I didn’t expect to love this nearly as much as I do. At first glance, I saw the cover and thought, “Okay, doesn’t really look like something I’d read… I’ll give it a try,” but OH MY GOSH, I ended up enjoying so much. By the time you read this, I’ll probably have read the second and third books, too, so be looking for those reviews coming up! (It’s August 2nd, writing this.) It’s the first book in a long time that had me hooked at the first page. I’d say I haven’t been this excited over a series since The Selection, but The Selection didn’t even have me as engaged on the first page as The False Prince did! So forgive me if this isn’t exactly a sensible review, because I’m so in love with this book.

Title: The False Prince

Author: Jennifer A. Nielsen

Series: The Ascendance Trilogy #1

Publisher: Scholastic

Publication Date: April 1, 2012

Source: library

Synopsis: 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.

First off, I loved the voice of the main character, Sage. He’s witty, sarcastic. The writing is simple, but detailed. Does that make sense? Each character clearly has his or her place in the book: I pretty much knew what to expect from ever character, except Sage! It made the book 100% enjoyable.

I liked the setting a lot. The country Sage lived in, Carthya, is on the brink of a civil war. The man who buys Sage from the orphanage Sage is at, Conner, wants to put a false prince (hence, the title!), on the throne to avoid war. (But we all know Conner really wants to be the one to control what this false prince does – so really, Conner is in control.) So the main plot of the book revolved around Carthya and the countries surrounding it. I really liked being able to flip from my page to the map in the front to look at the where the countries were in this fictional world. I like learning about politics and current events and such anyway, so I liked to read about the “foreign affairs,” so to speak, in this imaginary world. 🙂

Because Sage and the other boys who are competing to be the prince are competing against each other, they were really enemies for the majority of the book. But at the end, they all come around and I loved it! I’m a bleeding heart when it comes to books, and characters, and I wanted to squeeze these boys so hard. I felt so bad for them! They had no mom, and then Sage… what happened to him… and his family (!!!!) OMG, his family, though. And the ending…

So as you can see, I have a LOT of feelings. But the ending is what really ruined me. Well, it didn’t RUIN me, because it was perfect, I just wasn’t expecting it! At first, I was totally sold that’s what was going to happen, but I thought, “Wait, no, there’s no way!” and then… BOOM! If you’ve read the book, you totally know what I’m talking about, but… ohmigosh. Just… OMG.

This book was just… AWESOME. 5 stars. Go read it!

Now I have to go read The Runaway King! The first sentence is so INTRIGUING. Read it:

I had arrived early for my own assassination.

Whaaat?!

so have you read the ascendance trilogy? do you want to?! (you should!)

P.S. Don’t forget you have one week left to enter my giveaway for The Huntress of Thornbeck Forest! You can enter it here! GO, GO, GO!