December 22, 2011

The False Princess by Eilis O'Neal

Since It's Winter Break, I took my annual WB gander through my library to find all sorts of books to read over break. I always spend most of my time in the New Shelf of the Teen Section; it has a good number of YA books released in the past year. When I saw the title The False Princess, it intrigued me, I thought; that is new, never in my many years (7, to be exact) of reading YA books, have I been so dragged in by a title. I imediately added it to my pile. (Which would be expanded to 9 books by the end of my trip.) At the time of this particular trip, I had been reading the amazingly attention-grabbing Clockwork Angel, so I finished that and immediatly started reading this. It took me less than a day to finish it; partly because it was only 323 pages, but more importantly; it was AMAZING!!!
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.
Doesn't it sound amazing? With passionate love of friendship, her country, and her past, Sinda is attempting to reconstruct a plot to set a 'False Princess' on the throne; someone other than her, that is.

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