The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen
Published: April 1st 2012 by Scholastic
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.
This is a book that I have had on my TBR for ages now – I am honestly so glad I decided to create a TBR jar because I don’t think I would have gotten to this book otherwise. This was a fun and relatively quick, but a little predictable.
Can I start off with declaring my love for Sage’s character? Yes? Good, because that’s exactly what I am about to do! I LOVED HIM! He was such a fun character to read because he was constantly doing his own thing, even though he shouldn’t have. He didn’t take to authority very well, he was quick witted, had a sharp tongue and I feel that, without him, this book would have definitely dragged. There was never a slow moment with this character and he definitely kept me on my toes! I had guessed pretty early on what his story was going to be and I was right, but I didn’t know why things ended up the way they did.
I feel like the other characters, whilst they all had their own voices, were pretty boring in comparison to Sage. They were constantly trying to tame him, to no avail. We definitely find out who we can trust and who we can’t as this book continues and I am so glad that Mott was one of those trustable characters because he quickly became my second favourite. He was loyal, but he also knew that maybe he shouldn’t have been, which makes him relatable because he’s not perfect.
I would have liked to have seen more of the lessons that took place, since that is what this book was centred around. Sage was constantly getting into trouble, which meant he missed most of his lessons. However, I would have liked to have seen more of a back story to the kingdom as a whole and the way in which the previous king ruled. We know that he is a bad king, and we find out loosely why, but I would have liked to have seen more in depth descriptions, which would have definitely helped the world building.
I also would have liked to have seen more about Connor and his motives behind some more of his actions and more behind him as a character in general. We do see a lot of him through Sage’s eyes, but I would have loved to have read a couple of chapters from his perspective, because of who he turns out to be (or rather what) and I would have liked, again, more in depth knowledge to the way that he thought, and maybe his family background.
All in all, I really enjoyed this book and it was a fun, quick and quirky read! I definitely cannot wait to see what the rest of the story has in store for me! I gave this book 4/5 stars.
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