The Runaway King, an action-packed fantasy novel by Jennifer A. Nielsen, is the second book in the Ascendance series. Some major themes in this book are trust, identity, and responsibility. The Runaway King follows a young king named Jaron, who risks his own life to prevent war with enemy nations. When Jaron learns of an alliance being formed between a rival nation Avenia and the ruthless pirates, he disguises himself as a pirate to challenge the pirate king for the throne and prevent the alliance that would lead to the destruction of his kingdom. On his journey, Jaron saves a young girl from a band of thieves and brings her home to her grandfather, a rich noble. Jaron is later captured by the same thieves and is forced to steal a valuable watch from the noble. Jaron later feels bad for the noble because of the hospitality the noble provided him with and hatches a plan to steal from the thieves and return the watch to the noble. The thieves accept Jaron as part of their family and agree to take him to the pirates. When Jaron reaches the pirate camp he gets the king to like him and becomes one of the pirates. During his time with the pirates, Jaron meets new friends, makes new enemies, and receives unexpected help from an old friend. While this is going on Jaron’s people do not think he is fit to be king and his regents are planning to overthrow him. Jaron’s quick-wittedness, boldness, and charisma make The Runaway King a must-read. This book is filled with tons of sword fighting and constant action. I found this book very entertaining and finished the 330 pages in a day. I would also strongly recommend reading the first book in the series as it showcases Jaron's journey to become king. Many characters from the first book are reused in the second novel. Overall this was a great book but I would not recommend it to anyone who is not into fantasy or anyone who wants to read a serious novel. However, for anyone who is into fantasy, action, comedy, and even a little bit of romance this would be a great book.
Nicholas R
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