Urchin King by Katharina Gerlach

Childrens/Teens

My rating:

3 of 5 stars

 For fourteen years, street-urchin Paul's miserable existence has kept him safe from an ancient law that sentences all second-born twins to death. When he learns he is the younger twin of the mentally handicapped Crown Prince who's in danger of being killed for his disability, he agrees to play the role of the miraculously healed royal heir. Paul struggles to learn how to act like a born ruler, but finds that his greatest skill, getting by unnoticed, is now his greatest liability. He knows if he is discovered, he will be executed like all second-born twins

 

From Amazon.com:

Publication Date: October 3, 2011

"Urchin King" was a semi-finalist for the "KBR Best Indie Book 2012" award. The 2012 Best Indie Book Contest was established and judged by the reviewers at The Kindle Book Review. They pre-screened hundreds of books and judged them on formatting, writing quality, and if the book “grabbed” them from the beginning.

  

I decided to add the amazon description of the book along with this post because I do agree with the statement and it includes all of the things that I liked about the book. 

The Urchin King is one that grabbed me from the first page and the formatting and writing was good quality for the age range of ~12 and up. The plot was interesting and had many twists. The addition of a powerful wizard and powers of others battling for the Kingdom both entertaining and had a lot of possibilities to build on as far as the storyline. 

As the story progressed I did find that Paul seemed to escape every situation a little too easily. There could have been a lot more of a struggle in each situation to help build the emotional ties with the reader to the story. When I sat and thought too much about the wizard and controlling powers I found a lot of loop holes. Paul shines through as a character that is generous and noble, open minded and caring.

This story is entertaining and I did enjoy a lot of the elements, I would recommend it to those that enjoy reading stories of Kings and Castles, Wizards and Princesses.