The False Princess

by Eilis O'Neal

[Stephanie]

This review was originally posted on Once Upon a ChapterFirst Sentence: 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.

Super Brief Review: A wonderful story about a girl whose entire life has been a lie.

Favorite Quotes: Substitute princes, failed dyer, scribe – none of those role had prepared me for this.

Slightly Longer Review: The False Princess is an amazing tale that grabbed my attention from the first chapter. Sinda was very easy to relate to and didn’t get on my nerves. The only life that she has ever known is stripped from her and she’s tossed aside and forgotten like a used Kleenex. As a reader I understood clearly both sides of the story but I felt that the way Sinda was left behind was extremely harsh. Perhaps this was done on purpose so that I would bond with Sinda instantly.

Sinda leaves the palace without putting up much argument and accepts her new role in life with a sort of numbness. Life for Sinda outside of the palace is exceptionally difficult. She was only ever prepared for life as a future ruler. The day to day life of the working man is hard to adjust to but not for a lack of trying. This is something that I truly admired in Sinda. She wanted to learn how to do everything that she could. She just had a hard time picking up the dying trade, or cooking, or cleaning….you get the picture.

Sinda decides to return to the only city that she can really call home. She has no clue that doing so will start into motion the biggest adventure of her life.

Sinda is surrounded by great secondary characters and without them the story would probably not have been the same. O’Neal does a wonderful job setting up her story and then following through with almost non-stop action. Anyone who enjoys a good adventure story with a mix of fantasy and young adult romance should pick up this book!