Review Detail

I love this book so much. I checked it out from the library a few months ago, read it, re-read all my favorite scenes as soon as I reached the last page, re-read the entire book, then had to return it. Flash forward to the present and my one-month-old copy has been read at least twice, and I still love it to pieces. It's just that good.

Sage is an orphan off the streets who gets bought by a man named Conner, who has a scheme to take the throne. Sage and two other boys are in a contest to be chosen as an impersonator of a dead prince, and they all know the two losers will wind up dead. Sage is headstrong, stubborn, never cautious, and extremely pigheaded, but we soon learn that everything he does has a carefully calculated purpose in this game of wits.
It is cleverly paced, has a wonderful plot twist (even though I predicted it from the first time I read the book description - she twists and turns your thoughts until you're still surprised at the end, even if you saw it coming), and the characters are never completely as they seem at first. Every single character I can think of but one has at least some kind of secret or hidden agenda. I love it.