The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen

If you love the danger and sword-fighting of MERLIN, you'll like this! 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. As Sage's journey continues, layer upon layer of treachery and deceit unfold, until finally a truth is revealed that proves more dangerous than all of the lies put together.

I'm reading this again because i suddenly missed jaron, and i heard that the fourth book is out!!!

Much to my surprise, I absolutely LOVED this book. Review to come.

The False Prince is the tale of a nearly fifteen-year-old boy, Sage, who is purchased from an orphanage by a nobleman looking for boys who could pose as the missing Prince Jaron. Sage's rebellious, intractable nature is both a point in his favor and a point against him: it's this personality that made him a potential false prince in the first place, but the nobleman would prefer a prince who was a bit more agreeable. And Sage's life depends on being selected as the prince since the nobleman will kill to keep his secret...

Though I personally tend to prefer books with less straightforward prose and more complexity than The False Prince, I also found it to be an entertaining, readable book with amusing dialogue and a narrative voice with personality. I expected the ending but it was still quite satisfying, especially since I do enjoy stories about rogue-like characters who are steps ahead of everyone else. It may not have surprised me or stood out as particularly unique, but I thought the author did a wonderful job of keeping the book engaging and above all fun.

3 1/2 stars

Full Review on My Website

3.5/5. As far as intentions go, this was pretty well-executed. The book felt like it was introducing fantasy politics to a younger audience. There was just enough complexity and twists to the central intrigues, but a lot of things felt a little simplified or resolved too quickly for my tastes.

Although I said “fantasy politics”, there's actually nothing fantasy about this book at all. There is no magic system or any kind of supernatural phenomena here. This book is a sort of AU historical fiction since it seems to be set in a pseudo-medieval setting with a court, ruling government, and royal family typical of that time period. Honestly I was a little surprised given that Fantasy is the top-voted genre fort his book here on Goodreads.

The characters barely really grow on you. I probably cared the most about Imogen, being the one female character of any note in this book (the betrothed princess whose name I can't remember may also be a contender if she had appeared more), but otherwise I really didn't like most of the other characters. I did come a bit close to caring about Sage's outcome but it was fairly obvious that nothing bad was going to happen to him because the entire title and series seems to be about him. The other two boys in the story, Tobias and Roden, were supremely unlikeable from start to end and I haven't changed my mind about them yet.

Thoughts about the ending:

I had some fleeting thoughts about whether Sage was Jaron through the book but always dismissed it as too weird a development. Apparently I should've listened to my gut. So this is the not-so-false prince! The twist was a little tropey but I thought it was still well-executed. The lead-up to the grand reveal was pretty exciting and I was really looking forward to how Jaron was going to not only unveil himself but how he was going to serve it to Conner. The actual serving was not bad but a little disappointing. I liked how we got everything tied up neatly, why Sage was so upset about the imitator's gold, and the final reveal that Conner was also behind the deaths of the royal family, but I also really wanted something even more dramatic and more oomphy. I can't tell what's going to happen with Amarinda and Imogen but I hope it's not going to be some weird love triangle... I liked that this book had no romance in it. I also thought it was a very odd development that Roden turned out to be the “turncoat” in the end and somehow Tobias is the one who immediately swears fealty to Jaron. Maybe this was meant to be another twisty moment considering that Sage's relations with both had been the opposite for the entire book, only to have the turn tables right at the end, but I thought the development didn't make sense and didn't have any lead-up.

Overall, I did enjoy this book for what it was and I feel like I'd recommend it to people who want to get into court/political plots but are intimidated by the seriousness and complexity of so many of them.