Market Age Recommendation: 13-18
Content Age Recommendation: 13-18
Overall Rating: 18/20
This book tells an exciting, fast-paced story about a…false prince. Although there is some non-descriptive violence, it’s very clean overall, and the plot kept me captivated the whole time.
Summary
In the country of Carthya, war is inevitably approaching. The royal family is dead, enemies want the open throne since there are no living heirs—except, possibly, the youngest prince, Jaron, who is missing, probably dead. These troubles don’t concern a Carthyan orphan named Sage, who’s more worried about stealing enough food to live…until a nobleman named Sir Conner arrives and buys him from the orphanage, forcing him to serve him on a mission to save Carthya. Sir Conner has chosen three boys in addition to Sage, all about the same age and appearance, to train in eloquence and history and royal duties—and at the end of their training, he will choose one boy to pretend to be Prince Jaron, while secretly obeying him. And the other boys who aren’t chosen—well, since they know about Conner’s illegal plan, they’ll die. Sage doesn’t intend to die, but survival becomes more difficult as the training begins. As it continues, Sage discovers hidden lies and secrets, and he must protect some secrets of his own…
Book Elements Rating
Overall: 9.5/10
Characters: 2/2. I loved Sage; he was so sarcastic, arrogant, intelligent, and funny, and he always acted like himself. The other characters were similarly well-defined and unique, and although I didn’t particularly like them all, they were interesting and complicated.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 2/2. Carthya feels like a medieval kingdom, with villages and castles and markets. The setting isn’t described much, but that’s good; it isn’t distracting.
Narration: 2/2. I loved Sage’s first-person, past-tense narration. It sounded like him, and—it was some of the most concise and clear prose I’ve ever read, actually; no words were wasted.
Plot: 2/2. Excellent, fast-paced, and interesting the whole time, with a surprising twist.
Interest/clarity: 1.5/2. It was interesting and clear overall. The plot twist, though…that was a bit confusing at first, and I would have liked a little more foreshadowing. Overall, though, it was very clear and interesting.
Morality/Content Rating
Overall: 8.5/10
Good and evil: 1.5/2. This is more of a political intrigue story than a conflict between good and evil. However, it’s clear that the villain of the story is evil, and Sage doesn’t want to be like him. However, although sometimes Sage wants to do the right thing, he isn’t a perfect role model either…
Character choices: 1.5/2. Sage was complicated; he made good choices and bad choices, like a real person. He did want to do the right thing overall; sometimes he did some bad things to survive, but those decisions were presented negatively.
Content: 5.5/6. It was very clean overall! There was a bit of non-descriptive violence. The villain kills a minor character early in the story, and he hurts Sage a few times, but the violence isn’t descriptive. There wasn’t any real language, but some characters swear by the “devils” of the world, although there aren’t any demons or anything in the story.
Overall, I really enjoyed this story. The plot was very exciting, and Sage was an amazing protagonist. And it was clean! Its messages weren’t that deep or thought-provoking, but it was still enjoyable and entertaining. I’d recommend this book to younger YA readers who enjoy medieval fantasy, political intrigue, and fast-paced intelligent stories. I’d recommend it to older YA readers too, honestly.