Rating: 4 stars

The Prince has disappeared and taken the Heart of the Kingdom with him. Now the young mage-in-training, Timou, must follow in the footsteps of her father and seek out the Prince before everything in the Kingdom withers and dies under the pall that has been cast in the Prince's absence.

Timou's journey to the palace at the center of the Kingdom will bring her face-to-face with the secrets that her father has kept from her, including the knowledge of her mother, but the skein is tangled much tighter then Timou could ever have imagined. Timou isn't the only one looking for the lost Prince, and the other's don't hold her noble intentions. For Timou to place the Heart back into the Kingdom she may have to make more sacrifices then should be asked of a girl her age but oftentimes it's the selfless act that means the most.

As a lovely and stark fairytale, this piece has little going against it. With so many overblown books hitting the shelves these days, it's refreshing to find such simplicity and beauty. High marks for Rachel Neumeier.

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Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Pub. Date: July 2008
ISBN-13: 9780375847042