I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The False Princess by Eilis O'Neal Published by Egmont USA on 2011-01-25
Genres: Fantasy & Magic, Love & Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 336
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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Princess and heir to the throne of Thorvaldor, Nalia's led a privileged life at court. But everything changes when it's revealed, just after her sixteenth birthday, that she is a false princess, a stand-in for the real Nalia, who has been hidden away for her protection. Cast out with little more than the clothes on her back, the girl now called Sinda must leave behind the city of Vivaskari, her best friend, Keirnan, and the only life she's ever known.Sinda is sent to live with her only surviving relative, an aunt who is a dyer in a distant village. She is a cold, scornful woman with little patience for her newfound niece, and Sinda proves inept at even the simplest tasks. But when Sinda discovers that magic runs through her veins - long-suppressed, dangerous magic that she must learn to control - she realizes that she can never learn to be a simple village girl.Returning to Vivaskari for answers, Sinda finds her purpose as a wizard scribe, rediscovers the boy who saw her all along, and uncovers a secret that could change the course of Thorvaldor's history, forever.A dazzling first novel, The False Princess is an engrossing fantasy full of mystery, action, and romance.
False Princess, I’ll tumble for ya. There are WIZARDS and CONSPIRACIES, and ROYALTY, and WUV TRUE WUV. The False Princess by Eilis O’Neal is a bang-up debut novel. If you enjoyed The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale and that style of writing, friend, you’ll LOVE this book. Plot in a nutshell? So Nalia is heir to the Thorvaldian throne, princess of the kingdom, best friends with jokester Kiernan, life is good. Then she is summoned by her parents and finds out that she isn’t the real princess. Her name isn’t even Nalia, it’s Sinda. She was raised as a false princess to protect the REAL princess from some oracle-predicted prophecy. Kicked out of the castle, she lives as a peasant until she discovers that perhaps there are still more secrets to be uncovered in Thorvald.
There are plenty of things to enjoy in The False Princess including boy next door love. Y’all I am so sick of those books where the love is instant or at first site. And, I feel like in these non-contemporary books, that’s quite a common trope. In THE FALSE PRINCESS, it’s a nice change. It’s nice to see a book that says yes, it’s cool to be friends first then develop into something more.
I was a fan of the fairy-tale formality. Fairy tales are always easy to slip into because they sound like something you’ve heard before as a kid. I mean, I’m not sure if The False Princess is based on a legit fairly tale, but it is told with the same ease as one.
Plus, while Sinda isn’t physically strong, she still kicks ass. She’s got the intellectual-strong, courage, gumption thing going on and I can totally respect that in a character. Also, this book sort of addresses classism, perhaps not on purpose but I still saw it. You’ve got the royalty in their ivory tower and peasants. Now, the royals have no concept of reality when it comes to how the poor live, and that’s addressed in the book and I think that is awesome.
I was quite surprised by how quick of a read The False Princess was and how easily I fell into the story. For me, The False Princess resulted in a fist pump of joy for Sinda’s character arc.
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a princess bride reference. love it. the false princess sounds like a great book
Wizards AND royalty? FULL OF WIN. I have seen this book around the blogosphere and will definitely need to pick up a copy. Loved your review!
Seeing The Princess Bride quoted definitely gets me intrigued but this book sounds awesome enough on it’s own! Can’t wait to read it!
Man, you make me want this book so badly and I must say that cover is so not cool but oh gosh I don’t even care because it looks oh so pretty! and it has WIZARDS? I want it!
I LOVED The False Princess; I agree with errthing you said. 😀
I wasn’t in love with the writing of this one, but the plot was so awesome and I loved Kiernan so I can totally overlook it. I also love the cover. I need to get my own copy!
Sounds like an excellent book! I’ll be watching for this one! Great review!!
And, who doesn’t love The Princess Bride?!
You compared it to The Goose Girl and sold me!
I’m really looking forward to this one! It sounds like just my cup of tea.
My 12 year old daughter’s favorite book is The Goose Girl – is The False Princess age appropriate in the same way? I don’t want sex and violence. Would you recommend this for her?
Tricia, I would recommend this for your 12 year old daughter. There’s no sex and the violence is fairly minimal, no gore at least that I can remember. I hope she enjoys this!