Helpful Score: 2
This book follows an orphan boy named Sage who was picked up along with 3 other orphans from various orphanages by a nobleman for purpose of grooming to pose as the missing lost prince. Sage, as it turned out, was mischievious, disobedient and incorrigable, often resulting in some painful consequence. Despite his obhorent behaviour, it's easy to love him, and will him to behave if only to escape beatings, but as we find out, his behaviour served many well calculated purposes. It's written in 1st person, and sometimes reverts back to 3rd person, but that does not detract from the storytelling. There are many surprises in this story that makes you exclaim, "NO way!" And it ended very well even though it's a trilogy. I'm absolutely dying for the next book, and I'm dreading finishing that one, because book 3 is not yet published!
Helpful Score: 1
This is the first book in the Ascendance Trilogy. I got a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a honest review. From the very first page this was a wonderful book. The main character is funny, snarky, and sneaky. This is a great middle grade fantasy that people of all ages will love; its full of lots of intrigue and twists and turns.
Sage is just trying to survive at the orphanage he lives at when he literally runs into Connor. Connor wants Sage for a mysterious purpose. Ends up that the young prince of the realm disappeared years ago and Connor wants a young man to pretend to be that prince. Now Sage will be duking it out against two others boys in an intense two week training course to see who will do the best and win the place of false prince.
Sage pretty much makes this book. He is incredibly resourceful, disrespectful, snarky, funny, and sincere all at once. For a young thief he has quite the attitude and you can't help but root for him the whole time. He is always out to help those who need help, but also likes to help himself.
Sage's tone is light-hearted and sarcastic for most of the novel; I laughed out loud a number of times and found myself grinning widely most of the rest of the time. That's not to say it's all laughs; Sage is involved in some heavy court intrigue and has to make some tough decisions.
The characters surrounding Sage are all very well done. Connor is a character that's hard to figure out in the beginning...is he here to help the kingdom or is he a traitor? It's an interesting mystery for the reader to unravel. All of the characters have strong personalities and a lot of depth to their characters.
Having the boys pitted against each other creates an interesting dynamic; this suspense of who will be the False Prince really drives the story forward and makes it hard to stop reading. While this premise seems fairly straight forward, as the story continues things get more and more complicated. There are some truly wonderful twists in the plot that will have the reader absolutely astounded. The resolution was kind of predictable but the skill with which everything came together was impressive and the irony involved highly entertaining.
The writing is very natural sounding and easy to read, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. The story ties up nicely in this book, so no horrible cliffhangers. Things are also set up well for continuation of the series in future books.
Overall I absolutely loved this book right from the first page. Sage is funny, resourceful, and completely full of it...he is absolutely entertaining to read about. All of the characters are well done. The book is hard to put down because the competition between the boys really draws the reader in. I loved how this simple premise gets more and more complex; this is a very intelligent and well done story full of mystery and intrigue. In some ways it reminded me a bit of Megan Whalen Turner's The Thief, it also reminds a bit of John Flanagan's Ranger's Apprentice series. I highly recommend this book to fans of middle grade fantasy; in fact I think it would be a highly entertaining read for readers of all ages. I can't wait to see what happens in the 2nd book!
Sage is just trying to survive at the orphanage he lives at when he literally runs into Connor. Connor wants Sage for a mysterious purpose. Ends up that the young prince of the realm disappeared years ago and Connor wants a young man to pretend to be that prince. Now Sage will be duking it out against two others boys in an intense two week training course to see who will do the best and win the place of false prince.
Sage pretty much makes this book. He is incredibly resourceful, disrespectful, snarky, funny, and sincere all at once. For a young thief he has quite the attitude and you can't help but root for him the whole time. He is always out to help those who need help, but also likes to help himself.
Sage's tone is light-hearted and sarcastic for most of the novel; I laughed out loud a number of times and found myself grinning widely most of the rest of the time. That's not to say it's all laughs; Sage is involved in some heavy court intrigue and has to make some tough decisions.
The characters surrounding Sage are all very well done. Connor is a character that's hard to figure out in the beginning...is he here to help the kingdom or is he a traitor? It's an interesting mystery for the reader to unravel. All of the characters have strong personalities and a lot of depth to their characters.
Having the boys pitted against each other creates an interesting dynamic; this suspense of who will be the False Prince really drives the story forward and makes it hard to stop reading. While this premise seems fairly straight forward, as the story continues things get more and more complicated. There are some truly wonderful twists in the plot that will have the reader absolutely astounded. The resolution was kind of predictable but the skill with which everything came together was impressive and the irony involved highly entertaining.
The writing is very natural sounding and easy to read, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. The story ties up nicely in this book, so no horrible cliffhangers. Things are also set up well for continuation of the series in future books.
Overall I absolutely loved this book right from the first page. Sage is funny, resourceful, and completely full of it...he is absolutely entertaining to read about. All of the characters are well done. The book is hard to put down because the competition between the boys really draws the reader in. I loved how this simple premise gets more and more complex; this is a very intelligent and well done story full of mystery and intrigue. In some ways it reminded me a bit of Megan Whalen Turner's The Thief, it also reminds a bit of John Flanagan's Ranger's Apprentice series. I highly recommend this book to fans of middle grade fantasy; in fact I think it would be a highly entertaining read for readers of all ages. I can't wait to see what happens in the 2nd book!
Fans of Graceling, Grave Mercy (His Fair Assassin, Bk 1) or The Girl of Fire and Thorns (Fire and Thorns, Bk 1) will enjoy this book. It's a fantastic story set in a fictional land where the future of the kingdom depends on one who comes from humble beginnings. I highly recommend this to YA lovers, and due to the lack of actual violence and sexual themes, it's a good story for middle-school readers. 5 stars!!
As a long-time reader of YA fiction, I found there was a certain level of predictability to the book, which was definitely its major weakness, and yet it was still quite good. Essentially, it is a classic plot involving a look-alike taking on a royal role, but Nielsen does definitely put her own spin on things. The characters are fairly well-written and developed, particularly for the first part of a trilogy, and the plot was solid enough to keep my interest. I feel as though it could be stronger, but I look forward to reading the other books in the trilogy at some point to see how things developed.
Excellent story! My daughter and I couldn't put the book down. I loved how Jennifer Nielson did the characters and how the story turned out. I don't want to give anything away but I highly recommend this story, and the second book in the series as well.
There, an orphan girl was groomed to play the part of the long lost Anastasia and fool her grandmother.
~~~
This was a quick but enjoyable read for me. I had trouble putting this down and was thinking about it between breaks at work (they have this crazy idea that I have to work to get money... imagine that! ;-)). Never boring and great characters, *happy sigh*
LOVED Sage, quick-thinking, dry humor, clever... I wanted to disappear into the book for a day or two to hang out with him. He's a smart-ass and stubborn, but he has his reasons. It never got to the point where I wanted to throttle him o0r throw the book across the room. He has a caring side to him as well, his friendship with some of the servants was heart-warming.
Conner and Cregan... oooh! I wanted to boot them both in the rear-end multiple times and also this:
Thanks Gibbs! :-D Anyways ;-)
They were good antagonists but ya know... it was fun waiting and knowing they would get their comeuppance one way or another but I skip ahead.
Mott was loyal to Conner but a good man, I hope we see him again in the next book. I could imagine being friends with him. Near the book's end, he really proved his worth and character. Tough to talk about it without spoiling anything though.
The twist I admit I did see coming but still when the entire thing was revealed... holy crap. It was a well thought out and very clever plan and I could see and appreciate the thought that went into it.
One twist I didn't see coming and deepened my disgust for a certain someone, who I thought was a snake but not an evil person. I cheered when a certain something happened to him.
The ending was a good one, not a cliffhanger per say but certainly leaves a shadow hanging over a joyous occasion and setting the stage for the conflicts sure to come.
Would recommend, happy reading!
~~~
This was a quick but enjoyable read for me. I had trouble putting this down and was thinking about it between breaks at work (they have this crazy idea that I have to work to get money... imagine that! ;-)). Never boring and great characters, *happy sigh*
LOVED Sage, quick-thinking, dry humor, clever... I wanted to disappear into the book for a day or two to hang out with him. He's a smart-ass and stubborn, but he has his reasons. It never got to the point where I wanted to throttle him o0r throw the book across the room. He has a caring side to him as well, his friendship with some of the servants was heart-warming.
Conner and Cregan... oooh! I wanted to boot them both in the rear-end multiple times and also this:
Thanks Gibbs! :-D Anyways ;-)
They were good antagonists but ya know... it was fun waiting and knowing they would get their comeuppance one way or another but I skip ahead.
Mott was loyal to Conner but a good man, I hope we see him again in the next book. I could imagine being friends with him. Near the book's end, he really proved his worth and character. Tough to talk about it without spoiling anything though.
The twist I admit I did see coming but still when the entire thing was revealed... holy crap. It was a well thought out and very clever plan and I could see and appreciate the thought that went into it.
One twist I didn't see coming and deepened my disgust for a certain someone, who I thought was a snake but not an evil person. I cheered when a certain something happened to him.
The ending was a good one, not a cliffhanger per say but certainly leaves a shadow hanging over a joyous occasion and setting the stage for the conflicts sure to come.
Would recommend, happy reading!
