Reviewed by Dan
TITLE: The Hunted Prince
SERIES: Henning #1
AUTHOR: Hayden Thorne
PUBLISHER: JMS Books LLC
LENGTH: 143 Pages
BLURB:
Young Henning Babkis has learned not to consider himself to be anything special. Ignored and taken for granted by his family, his education suffering as a result of their neglect, he nevertheless struggles to fit in and improve himself, though with unimpressive results. He’s also learned not to expect anything more for himself, convinced that he’s doomed to live his life in a deep closet, surrounded by people who don’t care and who’d have given him a lot of grief if they were to find out he’s gay. Things come to a sudden head when Henning’s fifteenth birthday rolls around. An unexpected and terrifying attack by a creature from another world shakes up his quiet life, and Norbert steps forward with remarkable and shocking revelations as to Henning’s true identity. And from a boy who’s grown up to think himself as a nobody, Henning discovers a previous life in a world called Wintergrave — a world of magic, romance, and danger. In the company of a motley bunch of former warriors, Henning must reclaim his former life and regain his powers in order to defeat an old threat. But in order to do that, he needs to convince a certain former lieutenant that the two of them were deeply bonded before and need to reform their connection now in order to get their powers back. The wrinkle? Ellery Thomas is in a happy relationship with another boy in this lifetime.
REVIEW:
In this book we are introduced to a character named Henning Babkis. Henning is the seventh child in a country family that was happy with only six. He was a mistake that happened seven years after the last child in the family and no one has ever really cared that much for him. To make it worse, Henning’s family is an ultra-conservative, bible thumping, gun toting bunch who won’t understand at all if they discover he is secretly gay. The only family member that pays any attention to Henning is his odd Uncle Norbert, who reminds him of an Uncle Fester. Uncle Norbert is the black sheep of the family, and for some odd reason has been asking Henning about strange occurrences since he turned 13.
On Henning’s 15th birthday, which the family pretty much ignores, a strange thing happens. Henning is hiding from Uncle Norbert and his strange questions under a blanket in an old car, when suddenly something grabs Henning and tries to drag him under the blanket….calling him “Your Highness”. Uncle Norbert rescues him at the last minute, and whisks him away from his home and family to a house in the city.
In the city, Henning learns he was formerly a prince in another world named Wintergrave and that he was sent to his current world to be reborn. What follows is the story of Henning coming to grips with that fact, as well as coming to grips with being a 15 year old gay boy. Lots of teenage angst and drama prevail.
The book was good. It is written for a young adult audience. I personally did not feel it carries over well to the adult market. There were not as many details as I would like to see. For example, I have no idea having read the book if Henning is supposed to be a resident in our world, or another alternate world. The book has many similarities with other young adult books that deal with the young hero, the older evil doer, the allies, etc. I probably would have rated it higher, but I felt the book never reached a climax, instead ending in mid-stream with a “To Be Continued”.
RATING: 
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