Try The False Prince for adventure & suspense

I recently stayed up way too late on a school night finishing The False Price by Jennifer Nielsen.  I saw it listed on a Teens Choice book award list and decided to give it a try.  This book was a refreshing change from all the dystopian novels I’ve been reading lately.  Don’t get me wrong, I love dystopian literature, but this is different.  It has lots of action, suspense, adventure, intrigue, and plot twists.  I was truly shocked a couple of times in the story.  In the middle of it all is a wily, stubborn, and unpredictable main character whom you can’t help but love.

            The book is set in medieval times and includes a royal family living in the fictional realm of Carthya, scruffy orphans, a gang of thieves, pirates – lots of colorful characters.  Here’s the book description from Amazon.com:

“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.”

The False Price is the first book in the Ascendance trilogy.  The second book, The Runaway King, is equally exciting.  The final book of the series, The Shadow Throne, will be released next week, and I will get it for the library ASAP and have it ready for checkout – after I read it, of course.  :-) 
You can read the beginning of The False Prince on Google books:  http://books.google.com/books?id=H8aSwiaUKFQC&lpg=PP1&dq=the%20false%20prince&pg=PT13#v=onepage&q=the%20false%20prince&f=false.

~Mrs. Brownlee