit slightly scary world that sucks you in even with the smallest snippets of writing - so of course I ended up loving Iron's Prophecy, too.

This is set not too long after The Iron Knight and gives us a tiny glimpse into Meghan's life as the Iron Queen. It ends up setting the scene for The Lost Prince and gives us a few ideas about what Julie might have in store for those characters that we've fallen in love with. I just absolutely adored the little adventure that brought a couple of our favorite heroes back together and made me reminisce about their previous adventures.

I definitely recommend reading this before reading the first installment of the spin-off, The Lost Prince, because even though it's not necessary, it makes certain scenes and actions a bit more understandable. All in all, Iron's Prophecy is another wonderful novella and adds very interesting facts to the Iron Fey series.

Have you read this series? If yes, have you read Iron's Prophecy, too, or do you plan to read it?

If no, what are you waiting for?!

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Carina

Fictional Distractions of the Week #49

Welcome to Fictional Distractions of the Week. It is inspired by Book Journey's It's Monday! What are you reading? and Fiktshun's My Reading Pile and it will show you what I'm planning to read during the next week.

The books I plan to read this week:

At first I'm going to finish Ember by Carol Oates. There's not much left for me to read, but I'm still not really sure how I'm going to rate it. Some parts I absolutely loved so far, while I almost wanted to skip over some others... really hate it when a book has such wonderful potential, but some scenes just lack in comparison to the others.

Then I'm going to read The Shadow Society by Marie Rutkoski. Just like last week, I'm still really intrigued by it and am excited to finally get around to start it.

And then I'm actually hoping that despite my very slow reading pace I'm going to get around to start The Lost Prince by Julie Kagawa. I don't think that I need to say anything about why I'm excited for this one, except Julie Kagawa. Just love her books. Love.

What are your Fictional Distractions of the Week?

New Distractions #13

The books I received this week:

Bought:

The Iron Legends

For Review:

Ember | Iridescent

Kindle Freebies:

Blood of Anteros | Become | The Fallen Star | Awakening

Huge thanks to Omnific Publishing for the review copies of Ember and Iridescent.

I've had another crazy week and while the internship's still a lot of fun, I can't wait for September to be over - especially since I'm going to spend today with my criminal law paper and can't really relax. Nonetheless I'm still trying to read as much as possible and while I'm definitely a slow reader at the moment, I'm enjoying Beneath the Glitter and am looking forward to the next couple of awesome books on my tbr-pile. As well as the new additions that I got during the last two weeks, which you can see above.

Which books did you get last week? What are you up to at the moment?

Carina

New Distractions #08

New Distractions is a weekly feature on Fictional Distraction, inspired by various memes that make us share the new books we got during a week, e.g. In My Mailbox by The Story Siren, This Week in Books by Pop Culture Junkie and Stacking the Shelves by Tynga's Reviews.

The books I received this week:

For review:

The Lost Prince | Beautiful Disaster | My Super Sweet 16th Century | Lucid | Flight

Huge thanks to Harlequin Teen, Simon & Schuster, Entangled Publishing, P.T. Michelle, and Alyssa Rose Ivy.

I'm finally back from vacation and am trying to get back into "the real life." It's both awesome and weird to be back home, especially since I could spend so much time at the beach and in the ocean during the last two weeks because we had insanely awesome weather. I also got around to reading some of my own books, but once I'm finished with City of Fallen Angels I will be going back to my review copies and hope to reduce that pile a lot. And I'm hoping to get to these new awesome books soon, too.

Which new books did you get in the past week(s)?

Carina

New Distractions #02

New Distractions is a weekly feature on Fictional Distraction, inspired by various memes that make us share the new books we got during a week, e.g. In My Mailbox by The Story Siren, This Week in Books by Pop Culture Junkie and Stacking the Shelves by Tynga's Reviews.

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The book I received last week:

Bought:

The Immortal Rules 

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Just receiving one book last week is really good for by tbr-pile (especially since I already read and loved The Immortal Rules - my review), but I'm still waiting for two pre-orders to arrive and I'm hoping that they won't take too long anymore.

Remember to check out the list of giveaways at the top of this page and link your post-of-new-books in the comment section, so I can check them out, too.

Carina

Review: The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa
Series: Blood of Eden #1
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Expected Publication: April 24th, 2012
Source: NetGalley
Format: eARC
Pages: 485

Goodreads Summary:
Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a vampire city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten.

Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them. The vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself is attacked—and given the ultimate choice. Die… or become one of the monsters.

Faced with her own mortality, Allie becomes what she despises most. To survive, she must learn the rules of being immortal, including the most important: go long enough without human blood, and you will go mad.

Then Allie is forced to flee into the unknown, outside her city walls. There she joins a ragged band of humans who are seeking a legend—a possible cure to the disease that killed off most of humankind and created the rabids, the mindless creatures who threaten humans and vampires alike.

But it isn't easy to pass for human. Especially not around Zeke, who might see past the monster inside her. And Allie soon must decide what—and who—is worth dying for.

My Rating: 5.0 / 5

First thoughts:

I had very high expectations for Julie Kagawa's new novel and am happy to say that all of them were met. I fell in love with her new characters and her new incredible world immediately and cannot wait to read more of this. I've always loved Julie's writing in the Iron Fey series, but with The Immortal Rules she is now definitely one of my favorite authors. Don't hesitate, go and pick up your own copy! It's amazing.

More detailed:

Again, Julie Kagawa has built an overly imaginative and very complex world that will pull readers in and make them want to know more about it. The world of The Immortal Rules is dark and dangerous, creating a huge contrast to the beauty of the fairy world in her Iron Fey series. And this is exactly what I enjoyed so much about this novel: Julie has proven that she could be writing anything and it will turn out to be amazing.

While I've read less and less vampire books during the last months because I needed a break from them, The Immortal Rules has given this genre a new charm. While some aspects of the lives of vampires aren't exactly new, I love the dystopian / post-apocalyptic setting that turns them into even more vicious creatures than I've witnessed before in other books.

Allison, The Immortal Rules' main character, is perfectly flawed. Some of her decisions and actions made me cringe and I sometimes wanted to shout at her for saying the wrong things. But at the same time it's hard not to love her. She's grown up under unimaginable conditions and while she has always been used to take care of herself, she never forgets the people around her. 

The romance in The Immortal Rules develops slowly, but with everything that is happening and the world-building this is the excact pace it needs. At this point, I cannot say whether there'll ever be a love triangle, but I know that I'm more than happy with the romantic aspects of this series so far. Allison's love interest is a wonderful person and I'm really hoping to read a lot more about him in the second book of the Blood of Eden series.

If you liked Julie's Iron Fey series, I'm more than sure that you'll enjoy The Immortal Rules, too. If you want to read a vampire novel that will refresh this genre, you'll need to read this one as well. I fell in love with it completely, devoured it as fast as possible and now I'm dying to get my hands on the second book of this series. Definitely one of my favorite books of 2012!

Have you read The Immortal Rules? What did you think about it?
Do you plan to read it?
Carina

In My Mailbox #46

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren. It gives bloggers the chance to appreciate the books they got last week and to meet new people.

Last week's interesting posts:

The Goddess Hunt by Aimée Carter (Review)
Heaven by Christoph Marzi (Review)
The Mayfair Moon by J.A. Redmerski (Review)

Starling by Lesley Livingston (Waiting on Wednesday)
Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi (Cover Comparisons)
Unraveling by Elizabeh Norris (Distractive Obsessions)

The books I bought:

The Goddess Hunt by Aimée Carter (Kindle - my review)

On the Fringe by Courtney King Walker (Kindle)

The books I got for review:

The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

Dark Kiss by Michelle Rowen

Everlife by Kyani Swanigan

Intangible by J. Meyers

Fairy Blues by J.L. Bryan

Fairystruck by J.L. Bryan

Huge thanks to NetGalley & Harlequin Teen, Kyani Swanigan, J. Meyers and J.L. Bryan.

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These kind of IMM posts make me fall in love with my Kindle all over again - all eBooks (which is why there are no photos). But they are sooo awesome that I can't wait to read them. Already read and reviewed The Goddess Hunt and finished reading The Immortal Rules yesterday - it was amazing! Julie Kagawa is definitely one of my favorite authors... another 5-star-read! Also can't wait to finally start J.L. Bryan's books, because I've heard so many great things about them.

What did you get in your mailbox?
Carina

In My Mailbox #28

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren. It gives bloggers the chance to appreciate the books they got last week and to meet new people.

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The books I bought this week:

Enthralled by Melissa Marr et al.

Awake at Dawn by C. C. Hunter

This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen

The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa (my review)
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
Intertwined by Gena Showalter

Intertwined was available for 0,99€ for Kindle on Amazon Germany

The books I got for review this week:

Hallowed* by Cynthia Hand

Everneath* by Brodi Ashton

Under the Never Sky* by Veronica Rossi
Someone Else's Life** by Katie Dale

* thanks to HarperCollins and NetGalley
** thanks to Random House Children's Books and NetGalley

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The physical books I got this week all arrived this weekend. I'm sooo excited for them (bought them with some of my birthday money) and I didn't expect them to arrive all at once. Also, in the last few weeks I was actually trying not to request any books from NetGalley, but - wow! Can you believe that HarperCollins is letting us read these titles? They've been on my wishlist ever since I first saw them and I can't wait to start reading them. :)

What did you get in your mailbox?

Carina

This week's reviews:
Unlovable by Sherry Gammon
Melody's Song by Kendal Ashby
Destined by Jessie Harrell (you can win an e-book of Destined!) 

Review: The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa

The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Expected Publication: October 25th, 2011
Source: NetGalley
Pages: 361

Previous books in the series:
The Iron King, The Iron Daughter, The Iron Queen
Winter's Passage (# 1.5)
Summer's Crossing (# 3.5)  

Goodreads Summary:
To cold, emotionless faery prince Ash, love was a weakness for mortals and fools. His own love had died a horrible death, killing any gentler feelings the Winter prince might have had. Or so he thought.

Then Meghan Chase—a half human, half fey slip of a girl— smashed through his barricades, binding him to her irrevocably with his oath to be her knight. And when all of Faery nearly fell to the Iron fey, she severed their bond to save his life. Meghan is now the Iron Queen, ruler of a realm where no Winter or Summer fey can survive.

With the (unwelcome) company of his archrival, Summer Court prankster Puck, and the infuriating cait sith Grimalkin, Ash begins a journey he is bound to see through to its end— a quest to find a way to honor his solemn vow to stand by Meghan’s side.

To survive in the Iron realm, Ash must have a soul and a mortal body. But the tests he must face to earn these things are impossible. At least, no one has ever passed to tell the tale.

And then Ash learns something that changes everything. A truth that turns reality upside down, challenges his darkest beliefs and shows him that, sometimes, it takes more than courage to make the ultimate sacrifice.

My Rating: 5.0 / 5

First thoughts:

What a brilliant ending for such a fantastic series. While the ending of The Iron Queen broke my heart a little bit, The Iron Knight put it together again and made this series even more wonderful than I ever expected. I am incredibly happy that Julie Kagawa had decided to write this fourth novel and at the same time I'm sad to see this series come to an end. 

More detailed:

The Iron Knight finally gave me the closure I needed to deal with the ending of The Iron Queen. I loved that this story is told from Ash's point of view, making it possible to really understand the prince of the Winter Court. The glimpses we get into his former life, his life before Meghan, are very interesting to witness. In the previous novels it was easy to forget how his past made him the person he is, but in The Iron Knight we get to see the real Ash.

His journey to fulfill his promise to Meghan is full of surprises, dangerous situations and heart-breaking moments. Before I read this, I had already heard that this novel is able to make you cry, but I only believed it when I had to suppress my own tears while reading. Ash's story is so wonderfully written and with every new chapter I was hoping more desperately that he and Meghan will get their happy ending.

I also loved the characters who accompanied Ash on his journey. We already know Puck and Grimalkin, but there are a few surprising appearances. I loved how his companions force Ash to acknowledge his past and deal with his problems. Of course, my favorite character is still Puck and I am a little bit sad to see that he hasn't find someone who loves him yet. But since Julie Kagawa is writing a spin-off series, I'm still hoping that he'll get his happy ending, too.

Julie Kagawa's writing in The Iron Knight is just as beautiful as it was in the previous novels. And while I almost thought it was impossible to create even more elements in this wonderful faerie world, I am surprised by how many more creatures and places we get to encounter and experience. The Nevernever is a beautiful and almost overwhelming place that I hope to see in the spin-off series again.

All in all, I am very happy with the way this series ended. The Iron Knight is a great novel and while I'm sad to see this series come to an end, there couldn't have been a better ending for it. Julie Kagawa has created a wonderful and very unique world with amazing characters and I'm looking forward to read everything else she will write in the future.

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Have you read this series / The Iron Knight? What did you think about it?
Carina

In My Mailbox #17

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren. It gives bloggers the chance to appreciate the books they got last week and to meet new people.

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Gifted:

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

huge thanks to Donna from Book Passion For Life ♥

Books I got for review this week:

The Iron Knight* by Julie Kagawa

The Juliet Spell* by Douglas Rees

*thanks to Harlequin Teen and NetGalley for giving me the chance to read and review these novels

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Sooo happy about the novels that I got during the last two weeks while I was on vacation. Now I can finally read City of Bones (can anyone believe I haven't read this series yet? Donna couldn't. :D ) and The Iron Knight. Good thing I still don't have to go back to university and have lots of time to read.

By the way - it's the last day to enter for a chance to win STARCROSSED by Josephine Angelini.

What did you get in your mailbox this week?

Carina