The Forgotten Tale by J.M. Frey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Summary from GoodReads

Forsyth Turn has finally become a hero—however reluctantly. But now that Lucy Piper has married him and they’ve started a family in her world, his adventuring days are behind him. Yet not all is as it should be. Beloved novels are disappearing at an alarming rate, not just from the minds of readers like Pip, but from bookshelves as well. Almost as if they had never been. Almost like magic.


Forsyth fears that it is his fault—that Pip’s childhood tales are vanishing because he, a book character, has escaped his pages. But when he and Pip are sucked back into The Tales of Kintyre Turn against their will, they realize that something much more deadly and dire is happening. The stories are vanishing from Forsyth’s world too. So Forsyth sets out on a desperate journey across Hain to discover how, and why, the stories are disappearing… before their own world vanishes forever.


In this clever follow-up to The Untold Tale, The Forgotten Tale questions what it means to create a legacy, and what we owe to those who come after us.



PRAISE FOR "THE UNTOLD TALE"

 
If I could mark this as 10/5 stars, I would, but that's impossible, so 5/5 it is, with much hearts and swoons. The Untold Tale is delicious, each word meant to be savoured, breathed in, nibbled at, full of hidden delight and wonder. -- Ana Tan, A Tsp blog


This story is nothing short of fun, unexpected, and a little bit queer. If your interested in a Science Fiction/Fantasy undertaking with all of the ingredients of a queer anthology, The Untold Tale is for you. - Dallas Barnes, PInk Play Magazine


“I started reading Untold Tale, and was captivated. This superb novel grabbed me from the opening sentence, and never let go. The very best fantasy stories show us fresh new settings in which deeds and events matter—but first and foremost, they give us colorful, captivating characters we fall in love with, or love to hate, or are fascinated by.
Untold Tale does all of this, and more. We see someone from a world we know plunged into a world that is strange to us, through the eyes of that unfamiliar world. And we care what happens to her, and to everyone we meet in Untold Tale’s pages.
And the whole tale is several clever twists on the oh-so-familiar fantasies we’ve read before.
I want more. Books more” —Ed Greenwood, Forgotten Realms

I think that J.M. Frey's The Untold Tale is the most important work of fantasy written in 2015. It may be the most important work of fantasy written this decade, but I'll have to get back to you on that in 2020. -- Mike Perschon, PhD



I received an e-ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

The first book of the series, "The Untold Tale", was one of my top favorite books of 2015. It had everything I loved in a good fantasy. Diverse characters, a strong heroine, a protagonist who never considered himself a hero and it was also the first book I've ever read in meta-fiction.

So of course I had to get my grabby hands on the sequel!

After the events of the first book, Forsyth and Pip have settled in their new lives, which is full of love and family. But when classic masterpieces of books start to disappear and also Pip begins to forget they ever existed, Forsyth will have to gather every wit he has in order to solve this mystery.

I admit that J. M. Frey had me when she mentioned that "Peter Pan" and "Game of Thrones" disappeared (and not only the books, the movies too!).



As a person who grew with a book on my lap and the classic games of Disney, the old ones, I was horrified even with the possibility to face such a trial.

                                 (I have all of them by the way. I always loved Santa's gifts!)

When circumstances force our heroes, and a tiny sweet addition, back to Forsyth's story, then we come across with the principal of legacy. It's there, under the quick sass and the humor I've come to love in Frey's stories, laced with tropes you can see in many different YA but in this case they come unhinged! I loved how expanded the wolrd-building became! We have adventures into forests, the sea, even the sky!



There are many new characters in this book and each one of them is amazing and well-written with flaws and intense character growth.
And while the story was not so focused into Forsyth and Pip like the first book, they still are my favorite couple. Not perfect but they complete each other in a sweet, unique way I'd love to read in more books.



"The Forgotten Tale" is a worthy sequel of the first book and after the cliffhanger I got to read in the final pages, I can only beg J. M. Frey to create a "Game of Thrones" battlefield in Canada! Recommended a thousand times! ;)





And don't miss the first book of the series as also the first novella!








About the author:

A trained voice actor and singer, Frey is an author, actor, and professional geek. She is a professional smartypants on AMI Radio's Live From Studio 5 morning show, is an occasional talking head on the SPACE Channel's premier chat show InnerSPACE, has appeared in documentaries, lived in Japan, and lent costumes to the Ontario Science Centre. She also has a number of academic credentials, including a BA in Dramatic Literature and an MA in Communications Culture, and has lectured at the Pop Culture Association of America's Annual Conference (San Francisco), at the University of Cardiff's 'Whoniversal Appeal' Conference, and the Technology and Pedagogy Conference at York University. Frey's dream is to one day sing a duet with John Barrowman.