Summary: Win and become the King. Lose your armor, lose your life.

A kingdom in chaos, and countless men dead. When Cypress emerges from her village in the forest to seek her fate in the outside lands, she doesn’t bargain on becoming part of the realm’s politics with the Knight’s Game. Twelve men were chosen for the Game, each with his own symbol, and the last one standing becomes the next King. One man wears the sigil of the white stag, an unearthly being from Cypress’ own forest, that draws her into a world she never dreamed of. But when Cypress comes face to face with her spitting image, the father she never knew, she joins the Game to ensure his tyranny will not become law, all while hiding a secret that could get her killed – that she’s a woman.

The White Stag is a good old fashioned fantasy that should appeal to fans of Tamora Pierce’s Song of the Lioness series. Although it sounds similar, it takes a much more original route. It’s like a meeting of Tamora Pierce and The Hunger Games, and it works.

See the review at On The Nightstand.