I still read it all the way through, and I wouldn't say it was a terrible read. It was ok! The prologue set the story up beautifully, but everything else felt bland afterwards. The ending felt rather rushed too.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGallery for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was really excited going into this book because I’m a sucker for fantasy and with this being a Novella, I thought I was going to get sucked into an epic fantasy series with the way the plot was described. Man, was I wrong.
The story is about Aleryn ‘Ryn’ who is the forgotten Prince of the fae realm. It opens with his mom running for her life with him in her arms before he was even a year old. Flash forward decades later and you get the viewpoint of Anya, a sweet, kind, too naive for her own good baker. When her and Ryn meet, you can tell they have some sort of connection but nothing feels properly developed. At times the story feels jumbled together and rushed. The characters don’t have any qualities or depth that make you relate or care for them in any way.
And the cliffhanger ending wasn’t enough to make me itch for the next book. Which, mind you, this novella was released in April of 2023 and no other story for this series has been brought up or released. So you’re kind’ve just left hanging.
If this novella was released as an actual novel, I’d be more hyped about it. Then the author could’ve released a different novella that focused more on what happened in the prologue with Aleryns mother that gave us an even deeper backstory. This just wasn’t for me.

On top of all that, with the repetition and god awful grammatical errors, you’d think this was a first draft. I understand that ARC’s usually haven’t been edited yet but a simple once over of the story would’ve helped catch so many mistakes.

"The Forgotten Prince" promises an intriguing tale of mystery and magic but unfortunately falls short in several key areas. While the premise holds allure, the execution lacks polish.

First and foremost, the writing style is marred by superfluous repetition, grammatical issues, and continuity errors that detract from the reading experience. These niggles persist throughout, which makes the overall piece feel more like a draft than a finished product.

Despite these problems, "The Forgotten Prince" has its moments. The cosy atmosphere it evokes is enjoyable, and the story, despite its flaws, remains engaging.

With substantial editing, plus more attention to character development and world-building, this could have been a much stronger book. It is clear the author has a creative vision, and with some refinement, future works could certainly realise that potential.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley, for gifting me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I didn't realize this was a novella before going into it so I thought initially it was ridiculously fast paced. However, when I did realize, I understood the reason for the pacing. It was a very cute and fast read and the ambiance of the world really sucks you in. I cannot wait to see where the rest of the series goes with this.

I really wanted to love this book! The cover is beautiful, and the title is well chosen. I loved the beginning of the story, which was his mother's backstory. It was heartfelt, well developed and interesting.

But when the book delved into the real world where Anya was running her bakery, I forgot I was reading about a prince. This is where the story lagged, and though I can appreciate what the author was doing by connecting the world of fae with the modern world, I felt there was too much time spent there and there's a disconnect from the heart of the story. But the remainder of the book when they were returning to the world of fae was truly enjoyable, fast paced and full of adventure! If the middle of the book resembled the begining and end of the book, and if their time in the fae world was expanded upon with some more detailed world building, I would have given it 5 stars! I also would have liked to have seen the characters fleshed out a bit more.

But I hate to sound critical of anyone's works because writing a book is hard! I know when a lot of your heart and soul goes into your story, it can feel personal when there's critical remarks about it. So I hope this honest review isn't perceived as an insult, but is just one person's opinion on how it can be improved!

Die Novella „The Forgotten Prince“ gehört zur „Thread of Fate Series“ von Akira Varma und umfasst 137 Seiten.
Die Geschichte wirkte auf mich leider insgesamt sehr gehetzt. Der Kürze des Buches geschuldet war weder viel Platz um die Figuren besonders gut kennenzulernen, geschweige denn lieb zu gewinnen, noch für eine detailreiche Erzählung an sich. Alle Charaktere blieben für mich ziemlich blass und unsympathisch. Das Tempo ist sehr hoch, so dass es zwar keine unnötigen Längen gibt, aber mein Interesse am Verlauf der Geschichte konnte leider nicht geweckt werden. Das Buch endet mit einem Cliffhanger, aber ich glaube nicht, dass ich die Reihe weiter verfolgen werde.

It was interesting novel to read. I did find myself having to push through to read it when I felt like dnfing the novel.
I did like the fantasy aspect of the novel.

**Thank you to NetGalley and Publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.**

3⭐️
0.25 🌶

I really, really wanted to enjoy this one, but most of it felt like I was in high-school reading wattpad stories again. The first half had a lot of potential and then it felt very rushed at the halfway mark and a lot of things happened that could have been fleshed out more.

But what I did like!
○The first half of the story had some cozy fantasy vibes with the bakery/building of the shed
○Anya and Ryn are very cute together
○the prologue

The writing quality of this "novella" desperately needs improvement and it completely ruined the story for me. This reads like a first draft that the author has not even glanced back at, let alone it getting anywhere near an editor. It's full of typos, repetition and sentences that don't make grammatical sense. So many sentences begin with "But" or "And". There's an extreme overuse of the word "though". There are far too many short sentences that break up the flow without purpose and there are so, so many pointless sentences/paragraphs that could have been easily cut.

So what about the plot? There wasn't really much of one. Very little happens and the "cliffhanger" is more of an abrupt (and yet unsurprising) ending just as the story starts to get going. I'm curious where the story is going but I cannot put myself through reading another "novella" like this one. If really refined, these could be the opening chapters of a real book. I feel that the author needs to attend multiple writing courses and spend years developing their writing skills first though or it would be a wasted effort.

How about the characters? Well, we have two bland main characters, Ryn and Anya, who meet when he helps build her shed. This "romance" was just bizarre. It was a full on insta-love where they both act really weird around each other, then they spend every day for 4 months together (but we fast forward after the first week or so to the 4 month mark) and it's only at that 4 month mark that they suddenly have sex all night long. There doesn't seem to be any reason why they waited and when they do finally take their relationship up a notch it's triggered by a bit of brushing past each other in the kitchen and her swaying her hips a bit. These characters are supposed to be in their 20s but it felt more like a couple of awkward teenagers. I don't care either way when it comes to spice but there was no romance or genuine sexual tension either and it's a strange choice to skip the most interesting period of their relationship. I also didn't really care about either of the main characters and they lacked any personality. I must mention again that these characters are in their 20s but behave like teenagers. Her best friend keeps teasing her about the fact she had sex with her boyfriend of 4 months? I wanted to ask her to please grow up. Along with the juvenile writing standard I can only assume this book is in fact written by a teenager.

The book desperately needs multiple revisions by an expert. This review has had more time spent on editing than the novella itself. The story has some potential but the plot still isn't anything astounding so far. If this had been a full length novel I would have had to DNF as the writing was too awful to enjoy the book at all. Though I understand it is a novella, there was next to nothing plot wise as a lot of the story was uninteresting filler.

This was an intriguing fantasy read however it did fall a little flat for me. I was unable to connect with the characters but nevertheless, I really enjoyed the premise.

Thank you NetGalley for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review

⭐️⭐️.5
0.5 🌶️

Overall I liked the concept of this book and the characters, but it definitely needs a lot of editing and fleshing out. It felt like I was beta reading a first draft rather than a finished story so while it has a lot of potential, it needs more work.

There was a lot of repetitiveness with overuse of character names as well as sentences like “Only for the excuse of using the weather as an excuse to stay in the house and read or watch her favorite shows” and some slightly nonsensical sentences like “Anya looked out from her mirror in her living at the car driving further away by the minute”

I also felt like I didn’t really get to know the characters as they weren’t really fleshed out at all. They all have a lot of potential, but even by the end of the book I could really only tell you one thing about each character and it’s not that deep. A majority of information that I learned was in the prologue which takes place 30 years before the story starts.

All in all this book was mostly just okay, but with a lot of potential. I will likely not be continuing the series unless the author does a lot more in terms of editing and rewrites.

The Forgotten Prince is the first in a series of novellas by Varma. As expected with a novella this is a short and quick read. I did read an ARC and I hope that by publication this book has had a much needed through edit. Make sure you read the synopsis as it is very helpful to understand a bit more that is not explained in the story.

Here it is for your enjoyment: Anya has worked in the bakery ever since she was fifteen. Seven years later, she, along with her best friend Natasha own the very bakery they used to work in. When the two of them commission for a shed to be built behind their house, Anya finds herself attracted to the tall, mysterious, dark-haired carpenter with two mysterious scars on his back.

Aleryn "Ryn" Sinear, the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Mairene, was banished from his homeland at a young age. With his wings cut off, he, along his best friend and family advisor, were left to die in the mortal lands. What seemed at first like a curse of fate was actually a blessing in disguise when he meets his mate.

But with a target on Aleryn's head, will Aleryn and Anya's love survive?
Can he get his kingdom back with the help of Anya, Nat, and his best friend Theo?

The thing that was a bit crazy was that Anya is kidnapped and they say mate she doesn't even have a reaction. I would think that one shocked that there's fae and two that they are mates would be a bit of a bigger deal to her but it is just glossed over. I will be looking forward to the rest of the stories in the series. 3.5 stars

this felt so much like holly jackson's work... the booktokification of books, needs to be a sociology study.

*♡Thank you to NetGalley and Akira Varma for this ARC in return for my honest opinion♡*

The premise for The Forgotten Prince peaked my interest, and I was so excited to read it. However it fell a little flat for me and I was glad it was only around 200 pages. The pace of the story is fast enough, but I didnt find myself engaging with the characters or routing for them in any way. Nothing felt fleshed out and it reads like something someone wrote in high school.

I still read it all the way through, and I wouldn't say it was a terrible read. It was ok! The prologue set the story up beautifully, but everything else felt bland afterwards. The ending felt rather rushed too.

I thought this book was an amazing quick read! I dove right into the world and loved every minute of it. The relationship between them, mates!!! I was so excited to see them grow.

I especially love the "touch her and die" vibes we are getting.

I can not wait for book 2 to see where this story takes us. Is there going to save them and leave back to the mortal world? OR is he going to reclaim is throne!

This book was quite enjoyable and it's great if you want something quick to read.

However I feel like it is incomplete, and it feels more like part of a book than a first volume. The ending doesn't feel like a volume ending for me. Maybe I'm just not used to read shorter books.

Anya is super sweet and I loved her. I think she makes the whole book feel kinda cozy. On the other side, I feel like there was so much more to be known about Ryn.

All in all, a pleasant read, but it could have been so much more

3/5- A nice short and fast-paced novel.

I was initally caught by the stuning cover and seemingly action packed blurb.
I am a little let down by the lack of action within the novel, and at times it did seem to be just a romance story.
The writing is very juvenile so I had difficulty relating to the characters and their issues.
I did enjoy the cozy bakery vibes, however, it wasn't how the novel was initial presented to me. I liked the love story, it was simple but well done.

This book had me hooked right from the beginning! The prologue left me desperate for more information, and I can't wait to discover more about this as the series continues! In the main story I immediately loved Ryn, his golden retriever energy made me so happy but what really made him steal my heart was his switch into the dangerous man when Anya was put at risk. Anya's character development in this book is what really sealed the deal for me on thw whole though. I found that she was bordering on irritating to begin with, but her character arc was incredible and by the end I really wanted to be her friend in real life. When I began the book and kept finding myself thinking that it needed a strong female lead in order for the story to track (I'm also not the biggest fan of a damsel in distress - a strong female who has someone help her save herself is okay though!) and I was so pleased when she began to fight back in the tenser moments of the book. I'm also really excited to see how she will bond with Theo following the end of this book, I feel like they will develop a really interesting platonic relationship.

I found it to be beautifully written, and I really loved the pace of the story and didn't feel that it was boring or any of the chapters or paragraphs were unneccessary. Once I'd started reading, I couldn't put it down and finished it all in just over 24 hours. Highly recommend reading this as its full of fantasy mystery, romance and some wonderful twists and turns!

This is my second book from Akira and while I didn't like it quite as much as Dream a Little Dream of Me, I did enjoy it! I don't tend to read novellas because I find them to be too fast paced generally, and that was true for this story as well but I'm starting to get used to it. The prologue was very intriguing so I was invested right from the start! Ryn, a Fae Prince has been hiding in the human world since he was a baby because his evil uncle seized the throne from his family, meets Anya, a human baker. The first bit is like a contemporary romance meet-cute, which I loved! The instant connection felt very believable to me. and of course they are fated mates! The second half of the book dives into the fae realm and becomes quite exciting as Ryn's past catches up with him. Anya's bestie Nat gets POV chapters and I really enjoyed her spunk! Ryn also has a bestie Theo who I enjoyed and I'm excited to learn more about both of them!

The epilogue in the faerie realm was emotional and set me up for an epic fantasy. However, everything went downhill once we got into the mortal realm; it was painfully dull and too mundane for me when I expected a fantasy.

The dialogue was sometimes repetitive, and the chemistry between the supposed mates was absent. I wish we learned more about Aleryn’s life growing up before he met Anya. It’s a novella, so the characters can’t be fleshed out here. However, it was supposed to excite me for the next book, and it did nothing but.