The False Prince is a YA historical adventure dealing with political conspiracies by Jennifer A. Nielsen.The kingdom is in turmoil as rumors abound that the king, queen, and prince are dead. If this is true, the land will be struck with a civil war.
One man, a nobleman named Conner, knows that the royal family is indeed dead – and he has devised a plan that will keep the country from war. He plans to find an impersonator of the king’s long-lost, long believed dead son and place him on the throne.
To pursue this, he picks four orphans of the right age and takes them to his estate to begin their training.
One of these boys is Sage, a thief, defiant, and very clever. He knows that Conner’s motives are more than philanthropic. He also knows that he won’t want the remaining three boys to be able to reveal his deception… so being chose as the prince is a matter of life or death.
But can Sage ever convince anyone that he is a prince?
When I read the synopsis of The False Prince, I was interested but wasn’t sure I’d be blown away.
This has to be one of the best surprises of the year!
I was astonished to find The False Prince to be an intellectual, gripping, suspenseful tale of political intrigue and duplicity in a richly portrayed kingdom. To be clear, this is not based on any real historical time period – as far as I can tell. You could almost call it a fantasy, when it comes to the fairy-tale feel of the era – but there are no magical or otherworldly creatures. This is pure cloak-and-dagger goodness!
At first I wasn’t sure of our sharp-tongued hero, but with time I came to appreciate his toughness and tenacity. This is a story of a fight to survive – and I was rooting for him quickly. Though the moral question of the fate of the other three boys, if Sage is to be chosen as Conner’s prince, weighs heavily on the reader’s (and protagonist’s) mind.
The False Prince is a page-turner and a nail-biter. It’s enigmatic, clandestine, and is soaked in danger. It became increasingly riveting as the pages flew by – truly fascinating, intriguing, and entertaining. And there are some fantastic surprises later on that I was staggered by!
On paper the plot seems only moderately good, but it is so well-executed I was engrossed from start to finish and MUST encourage you to try it too!
Happily, this is only the first book in the Ascendance Trilogy – so I am looking forward to following this tale much further!
Ooooh, I kinda loved it! :)
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