Book #19 of 2015: Cloud Magic (Sky Horses)
Cloud Magic (Sky Horses) by Linda Chapman
Rating: Okay (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)
With a title like 'Sky Horses' and a horse on the cover, I understandably thought this book would be about horses. I thought it would be a "talking animal" book, with some kind of element of magic. What it really was was a book about a young girl who loves horses. And magic. (Though I always link to the Amazon page whenever possible, this time I didn't get it from Amazon, so I hadn't seen the blurb there first.)
The book opened well enough. Chapter one was about a group of "sky horses" talking about sky horse things. Then chapter two took a left turn. Spoiler: Clouds are actually horses! We just can't see the horses, only people with a hag stone (a stone with a natural hole in it) can see the clouds as horses. The main character, Erin, had a hag stone, looked up into the sky through it, and saw the horses. As she was a young girl who loved horses, no one believed her when she told people that clouds are really horses.
Chapter one was basically the last we heard of the horses. The rest of the book (at least the 60% I read) was about Erin and her special powers. Turns out she was not just human, she was a "Stardust Sprite". See, all humans have "stardust" in them, it's what lets us imagine things. When one human has a lot more stardust than everyone else, it means they have magical powers and an ability to turn into a Stardust Sprite. How does one turn into one of those? By repeating "I believe in Stardust!" three times. As far as I could tell, the only difference between a Stardust Sprite and a human was that the sprites can fly and their clothing turns into a dress.
The plot? One of the sky horses was stolen by an evil sprite, so the Stardust Sprites had to go save it. Yawn.
The writing was good (especially after the last book I read), but I just too far from the target audience. When I was a preteen, I likely would have LOVED the book. Erin was a book-loving, horse-crazy basically social outcast (who then got ~magical~ friends once she got her Starlight Sprite powers, and boy did they show all those people who were mean to her!). Any young girl who enjoys reading or loves horses would like eat this book series up, but for adult me, the magical powers both of the characters and the whole worldbuilding came off as ridiculous.
Since I read more than half, I can count this towards my 50 book goal. It was a short book and a fast read, I could have finished it in another half-hour or so, but I had no interest in the story and wasn't enjoying it, so figured I'd move on.
Reading now: Guy in Real Life, which I had worried about a little when I picked it up, but I'm loving it so far.
Rating: Okay (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)
With a title like 'Sky Horses' and a horse on the cover, I understandably thought this book would be about horses. I thought it would be a "talking animal" book, with some kind of element of magic. What it really was was a book about a young girl who loves horses. And magic. (Though I always link to the Amazon page whenever possible, this time I didn't get it from Amazon, so I hadn't seen the blurb there first.)
The book opened well enough. Chapter one was about a group of "sky horses" talking about sky horse things. Then chapter two took a left turn. Spoiler: Clouds are actually horses! We just can't see the horses, only people with a hag stone (a stone with a natural hole in it) can see the clouds as horses. The main character, Erin, had a hag stone, looked up into the sky through it, and saw the horses. As she was a young girl who loved horses, no one believed her when she told people that clouds are really horses.
Chapter one was basically the last we heard of the horses. The rest of the book (at least the 60% I read) was about Erin and her special powers. Turns out she was not just human, she was a "Stardust Sprite". See, all humans have "stardust" in them, it's what lets us imagine things. When one human has a lot more stardust than everyone else, it means they have magical powers and an ability to turn into a Stardust Sprite. How does one turn into one of those? By repeating "I believe in Stardust!" three times. As far as I could tell, the only difference between a Stardust Sprite and a human was that the sprites can fly and their clothing turns into a dress.
The plot? One of the sky horses was stolen by an evil sprite, so the Stardust Sprites had to go save it. Yawn.
The writing was good (especially after the last book I read), but I just too far from the target audience. When I was a preteen, I likely would have LOVED the book. Erin was a book-loving, horse-crazy basically social outcast (who then got ~magical~ friends once she got her Starlight Sprite powers, and boy did they show all those people who were mean to her!). Any young girl who enjoys reading or loves horses would like eat this book series up, but for adult me, the magical powers both of the characters and the whole worldbuilding came off as ridiculous.
Since I read more than half, I can count this towards my 50 book goal. It was a short book and a fast read, I could have finished it in another half-hour or so, but I had no interest in the story and wasn't enjoying it, so figured I'd move on.
Reading now: Guy in Real Life, which I had worried about a little when I picked it up, but I'm loving it so far.