Book Review #1

I am going to review some of the books that I read. Either ones that are given to me to review or ones that I think other people might find interesting.

First up:
Ariel's Journey by Doug Kane and Christy Wood

When I was younger I was obsessed with horse of every shape, size and in some case colour. If only a real horse was green with orange hair.

This is the story of a group of girls and their horses (don't call them ponies as you will soon read). Icelandic horses, who have all the heart of horses much bigger than them and more. Its a little hard to review without giving away a big plot point but here we go.

I'm always hesitant to read books written by 2 people. Sometimes the book can end up really fragmented and you can tell who has written each parts and sometimes things just don't make sense. But thats not really the writers faults, thats more of the editors fault. I didn't have that problem with this little book. Everything flowed really nicely and the pacing was good. I would have liked a bit more character development with some of the characters in the books, at times they are almost like sterotypical cut outs, but I would guess that they would be developed in the rest of the books.

The girls, Emily, Kim, Darcy, Laura and Andrea are on a trail ride trying to learn to all get along and get past their differences when they are set on an adventure. They have to help rescue a princess and along the way they find out that they have things in common, fall in love, and end up doing things they never thought they ever would. Your typical plot line to a young adult book, but the horses add to it and make it enjoyable to read.

I do like that this story takes place in history and in a place the horses are from so it ties the horses to the story besides them just being the girls mounts. It was a quick read, and I found myself really interested in how the story would end. I am really glad that there is glossary in the book because some of the things in the story I had no idea what they were or how you would pronounce them (some of them I have no idea how to pronounce even with the glossary. Hornafjordur. say it 3 times fast ;) )

I don't think boys will like this book as much, as it seemed more marketed towards the young girl market. So unless the boy is really into horses it probably wouldn't be the right book for them. There isn't enough action I think to keep someone reading who doesn't have an interest in horses, there is enough of a story but in some places might be too sappy for young boys. (then again I'm a girl, so I could be wrong). There is one part in the book, that might get young kids asking some questions (and how they react to it, will probably depend on what you have told your kids and what they know), but its not a major thing in the whole story and would probably not be picked up by really young children (I was reading books like this since I was 6, would have have figured it out? hard to say).

This is a book that I would have definitely picked out when I was younger to read as I love anything to do with history and was a huge horse fanatic.

I will be looking for the rest in the series when they come out, to see what happens to the girls and their horses. And maybe learn a few more words I can't pronounce ;)

All in all a quick enjoyable read.