House of the Star

It's been WAY too long since I posted a book review!


Title: House of the Star
Author: Caitlin Brennan
BlurbElen is a princess of the kingdom of Ymbria. Her greatest wish is to become a rider of worldrunners: the magical horses that are the only safe way to travel the roads through the worlds of Faerie. Now Elen has the chance to fulfill her dream at last, but the price is much too high.
To become a worldrider, Elen must journey to the House of the Star on Earth, the Arizona ranch where the worldrunners live and breed. There, she must try to forge a peace with her people’s worst enemy—a traitor from the world of Caledon—and end the war that has been tearing their worlds apart for centuries. If Elen doesn’t succeed, the Master of the House of the Star will close both Ymbria and Caledon off from the worldroads forever. Can the wisdom of a worldrunner named Blanca help Elen in her quest to save her world?

Review: A young reader's book is a refreshing change once in a while, when it is well written. This was well written, paced well and with a rising cadence that draws the reader in subtly and increasingly until you have to get to the end to find out how it ends. It's not the crescendo that an adult can handle, more gently paced for younger readers, but entrancing all the same. 

While I've long had a love for and admiration of horses, I'm not as horse-mad as the author or the heroines in this book. Nevertheless, I found them very easy to relate to, my empathy for their love of horses felt natural and unforced. Ms Brennan has done an excellent of job of weaving the hearts of the readers into the song of the tale. 

It is definitely aimed at young readers and has the requisite good and evil, magic and reality, warriors and villains to satisfy all children (and quite a few adults) and if I wasn't entirely enthralled, the fault lies in my seared soul. I can entirely see my young grandson mesmerized at bed time by the next exciting chapter.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, a wonderful couple hours of fantasy that made me smile in the end. 

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