“My father had warned me about my quick tongue countless times. Perhaps he should have warned me more often.”–Jennifer Nielsen, The False Prince
This is the first book in Jennifer Nielsen’s The Ascendance Series and it gets the adventure off to a great start. Civil war is coming to the kingdom and Conner, a nobleman of the court, has a plan to unite the country. The king’s youngest son has been missing and presumed dead for several years. Conner finds four orphaned boys who bear a likeness to the missing prince and begins training them in the ways of the court so that one of them can be introduced as the lost prince. One of the boys, Sage, realizes very quickly that once one of them is chosen, the others will be killed. Aside from staying alive, each of the boys has their own agenda for being chosen. As they become more enmeshed in life at Conner’s lush estate, layers of treachery and deceit unfold and one stunning truth comes out that may be more dangerous than any of the lies.
This is an action packed book with lots of twists and turns, hidden identities, danger, and deceit–pretty much a perfect recipe for a young adult thriller. There are four additional books in the series so sit back and enjoy the ride.
Content Advisory: Murder, violence