Please forgive me. I bailed on this book. It moved too slow for me.

This ebook was available on NetGalley and I mistakenly thought it was a new release; it isn’t and I should have paid closer attention. I am one of those reader/fans of Alice Hoffman’s who has read almost everything she has written but have managed to “overlook” some of her earlier books that just didn’t work well. In those books, her writing remains incredible but the story just doesn’t hang together well, something is off, either the plot doesn’t fit or the characters aren’t well developed or the entire piece just isn’t somehow polished enough. This book, White Horses, fits into that category. There are no likable characters, there are no lofty heights briefly seen through old tales or wise words or witchy books. Hoffman’s amazing writing is not used to carry the reader to somewhere delightful; this book traffics in family dysfunction and tattered, lost dreams. Worse, the few hopes that once filled the characters’ lives were torn before the story began and were empty even as they were described. The main character is abandoned, sexually abused, victimized and ignored. I don’t go to Hoffman to read about that level of pain for 12 year old girls; I just don’t. I go for an entirely different experience. Her newer books are fantastic. This one, not so much.

Another one I've given up on. I've been struggling with this book, not really enjoying the story one bit and not feeling a connection to any of the characters. I don't feel like the description matches anything I've read. Then I read some of the reviews and decided to give it up.

An early Alice Hoffman book, still with the same Alice Hoffman magic.

Centering around Teresa and her highly dysfunctional family and a small town, we travel with Teresa through her dream world, searching for her brother.

In typical Hoffman fashion, there are very flowery passages that one could do without, but all in all...it's a fantasy/fairy tale.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this book to read and review.

White Horses by Alice Hoffman is a so-so novel of a highly dysfunctional family. This is one of Hoffman's early novels, first published in 1982, that displays her greatest gift: the ability to write incredibly descriptive lyrical prose while capturing an other-worldly magical essence.

Teresa Connor comes from a family full of disappointments. Her parents, Dina and King now despise each other. Dina used to tell Teresa about the mythical Arias, dark-eyed, fearless cowboys on white horses. This was the kind of man Teresa should look for. But instead, Teresa is drawn to her reckless brother, Silver, a petty criminal and drug dealer who would sweep her away. Once Dina realized that sometimes kindness is a better quality to look for in a man, Teresa is already swept down a dangerous path.

Enough has been said about the incest in this novel so I needn't elaborate on it, however that doesn't mean, no matter how it turns out, that I need to accept the premise as a good choice for a plot element. It's not. There were also several scenes of lightly skipped over unrealistic details that resulted in some eye rolls from me. The only thing that could make me finish the novel is the quality of Hoffman's writing and her descriptions, along with a general respect for her talent. So read this one if you appreciate good writing and can handle some truly bad scenes.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Open Road Media.

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It’s always a treat to read one of Alice Hoffman’s novels. White Horses is one of her earlier novels, published in 1982. It’s a disturbing story, but Hoffman manages to write in such a matter-of-fact way that some of the worst details don’t come across as awful as one might imagine.

The novel is a coming of age story about Teresa and her dysfunctional family. We meet Teresa when the family is still intact and she lives with her parents and two older brothers. As the parents’ relationship disintegrates, her father leaves and the older brothers seem to come and go as they please. Teresa is especially close to Silver, the brother closest in age to her.

Silver is handsome and a smooth-talker who always gets what he wants. His character reminded me somewhat of Jimmy Angelov from Hoffman’s novel Practical Magic. Both characters were dangerous for women. Silver was especially dangerous for Teresa, but it takes her a few years of growing up to realize that Silver should not be a part of her life.

The one saving grace in this novel is Mr. Bergen, the detective who develops a relationship with Teresa’s mother and thinks of Teresa as his own daughter. His kindness and patience was above and beyond.

White Horses would make for some great discussion for book clubs. There is some disturbing subject matter such as incest, promiscuity, and drug use.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Open Road Integrated Media for allowing me to read a copy and give my honest review.

Though I enjoyed reading it I didn't find the two main characters, Silver and Teresa Connor, as sympathetic as I have other characters. Both f them are the product of a very dysfunctional family. Their mother Dina is a dreamer who married or all the wrong reasons and their father, King, is something of a jerk but he's also dealing with a wife for whom nothing is good enough. There is a third child in the family, Reuben, but he escapes early and is never heard from again.

Not my favorite Hoffman, especially when compared to some of her later works. But the elements I love about her stories are all there: the magical realism, the intergenerational family dynamics, and the heart-wrenching feelings that reading her books produce. Still worth a read, then go grab some of her newer ones (or just read through them all in order!)

When I first picked up this book, I thought this was Hoffman's latest book. When I started reading it, I got a sense of deja vu. It turns out I had read this tale about incest and overcoming grief years ago.

This is not a book that will appeal to all readers. Though at first it seems like a fantasy book where a sister looks for her brother in a world of dreams, the reader comes to realize that there is more to the story than meets the eye.

not my favorite. I used to really enjoy reading this author but her last novels have not been for me. I apologize

I received a free electronic copy of this novel by Netgalley, Alice Hoffman, and Open Road Integrated Media in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me.

I adore Alice Hoffman, and have read and re-read many of her novels over the years when I need to take a reality break. I managed to miss White Horses. And though I appreciate Open Road Media and their mission of bringing back old classics to new audiences, I would just as soon have continued to miss White Horses. I found this novel a downer all the way through, and did not need to go into the depths of miasma this novel travels to.

I've always loved Alice Hoffman's lyrical prose and the magical elements she weaves into her stories. Her novel, White Horses, doesn't disappoint in that regard. But I was very uncomfortable with the relationship between the brother and sister, and I disagree with the notion that finding the right, magical someone can rescue you from an ordinary or even troubled life--that's not a healthy concept for adults or young, impressionable readers. This is a beautifully written book , but i don't expect to re-read it, given its melancholy, even depressing tone.

In Alice Hoffman's spellbinding tale of a strange Southwestern family, the assumed chains of binding ties are challenged and left raw - all before eventually disintegrating into dust that rolls along the California hills. A distant and distrusting father figure, King Connors watches as the superstitions of his wife Dina's past take root in their only daughter, the beautiful and wide-eyed Teresa. Helpless against the ghostly essence that has crept into every crevice of the Connors' existence, King makes a run for it, trying not to look back. Left behind and living in a small town gripped by the thick mist that flows freely from the river, the young girl comes down with a mysterious sleeping illness that the family struggles to keep hidden. Her dreams can last for hours or they can last for days, and when she sinks into them, she falls into a world wrought with dark-eyed heroic cowboys on white horses who croon words of deep affection and guiding light. She's a princess locked in a tower, a Sleeping Beauty trapped by thorny vines; she's a puzzling riddle of quiet allure.

The only person who can reach Teresa is her older brother, the enigmatic Silver; but their magnetic pull is sometimes too strong, leaving them both skirting the thin line between right and wrong or as some may see it, good and evil. Every woman who comes into contact with Silver knows there is something magical woven into his blood, some sort of mystic energy that grinds its way into the very soul of a person. Much like the pressure that turns coal into diamond, the familial and personal stresses Silver faces only seem to make him more irresistible to women, somehow turning his surly attitude into something charming and full of sexual appeal. Dina Connors, his wary mother, finds herself strangely possessive of the boy, but her enrapture is laced with a fear of what lies just underneath the skin of her son. There is a wildness that lives within Silver Connors, and much like a mustang who spends its life running across the tumbling plains, he will never be tamed.

Except, for Silver there is -

Teresa.

Just as magic runs in Silver's blood, so does she. She is more than a little sister, she is a veritable Siren, one who silently calls to him even as he sleeps. As the invisible thread between them grows thicker and more vibrant, an undercurrent of fear threatens to overtake them both. That salacious danger that once fueled desire in them both has turned into something real and binding, and Silver flees for the betterment of the one who will forever hold his heart. His attempts to put the sleepy old town and his sister behind him prove fruitless, and the energy that flows between them eventually calls them both home.

In a mystical world where rules don't seem to apply, White Horses explores the forbidden and the taboo that is readily adopted by a dysfunctional family full of outlaws. In a constant dreamlike state, Teresa grows from a child into a woman and struggles with her footing into independence. With one foot constantly in Silver's world, she fights as if underwater, pushing through the cumbersome currents with a halfhearted determination. Teresa doesn't really want to be rid of her brother, or does she? And is it even possible, anyway?

Giving White Horses a 3.5 out of 5 star rating, I have to say that it wasn't for lack of enjoying the book. The writing is superbly done: the detail of the town, of the characters, and of the lust is so vividly drawn that it's nearly painful in it's beauty. But as the story came to it's close, I found myself anxious for some sort of resolution and was sorely disappointed. Funnily enough, by the end of the book I was a willing partner in the incestuous relationship between Silver and Teresa - and I think it's maybe because on some level, I found it impossible to believe that they were actual brother and sister. I was waiting for that mystery to be unraveled, as Silver never seemed to be quite like anyone else in the family, and I was convinced he was the son of an Aria (the fabled cowboys Dina spoke of in such high regard). It felt as if the author gave up at the end, not able to move forward and so instead, left readers unsatisfied. In short words, I felt cheated.

Up until the end, White Horses was a novel I had a hard time putting down. There was a fairytale-esque nature to the storyline that I really enjoyed. I just wish I'd gotten a bit of closure for the characters that I felt so bonded to. Whether or not any of the remaining characters had any redemption left in them was besides the point - I wanted to know how they ended up. While I did not get my wish, I still recommend this book to readers who enjoy the creeping mystery of a dark story, and readers of twisted fairy tales that are as fleeting as the wind they ride in on.

Readers who find White Horses intriguing and appreciate the author's style of writing should be sure to check out Alice Hoffman's other works, which include Practical Magic and teen novel Aquamarine (both of which were both made into feature films), as well as the highly acclaimed The Dovekeepers and Incantation.

In spite of being a beautifully written book, I couldn't get into the characters or the story of a dysfunctional family and an incestuous relations ship between brother and sister. I've liked many of Alice Hoffman's books but not this one.

I am still processing how I feel about this book...Hoffman writes gorgeously, as I first learned when reading The Museum of Extraordinary Things. But...I'm not quite sure I can connect to her books, and I'm not sure what it is about them. The writing is intense and intricate, and I get drawn into the descriptions and phrasing. But I often find myself not caring about the storyline itself. This one was especially difficult to read, too, because it focused so heavily on incest to the exclusion of all else. Ultimately, it was a story about how influential families and particularly parents can be on a child, and how that child has to learn to be her own person, but the incest was such a strong thread throughout the story (driving it, really) and it was a struggle to read because at times as a reader I almost felt like I was rooting for that relationship to work, and yet...no! Ack! So this book was fascinating to watch myself read, in a way. I couldn't figure out what I wanted from it, or where I wanted it to land, in the end. Going into it, I had no idea what sort of book it was - I don't even recall any sort of blurb or plot outline. So I went in blind. I don't, however, think I'll soon forget the novel. Not the story itself, but the characters because they were so vivid and unique - most especially Teresa, of course, and Silver, Dina, Bergen. And the rhythm of the story felt like a heartbeat, and it was so tied to place - particularly Santa Rosa, which I've never visited (but now felt as if I have). If I hadn't known the book was written in the '80s, I would have struggled to pin down a time. But it felt nostalgic to me, even if it was not meant to - for some reason I can't quite put my finger on.

All in all, this book sort of eludes me...I can't say whether I enjoyed it or not, but I'm glad I made it through to the end - you really need to stick with it to get anything from it. I'm not sure if I could recommend it, but I also don't think it was a waste of my own reading time, so...I'll leave it at that, for now.

This is an earlier work of Alice Hoffman. Worth the read but definitely not her best. The plot was interesting and I applaud her for tackling such a controversial topic and diving right in with it. Loved that part of the story as it evoked emotion and visceral reactions....and isn't that the point of reading books??? Overall though the story was a little muddled. Felt like she was trying to squeeze too much in and that detracted from the plot. The magical realism was really not necessary and clouded the story as a whole. Thank you to Netgalley and publisher for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I received a copy of this new release of Alice Hoffman's book, first published in 1999, in exchange for an honest review.

An early and imperfect Hoffman book, this novel manages, with Hoffman's lyrical writing style, to blend aspects of magical realism, the bad boy mythos, family dysfunction, and incest. One of the factors contributing to the imperfection of Hoffman's story is that few of the characters are likeable and even Teresa, the protagonist, evokes only our sympathy. The incestuous relationship she developed with her brother Silver, is carefully developed, and presaged from the beginning of the book in Teresa's cryptic attraction to Silver, who is an unscrupulous bad-boy.

Magical realism seems unanchored and poorly developed in this book. Teresa's expression of her rose-scent, first provoked by her sleepy spells, or later by periods of her losing her sense of self in others, isn't ever explained and is one of the few aspects of magic in the book.

I felt like there was a thin story of relationships here and Hoffman wasn't clear about her goals in the novel. While not her best work, the luminous quality of her writing style is already well developed.

I didn't realise when I began this book that it was an early novel, and this maybe explains why it felt unsatisfying. Having read her more recent work, many elements of White Horses (the juxtaposition of magic, almost-magic and daily reality), are dealt with in a more accomplished way in later books. The story never feels quite believable, but I was compelled to finish it. As always with Alic Hoffman, the prose itself is lovely.

I love Alice Hoffman, and I eagerly dug into this early novel I hadn't read. I was immediately immersed into young Teresa's life until, about a third of the way in when I hit the incest scene. Yuck. Did not finish.

This is classic Hoffman, lyrical, mysterious and a good read. It has a paranormal edge and mythical creatures that will enthrall any reader to the last page. Excellent book by Hoffman with her unique writing style.