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A review by dragoneyes451
White Hart by Sarah Dalton
4.0
Dalton doesn’t fool around starting her story. There’s very little descriptive background in the beginning before suddenly you’re whirling into a thickening plot. Then, just as you’re getting excited, frantically turning page after page… it gets stagnant. Sure, they’re traveling through the dark, mysterious, dangerous Waerg Woods, and you’re not sure what’s going to happen to them next. But the character relationship is very cliche. The we-don’t-like-each-other, he-likes-this-other-girl-so-I-can’t-possibly-like-him, okay-I-like-him-but-he-likes-her-not-me, etc. etc. story line has been done so many times. I began wishing Dalton had chosen a different approach for the main characters’ relationship.
Then you meet the Ibenas, and you’re now excitedly flipping through the pages again. You get pulled into the roller-coaster of Mae’s emotions, despite the cliche-ness of it all. I legitimately could not stop reading this book once I got to this point. Suddenly there was a plot twist I hadn’t been expecting. I looked to see that I was 90% of the way through the book, and I inwardly groaned.
To say I was happy with the way the book ended would be a lie. Books that just END like that drive me a little crazy, but it's an excellent set up for the sequel.
I did have one major issue with the book. I felt like Dalton was trying to make a few political statements, but she never hashed out those parts of the book enough to actually make the statement. For example, she seemed to want to make a distinction between the female lead, Mae, being black and poor, and the male lead, Casimir, being white and a prince. But it doesn’t really go anywhere and feels unnecessary to the story she’s trying to tell. And then there’s the coal-burning palace. Look, I’m an environmental scientist, and I am all for ecological awareness. But beyond the statement that the “fumes” (smog) have killed the crops and are making people sick, it doesn’t go any further. Perhaps she’ll expand upon this more in her second book, but I feel like if you are trying to take an environmental stance, you have to dig deeper into it than she has.
Overall, I really liked this book. There was a moment where things were turning into a typical, expected and unexciting plot, and my initial enjoyment began to waver, but then the action really picked back up the rest of the way to the end. I’m already excited for the sequel to come out, so I can find out WHAT HAPPENED. What a cliffhanger!
Then you meet the Ibenas, and you’re now excitedly flipping through the pages again. You get pulled into the roller-coaster of Mae’s emotions, despite the cliche-ness of it all. I legitimately could not stop reading this book once I got to this point. Suddenly there was a plot twist I hadn’t been expecting. I looked to see that I was 90% of the way through the book, and I inwardly groaned.
To say I was happy with the way the book ended would be a lie. Books that just END like that drive me a little crazy, but it's an excellent set up for the sequel.
I did have one major issue with the book. I felt like Dalton was trying to make a few political statements, but she never hashed out those parts of the book enough to actually make the statement. For example, she seemed to want to make a distinction between the female lead, Mae, being black and poor, and the male lead, Casimir, being white and a prince. But it doesn’t really go anywhere and feels unnecessary to the story she’s trying to tell. And then there’s the coal-burning palace. Look, I’m an environmental scientist, and I am all for ecological awareness. But beyond the statement that the “fumes” (smog) have killed the crops and are making people sick, it doesn’t go any further. Perhaps she’ll expand upon this more in her second book, but I feel like if you are trying to take an environmental stance, you have to dig deeper into it than she has.
Overall, I really liked this book. There was a moment where things were turning into a typical, expected and unexciting plot, and my initial enjoyment began to waver, but then the action really picked back up the rest of the way to the end. I’m already excited for the sequel to come out, so I can find out WHAT HAPPENED. What a cliffhanger!