The Lost King by Devorah Fox

I have received a free copy of this book for a honest review. This does not in any way affect my review in any way.

My rating for this unique tale would be a four out of five. Great job, Devorah Fox, for this intriguing story about a king discovering himself and the truth about the world around him.

If you haven’t read this book and just happen to skim through this review, I’ll say this to summarize the book: A king has found himself deserted in a land he does not recognize. To find his kingdom and his wife, he must venture through unknown lands, meeting people to help him along the way. I would encourage you to pick this book up if you love medieval ages. This is a perfect book to learn more about that time.

Characters? Appealing and very interesting. Robin’s friends are hard to dislike.

Humor? It was okay. I chuckled a couple times. I also found humor in the smallest things but that is literally me– I will find the most serious things funny.

Romance? It doesn’t overflow on the plot, but you’ll catch it easily. You’ll ship it before you even realize what’s happening.

Action? Very little, mostly dialogue, moving around, stuff like that.

Language? A little hard, but fairly easy to understand.

I think you should really pick it up. It mostly deals with finding a way to get his kingdom back while also finding himself through his adventures. I highly recommend being open to the characters and King Bewilliam’s interactions with them. It’ll make the story ten times better in this way, as it focuses a lot on relationships.

I enjoyed it a lot. I was very interested in where things were going. By the end, I was questioning what the next book will reveal.

Good-bye, non-spoilery people!

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The characters. I really loved them to the extent that I kind of did not want anything to happen to them. Later in this series, I feel like I would grow more attached to them, as I would get to understand them even further. I absolutely love Meeyoo, the little kitten that follows Robin around. I thought having Meeyoo in there was the story’s comic relief in a way that made you happy when Meeyoo showed up. “No one hurts the kitty!” I loved the other animals as well, like Duncan and Charger. I could just imagine their personalities.

Now I’m usually very critical about what I read, about what I like to read. At first when I was reading the animals almost speaking to Robin, I got a little skeptical about it. I kind of felt like I was reading a younger children’s book…But I have to say it did grow on me. I found it pretty hilarious, actually.

Queen Alexandra… when we first see her, she’s fighting a dragon, which was pretty great. I love a strong woman. I enjoyed her personality, how she wasn’t strict and represented the kingdom she reigned. I enjoyed that. I ship her and Robin so much. Like at the very end, I kept thinking: “Just kiss…please.” I trust her completely along with David.

Speaking of David, we didn’t get to see him much, did we? Just the very beginning and the very end. I really loved the fact that he was a barber. I don’t know why, I just loved that diversity. When we got to go back to Riverington, I got all excited. “Off to see David, the wonderful barber of all…”

And finally Bernard. I feel like I should talk about him since he is was reason everyone is in debt and the reason DAVID HAD TO LEAVE HIS SHOP… But I’m not salty about it. No, no. I kind of felt bad for him, but that’s my personality showing. I always somehow end up feeling bad for the villains. I mean Bernard put everyone in debt, he lied, he borrowed too much money to make himself look better… He was a complete mess. Then when we actually get to see him, he’s completely lost his mind. I wanted to hug him. Yeah, I was angry at the fact–that David can’t be a barber–that everyone was going downhill. Robin’s own kingdom was completely washed away. Like what on earth was Bernard thinking? As I type, I’m actually in Personal Finance; and, sir, that is not how you finance.

The romance… As I said before the romance in this book is very mellow, but it is there. I ship Queen Alexandra and Robin so much. But on the topic of romance, Robin is not very wise. Throughout the book, he admits to sleeping with other women, like Dolores. While I don’t agree with what he does, it does make his character a lot more real. He does have his flaws, something I did not see in the very beginning. But no, he’s a king with a broken marriage. I really, really hope that his relationship grows with Alexandra later on as they completely deserve each other. I mean, come on.

Okay, the one thing that did bug me in this book was the lack of action. That’s probably just me, though. I love a good detailed fight. I enjoyed the dragon fight for the .5 seconds that it happened. In the back of my mind, I feel like this could be a book that could hold that type of action. Like if it was wanted in the story, you could easily bring it in and it wouldn’t look out of place. A lot of the running around that Robin did really kind of killed the mood that I would have enjoyed the transitions better if there was a bit more conflict involved in between the moving around. The bandit thing really made me happy. Go, Robin! Show them who’s king around here! Then again, the author has every right to put what she likes in her book and make it how she wants it. If she feels like the fighting was unnecessary and she enjoys it as it is, then that’s her decision.

Overall, I enjoyed it. It will be something I will look into later on after all my other books are taken care of. I really enjoy the writing style of it all. It kind of reminded me of The Chronicles of Narnia. It was very different than what I’m used to which may be why I had to open up a lot more than usual. That’s how it was when reading The Magician’s Nephew. I soon came to enjoy it and appreciate the uniqueness she threw in there.

Thank you, Devorah Fox for letting me review this book! I encourage you to keep doing what you’re doing with this story! It has a lot of potential.