As a child I loved fairy tales. As a teen I loved fairy re-tellings. As a maybe adult I like 'new' fairy tales. Eilis O'Neal's The False Princess reads very much like a fairy tale. Princess in hiding, magic waiting to be unleashed, hidden passages and childhood friends turned something more...it has all the excitement of my well-loved tales and none of the disappointment (that is, its longer then 15 pages!).

Fans of Gail Carson Levine, Jessica Day George, Shannon Hale, Tamora Pierce or E.D. Baker will find a lot to enjoy in this book. Sinda is a clever, resourceful and entertaining protagonist. Rather than freak out or whine about what happened to her, she tries to make the best of her situation. In truth what happened to her is downright disgraceful. 16 years they raised her, and true they wanted to make things a clean as possible, but her 'parents' the King and Queen could have made better provisions for her. She was never trained or taught anything but how to be a princess--any skills she picked up otherwise were through her own initiative and need for fun.

Sending her off to live with a relative she had no knowledge of, who was resentful and scornful and not the least understanding as to why she can't so simple chores village girls are taught from a young age...it was painful.

When Sinda returned, in a dramatically different fashion then she left, I felt nothing but joy for her. She was different. She wasn't the young girl that was tossed aside because politics called for it. She was a young woman ready to take her place and be something better.

There are several twists throughout the novel, including a subtle jab at what happens when you take a prophecy way too literally, and the romance is kept low key. Though Sinda worries over his opinion of her, it never gets to the point where it interferes with her life. She's sad and feels lonely at times, but is reasonable about it.

In the end this is exactly the sort of novel I would have loved as a child and appreciate more now as an adult. Positive engaging heroine, underlying theme of finding yourself and being true to it and fantasy elements all make this a book to not miss! ( )

{stand alone; fantasy, YA, magic, adventure, debut} (2011)

Nalia is the sole heir to the kingdom of Thorvaldor but, though she has always tried to be a good princess, she is reserved and bookish and her only friend is Kieran, the son of a minor earl. Shortly after her sixteenth birthday she is told that she is actually a commoner and a decoy for the real princess and her name is Sinda, not Nalia. She is immediately sent away from the palace to live with her aunt in a distant village where she has to try and adjust to her new life with no creature comforts.

Then she discovers that she has magic, which has been hidden until now, and she returns to the capital and the wizards' college to try to learn to control it before it becomes dangerous - and while there she makes other discoveries.

Well plotted and easy to read. The premise of the beginning of the story sounds a bit simplistic, from the synopsis, but O'Neal makes it work. Though it seems as though the king and queen let Sinda go too easily, the story is told from the perspective of the young girl (you know how angsty teens get) and we do get a glimpse of how they really felt, albeit second-hand.

There was a question I had wanted to ask, but it kept getting stuck somewhere in my mouth before I could speak. Finally, though, with the ring of the bell still in my ears, I forced it out. "How is my ... the queen. How is the queen?"
Nalia looked down at her lap. "She misses you, I think. She doesn't talk about you - neither of them do. But I caught her crying once, when she thought she was alone. I was standing just outside the doorway, where she couldn't see me. I was about to go in to her, but then my ... then the king came. He held her shoulders and I heard him say that she had to bear it. That she had known, that there was nothing else they could have done. She stopped crying for him, but she still looked sad."

And in this conversation Sinda (who has been, understandably, a bit sulky) also realises that Nalia is in a similar situation to herself, having to suddenly adapt to a life she never knew about.

The plot twist and Sinda's developing magic give the story more substance. I liked the gentle romance and the way he never gave up on her though he also stood up for himself when he needed to.

Light and fun and very readable.

(September 2023)
4 stars ( )

What if your entire life was a lie and you learn that you are not who you think you are? At age 16, Princess Nalia learns she is not really the princess, but a commoner girl who was standing in for the real princess because of a prophecy that she would be killed. Unceremoniously kicked out of the palace to live with her aunt, a cold aloof woman in a small village, Nalia, now Sinda, must make her own way in the world.

I enjoyed this book. I found it a bit oddly written for a YA novel - the writing was a bit more mature and the action a little less fast than most YA fantasies I've read, and unfortunately for this book, I think many readers in the target age group would find it slow because of that. I thought it was very well done, and the plot interesting.

I do wish it had been longer so that the characters could have been fleshed out a bit more. ( )

Dear gods, I had such hopes for this one.
And the only reason it gets 2 stars is because of the idea.
The execution? Completely bland and...
Honestly? I kept thinking it was dull as a doornail, except the later could be way more exciting.

I liked the idea, and the beginning was rather promising - but then it started its downwards slide. Not even magic helps. And that's saying something.

I would rather downgrade it to middlegrade, except there is no one I would recommend it to. There are too many quality books far more engaging out there to be enjoyed.

TIME: ~2 hours, with lots of skimming; because: dull as a doornail.
VERDICT: Avoid. ( )

A little flamboyant and, at least twice, too convenient. But fun. ( )