The False Princess by Eilis O'Neal

Book Name: The False Princess
Author/s: Eilis O'Neal
Source: Bought
Publisher, year: Egmont USA, 2011
Page total: 336
Date Read: January 28 to 31, 2011
Genre/s: YA, High Fantasy, Mystery, Thriller, Romance
First line of Book:The day they came to tell me, I was in one of the gardens with kiernan, Trying to decipher a three-hundred-year-old map of the palace grounds.

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.

The first thing that caught my attention on this book was not the magic (though that was also awesome) but the "false princess" part. All I thought was Cool! It's like Princess Diaries reversed!. Though then I found out that it was just a small part in the beginning. I don't mind though, because the story is really complex and that's even better.

Sinda was a likable character, and I appreciated that she was not a snotty cocky princess and that when she found out she was not a princess, she was mad (and admitted it) but not vengeful.
Kiernan was a great friend and I have to admit I loved his extroversion.

The plot was good, and though some things were obvious from the beginning, it was still quite twisted. Still, what I liked the most was a question made somewhere during the course of the story:If there are two possible candidates to the throne, one of them raised as a commoner but of pure royal blood, and other with blood not so pure but with a better education, and if they both had good ruler qualities, which should sit on the throne? Would it make a difference? and I didn't stop thinking of it till the end of it.

Overall, I'd recommend this book if you like fantasy, and I think you'll like it even if you don't like princesses.

4/5