Sarah Dalton: White Hart (White Hart, #1)
 5 stars

Mae never asked to be craft-born. She never wanted that burden.

The realm needs magic again, and the the King of Aegunlund has been waiting for the first craft-born girl to marry his son, Prince Casimir.

In Mae's town of Halts-Walden, the ambitious miller claims his daughter Ellen is craft-born. Mae knows this is a load of hogwash, but she's glad Ellen will have the unfortunate pleasure of becoming queen instead of her. All she has to do is sit back and wait until Casimir and Ellen are married, then she will finally be free of the threat of her fate. But on that day an event so shocking and terrible occurs that Mae finds herself entering the neighbouring cursed forest on a quest she never thought she'd have to follow.

Join Mae as she rides her white stag through the Waerg Woods with a pampered prince at her heels. She's out for revenge and nothing, no one, will get in her way.


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I received this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

No! No! No! Why did it end? Why? This is absolute horrible. Horrible. What am I going to do now? I was just turning the page and it wasn't there. This is torture. How is it possible that it ended like that? I can't believe it. I feel like shouting and screaming and I want to throw my e-reader to the wall. Really. I want MORE!!

So if you didn't yet get it, I LOVED the book. This was definitely one of the best books for a while. I liked the cover, it's wonfully simple and timeless. It remimded me a little of Maggie Stiefvater's Mercy Falls series ans their covers. The stories are not similar in any way, but covers are similar and I love them both. So, the cover was the first thing that got my attention. The next thing was book's summary. The craf-born idea seemed really interesting, even if the magic is not always my favorite genre. But I had really psotive expectations about this book even before I started reading and the book didn't betray those expectations. It was even better if possible.

As the summary tells us, Mae is craft-born, the only girl born in this generation with magic. And because she is craft-born, she should marry the prince, but she doesn't want to, so she hides her powers. Mae doesn't want to be a princess and she certainly doesn't want marry a guy who she doesn't know, just because those powers. However, in Mae's village these is a girl Ellen, who suddenly claims to be the craft-born. Mae of cousce knows that this is bullshit, but she is satisfied that she doesn't have to marry the prince. The prince comes to claim Ellen and something terrible happens. Ellen is kidnapped and Mae's father is killed at the same time. Mae decides to go after the crooks to avenge his fathet death as well as to retrieve Ellen. Stubborn prince decides to come with Mae and they leave to a nearby hautend woods. Mae and prince Casimir will face horrible mystical horrors is forest and Mae learns a lot of herself and what being the craft-born means. Perhaps that obligation involves more than just marrying the prince, in which Mae soon begins to fall in love with during their journey. But will Mae reveal het feeling or that she is the real craft-born instead Ellen?

The book is incrediblt well written and I really liked the characters. Mae is at first perhaps a little selfish, even thought she is brave and independent person. But as the story progress she learns a lot of herself and she grows as a person, realizing that perhaps revenge isn't the only option and perhapt there really is meaning in her powers. Prince Casimir seemed at first like a typical snooty prince, but it soon become clear that this is not the case, but the prince is really a great person and he could someday be a great king. On the way we meet other characters as well, which affect the story, but not any more about them here.

Since I'm extremely bad at writing reviews, I don't know how to better analyze this book, but I can sum up my feelings in one sentence. There wasn't anything in this book that I didn't love. There is romance and action, lies and honesty, selfish people and selfless people. And the best (or maybe the worst) was the amazing cliffhanger, which ensures that I really look forward to the next book. I just simply cannot wait for what happens next. And while I'm waiting for the next book, I'm definitely going to check out rest of Sarah Dalton's production.