The False Prince

By Jennifer A. Nielsen

342 Pages

Published by Scholastic

★★★★

By Em

I'm very happy to say that I like this book. A lot! I saw an ad for this on Goodreads, and the first... nine? times I saw it I thought, Meh... Now that I've read it, I say, "Thanks Goodreads!" Fantasy novels go two ways for me, really good, or old sounding. Can you guess which ones I don't like? For some reason I place at lot of books as sounding like they were written in the 60's, and for some reason I have this thing about reading books that weren't written within the past ten years. It's the style I think, but I just don't like old books. But this book did not fall under that category. I really, really liked it. 

Sage, an orphan, is unwilling abducted by a noble man of the king's court named Conner. Conner is on a search for orphans throughout the kingdom who could be trained to pose as a fake prince. Sage, along with two other orphans (whose names have slipped my mind. Stupid library making me return books because it was only like two weeks over due...) are pitted each other in a two week cramming session where they learn everything they can about how to be a prince. 

This book was great, plain and simple. Sage was the perfect narrator. He had a great voice and a personality that I love! He's witty, and clever, and yes, sarcastic! He is able to outsmart anyone who crosses him, and acts his way through lies and deceit. He is a fantastic character that I bow down to. 

The story over all moves a bit slow, but it doesn't drag on, like some books do. This keeps a lifelike pace, not rushing, but not scrutinizing over every little detail of the boys' lives. (Thank goodness, because I'm sure there are some events that a female like myself would not want to know about.........) 

Over all, I'm glad to say this is not an old sounding fantasy novel. It's fresh and original, and a young adult book that will keep the interest of many boys as well. (Don't worry guys, writers think about you too sometimes.) The male point of view is a nice, well needed change of speed for me, and I enjoyed it greatly. The whole book was filled with exciting and unexpected twists and turns that keep you thinking and wondering. I can't wait to read the next one!