The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This review will focus more on The False Prince, but I will also share my thoughts on the rest of the series.

Synopsis:

(Disclaimer: the premise of this story sounds old, predictable, and overdone. I promise you, it’s a lot more complex than it appears on the surface.) Sage is an orphan thief who’s kidnapped along with three other orphans by an important regent in the kingdom’s court. It turns out the royal family is dead, and he intends to make a claim to the throne by finding a look-alike of the long lost Prince Jaron. The three boys must compete to earn the position of the false prince.

My Review:

I have to start my review by discussing Sage. My first impression of Sage was that he was an arrogant fool. He makes stupid choices and is too stubborn to ever back down, even when his ridiculous plans backfire. Here’s the thing… Sage is much more crafty than he lets on. I read some of the reviews of this book before I read it, and some people absolutely loved it, while others were so disappointed they never finished it. I would wager that those that couldn’t get through it would change their mind if they’d finished the book.

The important thing about finishing the book is that if you don’t, you never get to see what Sage is really doing. Even though the book is written in first person, Sage does not share all he is thinking with the reader. In some ways, he’s an unreliable narrator, holding back his plans even from the reader. Surprisingly, there is an explanation for almost every seemingly stupid thing he does. Even the outrageous things he sometimes says. The last fifth of the book is filled with moments of, “Ohhh! So that’s why he said/did that!” Sage likes people to think of him as an arrogant Gryffindor, when in reality he’s a crafty little Slytheirn with a surprisingly good heart.

Overall, I enjoyed this book very much, but not until I neared the end of it. (It’s very important to read the whole thing!) I would definitely recommend it to someone looking for a young adult adventure with a good balance of light-heartedness and intensity.

The Series as a Whole:

I will not describe the plot of any of the other books in the series, because it would give major spoilers for book one. I will say this though: I liked the series more and more as they continued on. This is probably because you get to understand Sage a lot more. Books two and three are my favorites. There is just so much Sage, and by that I mean they are filled with this annoying little twerp who always finds a way to sneak his way back to the top. Some people might get annoyed with the fact that our first person main character narrator holds back information from the audience, but I actually found that to be exciting. It had me thinking, “There’s no way anyone could ever get out of this situation! I wonder what brilliant hair-brained scheme Sage is secretly cooking up…” He also gets a lot more sympathetic as the series goes on. Most of the time he’s acting all snarky and unaffected by anything, but every now and then you get a moment when he shares what he’s really thinking and feeling and your heart goes out to him.

I’m a little torn on the fourth book. On the one hand, I didn’t think it was necessary. It wasn’t as connected to the rest of the series and didn’t really have the same level of intensity. On the other hand, I really felt like book three–while probably my favorite of the series–ended too abruptly. The author really didn’t take much time with that ending. There’s this epilogue that takes place one year later and it wraps up the entire series so quickly I felt a little bit cheated. So I was glad she wrote book four because it fills in that gap of what happened during that entire year she skipped over. Regardless, I don’t regret reading it, though book three is still probably my favorite. (Or book two, I can’t decide!)

Overall, this series is so exciting! It is filled with twists and turns, surprising friendships, humor, action, and foolishly brilliant schemes.