I overall really liked this book. It didn’t wow me, but it was entertaining and definitely likeable. I always love reading fantasy books that has mythology in it, in this instance Greek mythology. I though that was implemented really well into the story.

And it being a middle grade book, has me always a bit more lenient when it comes to critiquing a book. But I do feel like the characters were a bit underdeveloped and could’ve been a bit ‘more’. But there’s overall just a really fun reading experience to be found in the Lost King.

Especially for middle grade readers I think this will be a fun read, especially since it’s a standalone.

ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I was not able to read The Lost King in time to write a review.

i never ended up downloading this but i picked it up recently, so i figured I'd also review it here!

Truly an enjoyable read! So many fantastical creatures and places are introduced but the author did such an amazing job of detailing them that it made it easy and fun to imagine them.
The dual storyline was captivating and I loved following along both siblings as they do their best to regain their kingdom.
I'm looking forward to reading future work by this author!

The Lost King presented a classic, riveting story of a son and daughter on their separate journeys to find their lost father, the King. This was definitely my kind of story, of long adventure. I did find that at the beginning of the book, there were a lot of scenes cut short that I thought could have been written in more detail. This actually made me almost stop the book, but I kept reading and wasn't disappointed with the rest of the story. I loved the dual storyline and both were equally as entertaining to me. I look forward to reading future work by Mr. Frazier Alexander.

The Lost King has eye catching cover art and a really interesting synopsis, however, the two MC's (brother and sister) left me wanting more. They both felt very "young" in their thinking and actions. Thalo's is like 23 and traveled for a year learning from various masters of different races and he was still making choices that just seems selfish and young. There was so many different countries and characters/beings that I got lost on who the characters were talking to and or about at certain times. So I'm going to take a break from reading this and maybe I'll return and try again but right now it just isn't for me.


Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in return for an honest review. All spelling and grammar errors are totally my own.

2..5 to 3 stars

I started reading this book and it reminded me of LOTR instantly. Now, let me tell you something I didn't enjoyed reading those books, so when this book started looking more like that rather that Game of throne-ish it lost me. I still push through and finished it but in the end I realized it just wasn't for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was sent a ARC of The Lost King by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book gave me Lord of the Rings, meets Game of Thrones, meets Percy Jackson vibes. The Lost King is set in a complex world filled with just about every mythical being you could imagine: from unicorns to dragons, gnomes to trolls. The first few pages blew me away! Thalo's adventure commences within the first chapter and the pace of the story never slows down. If you are a reader who dislikes long dialogue and just wants to read the adventure then I would highly recommend. For me however, I would have liked to dive into the characters personality a little more, outside of their quest. I also found that the world was so vast that I got a little geographically lost with how fast paced the story was. A map would definitely have been useful! I loved the multiple story lines co-occurring and the mixture of a strong male protagonist in Thalos with an equally, if not stronger, character in his sister Thara.

Overall, I have given this book three stars because I greatly enjoyed the story and got lost in a new world, but felt that the story was over too soon and a deep love for the characters was slightly lacking in my opinion.

I received a copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was around 3.5 stars for me.

I'll admit I was a bit intimidated when I opened the book to find the glossary in the front. I enjoy fantasy but wasn't prepared for something that required me to retain a lot of new information so I was pleasantly surprised to find this book to be pretty readable without having to reference what things were.

Thalos and Thara are the children of the king and were interesting characters, but I felt like their arc was lacking. There's some really captivating parts of the book and some interesting creatures we meet along the way, and some things that didn't quite fit for me. While the characters are traveling there's songs and other things included that definitely made it feel like a real high fantasy world.

I found the pacing a little bit confusing throughout the book, especially toward the end. Overall it was an interesting read.

This one was a hit and miss. Some parts were wonderful and I loved the Greek Mythology that was done throughout the story. The characters I think could have been better developed and the story just felt like it needed to be better formed. For those who think that they might like this one I would say to see if you could get it from the library. Before buying it.

DNF at 34%

I hate dnf’ing books, but I just couldn’t get in to this. I really tried, but the story just didn’t call to me. I struggled with the alternating POV chapters, I only enjoyed one of the characters, and their chapters were few and far between. This book definitely has potential, it just wasn’t something I could see myself enjoying,

Thanks to Frazier Alexander and Netgalley for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

This book was received as an ARC from FyreSyde Publishing in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

I always gravitate towards the YA Fantasy/Adventure stories and this one was to the max! I could not stop reading this story. every chapter got even more exciting and you could not help but figure out if Thalos and Thara will find their father out at sea, save the kingdom and most importantly reunite as a family. Egos get in the way and Thalos and Thara overtake their throne to a beautiful enchantress that lead them to the unknown separated form one another but in their quest to reunite and save their father, they make new friends and find old ones that can help them. Every twist and turn imaginable was in each chapter of this book and this was a refreshing treat that definitely helped get my mind off all of the stress thanks to COVID-19.

We will consider adding this title to our YA collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions stated in the review are my own.

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Rating: - (DNF @ 50%)

The Lost King is a fantasy story about a pair of siblings who had their kingdom taken away from them once their father disappeared. The story consists of multiple POVs, with the main ones being of the brother Thalos and the sister Thara.
I requested this book due to the stunning cover (the black and gold looks amazing together) and because I liked the idea behind the book, but when it came down to reading it I just couldn't push through it.

The story starts out at once with Thalos coming to the kingdom which has been taken over by an evil queen from another part of the world. I really enjoyed the set up and while it felt a bit sudden and rushed I thought things would develop in a very complex way. But none of it really happened.
Once Thalos is taken away and exiled the story suddenly became really slow. I personally didn't care about anything that was happening to him while being at the edge of the world. I didn't get to know him as a character so whatever fate befell him, I was indifferent about it. I also did not really care about his father, which is the main thing pushing the plot forward, as we don't know much about their family prior to the current situation (except for one short flashback).
I had a similar experience with Thara, our second main character, but I cared at least a little bit about her character, so her part of the story was easier for me to read.

The plot was dull in certain places and there were too many deus ex machina moments for me. Whenever something major needed to happen the two characters just happened to fall upon a group of people to help them. Thalos was supposed to be at the edge of the world, but getting away from there seemed really easy to me as a reader and the stakes didn't feel high. Thara outran this dangerous queen with barely any trouble because there was only one man chasing her.
To make it worse, whenever the characters stumbled upon another group, they barely interacted with the said group. A lot of characters were introduced through both plot lines, but we barely learned anything about them. Still, the main characters trusted them instantly with everything, despite barely talking to them. As a result of this, I also never cared for the new characters that showed up. The only exception to this would be Aravos. Another character I found interesting was the Red Phantom and I think the evil queen was written quite well.

My biggest issue with the book in the end was the writing style. I feel like everything else had great potential and could be developed into an amazing complex story, but there was so much telling and barely any showing that so much was lost. An example of this would be when Thara is speaking to Pheros. Instead of fleshing out a conversation between the two the author would write 'And then they talked about his homeland'.
It would have been a great opportunity to give these two characters more of a personality and talk more about the world's lore. There were a lot of similar instances where instead of the characters conversing, it would be skipped over by simply telling the reader that they in fact talked.
Because of this I didn't bond with any characters and after reading 50% of the book, I was still not invested in the plot.

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Summary:
I think this book had great potential. The world is developed in detail and is rich. However, I think the writing style (a lot of telling instead of showing) made me not care for the characters or the plot that was happening. On top of this, the plot would drag a lot and the stakes didn't feel high to me personally. I do think there is a lot of potential in the story, but because of all the reasons listed above, after thinking over it for a while, I decided to DNF this book at the 50% mark.