ARC Review of The Lost Prince by Julie Kagawa

★★★★★ - This thing is heaven in book form.

The Lost Prince
By: Julie Kagawa
Review by: Kaede

Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Pages: 379
Star Rating: ★★★★★/ Go out and buy it now.
Release Date: October 23rd 2012


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.

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"For something to be given, something must be taken."

For me, the original Iron Fey series is irreplaceable. Try if you will. You can shower me with classics or dozens and dozens of newly released YA titles, but you won't be able to divert my attention should I be in the process of re-reading one of the Iron Fey books. They are my darlings. So when details surrounding The Lost Prince was up for the public, I was nothing if not skeptical. Spin-offs usually don't end well with me. If anything, they typically end up ruining the original story and the characters I'd come to love in it. But then I actually read this jem of a book. And while I still lived for the moments where Ash, Meghan, Puck, and Grimalkin showed up, Ethan Chase's tale is a story in it's own right.

Ethan is no Ash or Puck, but nonetheless, I couldn't help but love him all the same. He's certainly not without his flaws, but they only serve to endear him as a more realistic person. He does complain quite a bit, and often about his sister, but he has a good heart underneath. And for all the negativity he has stored up inside, he has Kenzie to balance him out.

And speaking of Kenzie, she's probably the most bubbly, full of life person I'll ever meet fictionally or even in everyday life. Kenzie is just the kind of person you wouldn't be able to hate. Her kindness, and just the fact that she doesn't back down when she's challenged was more than enough to win me over.

Now let us discuss the new characters that stood out most to me, and the twists and turns.

PRINCE KEIRRAN

In all honesty, Meghan and Ash's son, Keirran, was like a combination of a slightly less witty Puck who had the stubbornness that Ash had when he refused to give up Meghan and return to his rightful place as a Winter Prince. However, he was eventually able to make his place in my heart, if you exclude the ending. He just wasn't the Keirran we meet and love in the first half of the book anymore by then. And the sequel's title. WHYYY? I look forward to seeing Keirran in The Traitor Son. Righttt...yeahhh. *sniff*

THE FORGOTTEN

"We are forgotten. No one remembers our names, that we have existed."

Boy were those things creepy. I really don't see the appeal of them, I really don't. Perhaps that's why no one wanted to remember them. Maybe. I SAID MAYBE. IT WAS JUST A SUGGESTION SO DON'T KILL ME YOU CREEPY FEY.

I think that's just about it. Anymore and I'll just give in to the temptation of erasing everything I've written up to this point and just scream, "READDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD THISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS NOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! THIS THING IS HEAVEN!"

Mhm hmm. I tend to gush when I like things. You musn't judge me. The Lost Prince is enchanting and beautiful, romantic, yet still full of action. It has something for everyone. Pre-order your copy now. Mine is already on the way. Cheers.
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Review also found at: Goodreads

Contact Kaede: kimberlyho75@yahoo.com

Review of Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

by Isabelle Doan

Website/Goodreads/Amazon

Random Info:
Release Date: September 27th 2011

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Pages: 417 pages (hardcover)

Series: Yes, this is #1

My Format: Library (audiobook)

Time it Took me to Read: audio is 14 hours

Rating: Library/Borrow/e-book/Paperback/Hardcover

Around the world, black hand prints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grows dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages—not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers—beautiful, haunted Akiva—fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

I believe it’s an age thing.

I’ve often been told that teenagers are just as viable as adults- that our opinions matter, too. That we count as people as much as the next forty year old. And yes, I agree with that to a certain degree.

But as a young person, I can tell you that there’s a lot that I don’t understand. That I’ve never experienced- that I can’t imagine until I’ve seen it, felt it, heard its harrowing cries.

One of these things is love.

That’s where Daughter of Smoke and Bone has its biggest fault. The first line of the book is “Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love.” This is referring to the two main characters of the story, Karou and Akiva. The only problem is that I didn’t get their love. I didn’t feel a connection. It was, to put it simply, insta love.

Maybe that’s not the author’s fault at all. Everyone over the age of twenty who has read this book has given it such high praise- anybody under that age had less than good things to say. I read and watched a lot of reviews on this book before writing my own, and while reading many teenagers’, I began to realize that their main complaint was the so-called insta-love.

[Here’s where I add that I say that I mean majority, meaning… my Goodreads friends. If you’re 85 and you hated this book, good for you! Comment and we can talk, because I like you.]

One of the goals of writing is to make a reader understand and sympathize. Laini Taylor did this nicely with Karou, as I thought she was a great heroine. However, the romance- MY biggest gripe as well- left me wondering if I was missing something. I wanted to rate this five stars so badly. The world building was stunning, and it had a rich cast of characters, and it was so beautifully imagined. But the romance between Akiva and Karou was just depressing and made me not want to read.

The romance was comparable to the one in City of Bones. Utterly ridiculous, and full of yawn, yawn whatever. Karou and Clary both drew their perfect love interests in sketchbooks, half of the book was filled with descriptions of Jace’s and Akiva’s perfectness, blah blah twinkies are dry. The difference between the two books is that the last half of City of Bones didn’t completely revolve around the romance. Being such a large book as well, that’s a lot of pages! It boggled my mind how Daughter of Smoke and Bone would spend 200 pages on a romance, yet let the actual falling in love last about 10 pages, sans 50 pages of Akiva stalking Karou.

I kept reading anyway because everything outside of that was great. But whenever Akiva showed up, he brought everything crashing down. For one, he had this “pity me” vibe going on. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to sympathize with him because of that, but it just sort of made me angry, like the people with problems who go on reality shows just to get attention. (I’m not talking about actual people with actual problems. I’m talking about those chicks that appear on Dr. Phil, or My Strange Addiction.)

Secondly, he was described as beautiful repeatedly. I get that beautiful people make the world go round, but that should not be the only prerequisite for a relationship.

But wait. This wasn’t a relationship. It was full on, desperate, desperate love- the kind that is told so gorgeously, that I really wanted to love it myself. But I couldn’t really bring myself to, because I just didn’t understand it. I didn’t understand the romance.

Considering the romance takes up half of the book, this is a problem. I felt like it was used to move along some plot points that could have been resolved with more action, because, believe, me, Laini Taylor can write good action scenes.

But I think Laini Taylor can write, period. (Although I should add that this is the type of writing with an adjective before each word. Not for the people who think beauty is in simple things.) Maybe later in life, I can appreciate the beauty of this book. For now, I will say that Daughter of Smoke and Bone was humorous with riveting creativity, but I could easily put it down.

Review of Eon by Alison Goodman

 ★★★★

Eon
By: Alison Goodman
Review by: Kaede

Publisher: Firebird
Pages: 531
Star Rating:  ★★★★/ Exceeded Expectations.

Sixteen-year-old Eon has a dream, and a mission. For years, he's been studying sword-work and magic, toward one end. He and his master hope that he will be chosen as a Dragoneye-an apprentice to one of the twelve energy dragons of good fortune.

But Eon has a dangerous secret. He is actually Eona, a sixteen-year-old girl who has been masquerading as a twelve-year-old boy. Females are forbidden to use Dragon Magic; if anyone discovers she has been hiding in plain sight, her death is assured.

When Eon's secret threatens to come to light, she and her allies are plunged into grave danger and a deadly struggle for the Imperial throne. Eon must find the strength and inner power to battle those who want to take her magic...and her life.       

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 He released me, his face tight with disgust. "Always half the story. Never the whole."

Living a life constructed only of lies, 16-year-old Eona, disguised as 12-year-old Eon, has been training for years to be chosen as a Dragoneye apprentice. However the secret of her gender is said not only to bring misfortune, but will, if discovered, be the very cause of her death. Eona must hold the cold, hard fact that if the secret she and her master took every length to conceal should ever come to light, danger would not only be inflicted on to her, but to everyone she holds dear.

Faced with impossible odds, the gap between Eona and the other candidates seem to grow by every passing day. And if only to make meeting impossible ends more impossible, Eona is crippled. But we soon learn that Eona possesses not one secret, but many. One being that she can link herself to all the living energy dragons of good fortune, a feat unheard of. But will that advantage serve to be enough?

The world of Eon is a splendid blend of the Japanese and Chinese cultures, but still manages to hold a place of it's own. Eon is as entralling as it is imaginative and unique, but it is not without flaws. But it is those very flaws that enable to readers to connect to Eona, to her world of the dragons in the state of a battle for the Imperial throne.

There was one other course I could take, but Ido had seen my true nature; it was not in me to chose suicide. Perhaps it was cowardice, but I was not ready to die. Not for my emperor, not for the prince, not even for my friends. And for this shameful lack of courage, I was now slave to Ido's desires.

Eona, or if you prefer, Eon, is nothing like the typical damsel in distress. It's true that she is far from perfection, but who isn't? Eona is not invulnerable, but at least she knows where her loyalties lie, even if she is not able to act on them. If forced to draw a sword to save her friend's life, it would not be in Eona to drop her weapons and flee alone. I grew to admire her, slow and selfish as she may be, Eona was the kind of person who'd try and try again, and if she failed, she'd try again. With a man's appearance but a woman's heart at core, Eona is able to live the best of both worlds.

I found power in accepting the truth of who I am. It may not be a truth that others can accept, but I cannot live any other way.

Encountering and eventually befriending Lady Dela and Ryko, even if Eona did not know it then, would serve to be a great assist if she still wished to live after everything she'll go through. Being a strong believer myself that without well-developed and strong side characters, a book would not be even close to the level it could be, I must admit that I expected to prefer Lady Dela and Ryko over Eona and Ido the moment we were introduced to all of them. However, much to my shock but satisfaction, I found that I adored all of them. Down to the very last of the characters, even the very evil High Lord that sought to control by force. I was able to see a light to those who seemed to fall on dark side. Ido, Ido, Ido. That man sure is, if anything, something.

"He grunted. 'You have the courage of a warrior."
I watched him turn away and gather the clothes from the ground. He thought me courageous? But I was terrified - always terrified.
"No," I said flatly. "I don't."
He paused from stuffing the invaluable robe between two bales. "Are you frightened now?"
I nodded, shame flushing my skin.
"Is it going to stop you?"
"No."
"That is the courage of a warrior."

Indeed it is, my friend. Indeed it is.

Eon has pulled of quite the feat here. Not only has it managed blown away any disregard I had towards it, Eon left me wanting more. Now there's something that hasn't happened in months. Eona, the sequel, seems so near, yet so far. The size of the two books are really something, eh? And that's just about the only thing that's stopping me from tearing through Eon's successor. That and a ridiculous pile of to-be-reads.

And oh, so you say you've yet to read Eon? Well, darling:

Just what in the dragon's name are you waiting for?

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And yes, this was the slump-breaker book.  Don't know what that means? Refer back to this article.

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Review also found at: Goodreads.

Contact me: kimberlyho75@yahoo.com