After Sage ascends the throne, he has to lead Carthya through a destructive war with multiple neighboring nations.

[1] The book sold well and its paperback reprint placed The False Prince on The New York Times Best Seller list in May 2013.

Sage is a fourteen-year-old orphan who lives at an orphanage and steals roasts and other things from a local butcher, but is eventually caught.

He is saved from the butcher by a nobleman named Bevin Conner who buys Sage from the orphanage owner.

Sage eventually develops feelings for Imogen, but does not act on them, for Princess Amarinda of Bultain is betrothed to the throne, and therefore, to him.

After arriving in the capital and defeating Roden in a duel for the identity of the false prince, Sage goes inside and reveals Conner's plan, then reveals himself as the true prince Jaron who escaped the pirate attack in which the kingdom thought he was killed.

Since Conner not only ordered the pirate attack on Prince Jaron and killed his parents, the King and Queen, with poison, Jaron assumes the title of The Ascendant King, and is crowned after imprisoning Conner, and posthumously declaring Imogen's father as a nobleman, making her a noble who stays at the castle, and making Tobias a noble as well.

Roden tells him that the pirates are giving Jaron ten days to surrender, or else they will attack Carthya.

Jaron believes that they need to defend themselves, but the regents are all for following King Eckbert (his father)'s footsteps in avoiding war through negotiation.

Harlowe treats him very kindly and urges him to stay longer, but Jaron departs for Avenia and arrives the next day.

However, with aid from Erick and Fink, Jaron climbs escapes and challenges Roden as pirate king.

As they spar, Jaron expresses his desire for Roden to come to his side and return to Carthya as the captain of his guard.

But even as the enemy surrenders, the bulk of Avenia's armies arrive, vastly outnumbering the Carthyans.

Jaron and his troops are trapped in the battle against Avenia and Mendenwal and are forced to retreat to the woods.

The Avenians take Jaron to Farthenwood; there, he meets Roden, who was captured, and Imogen, who did not die when she got shot.

Vargan is then betrayed his own commander, who has come to respect Jaron and wishes to surrender to end the bloodshed.

Nielsen had considered writing a book where someone was forced to impersonate royalty – the underlying premise for The False Prince – for some time.

"[8] However, the reviewer from The New York Times, describing the novel as a "grim story that takes an occasional, though only very occasional, mordant turn", concluded that it "makes the effort of reading worth the getting to the end" but that the "absence of a fully furnished world keeps this particular page turner from lingering very long after the book is closed".

[4] Reception for the second entry was more mixed, with Publishers Weekly calling it a "solid sequel" but commenting that the book's villains were "perhaps too easily manipulated by the young king".

[12] Common Sense Media also gave a mixed review, criticizing Jaron's arrogance and saying that "the reasoning behind his reckless schemes is often unclear, so he seems to constantly put himself into needless danger".

[2] The Buffalo News, in a brief review, was more positive, stating that "Nielsen offers memorable characters, a complex world ... and a vivid political backdrop" and that the book raises good questions about war and personal sacrifice.

[15] Bryan Cogman was hired to adapt the first book in the series into a movie screenplay and Deborah Forte was announced as the film's producer.