Saturday, May 31, 2014

Book Review: The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Book Description:
THE FALSE PRINCE is the thrilling first book in a brand-new trilogy filled with danger and deceit and hidden identities that will have readers rushing breathlessly to the end.

In a discontent kingdom, civil war is brewing. To unify the divided people, Conner, a nobleman of the court, devises a cunning plan to find an impersonator of the king's long-lost son and install him as a puppet prince. Four orphans are recruited to compete for the role, including a defiant boy named Sage. Sage knows that Conner's motives are more than questionable, yet his life balances on a sword's point -- he must be chosen to play the prince or he will certainly be killed. But Sage's rivals have their own agendas as well.

As Sage moves from a rundown orphanage to Conner's sumptuous palace, layer upon layer of treachery and deceit unfold, until finally, a truth is revealed that, in the end, may very well prove more dangerous than all of the lies taken together.

An extraordinary adventure filled with danger and action, lies and deadly truths that will have readers clinging to the edge of their seats.
My Thoughts:
I hadn't heard a lot about this book. Now that I'm done I'm thinking and screaming in my head, "WHAT THE HECK ISN'T THIS BOOK MORE POPULAR! IT'S AMAZING!!!!"

People seriously stop reading my review and go get the book..okay maybe after you're done reading the review.

Where to begin. I picked this book up via audio through OverDrive and checked it out through my library. I needed something to listen to while I edited photos for my photography and this was free and got really high ratings. I sucked in IMMEDIATELY and couldn't put this down. I held my phone up to my hear while I drove to and from my trip to Pennsylvania to visit family while my kids sat in the back and slept. It was that good!

The story follows a boy who is bought by a man named Connor for a dangerous role he will looking for someone to fill. Sage who is defiant, stubborn, mischievous, resourceful, sarcastic, and incredibly smart, is recruited with three other boys all to pull off the biggest fraud in history. One of the will become the Prince who was killed 4 years ago. I LOVED the character of Sage simply because he was defiant and super sarcastic which kept the story engaging and fun to read.

Through classes of history, decorum, sword fighting, dancing, horse back riding, everything that a boy would need to pass off as the long lost prince. The only problem, they've got 2 weeks to pull this off, to learn everything in order to play the part. And Sage wants none of it. He does everything he can to prove that he doesn't want to be the prince and won't bend to Conner in order to be his puppet, but Connor keeps him in hope of bending Sage or otherwise Sage will be killed in order to keep this secret.

I was so into the story that I did NOT see the twist that some people saw at the beginning when it all unraveled and all was said and done, I was like, "OH DUH! How could I have missed that?!" well I did and that's ok because it made me love the story even more.

I highly recommend this story to people of all ages, it's super fun and I can't wait for the next book to come out!

Sexual Content: none
Language: mild/none
Drugs/Alcohol: mild/none
Violence: mild (severe beating of a character, a killing of a character, attempted murder fighting)
5/5 Stars


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