I was provided a copy of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. Although the prose was wonderful, I could not give this book more than a 3. I do find that Alice Hoffman's novels are erratic, some I really like, such as Faithful and The Dovekeepers, and others were just not as good, such as The Museum of Extraordinary Things. This novel fell into the latter category for a number of reasons. Apparently White Horses is a re-release; it was originally published in 1982. The subject matter is deeply troubling and hard to read. However, that is not the main reason I did not like it. Notwithstanding the topic, the plot was completely disjointed and failed to provide a realistic story line. It did not flow or really make any sense. Too many unexplained circumstances. With a better and more believable plot, the subject matter could have made a very powerful, yet troubling novel. As noted before, her use of language is at the top of her game. Too bad the story line was so disappointing. I do not see why this novel is being re-released. It would be better for Ms Hoffman to use her extraordinary talent for a new and better pursuit.

Masterful storytelling yet again as Alice Hoffman picks the reader up and lets them hover in the life of a disjointed American family.

Alice Hoffman used to be a favorite of mine, but a while ago she seemed to stop taking any kind of risks with her writing. This early novel shows some of the promise that would lead to her bigger successes, but also shows her tendency to rely on a kind of lazy magical realism that becomes tiresome very quickly.

Alice Hoffman never fails to mesmerize me with her talent of simple yet beautiful way of writing. I was a little torn while reading White Horses. When I first started it I barely realized how much time had flown by and was shocked to see I was halfway through the book when I did "resurface" I couldn't quite pin how I felt about the story so far. The characters are so well portrayed I felt like I KNEW them. I could feel that faint undertow of darkness in all of them. I almost felt dirty without really know why! You know that feeling? Kind of like EWWWWW but you cannot be assure of what you are thinking is true!

There is no disputing the writing is on point and that Alice Hoffman can reel you in before you even know what hit you. What hers especially good is that she makes stay even if you are quite sure you want to.

Teresa's love for the story given to her by her mother has her longing for an Arias. Arias were wild men who rode their white horses out into the desert and steal the hearts of women. Teresa's mother, Dina was given this story to her by her father. While her mother tells her of the Arias, she dreams of them when she falls into her mysterious sleeping fits. She will sleep and no one can wait her -- not even the doctors can discover the reason she sleeps these long periods of time. She finds Silver to be an Arias for her. They sleep together. As her family changes starting with her father leaving and not coming back, then her oldest brother leaves home and finally her mother has a male friends. Teresa only finds dark places and unnatural relationships perhaps due to her love for Silver.

This was a difficult book for me to read. It is not a happy story to read. You watch a family while reading, seeing the family fall apart. There is tragedy in this novel. In some ways I found it to be a beautiful novel but also a disturbing story.

White Horses by Alice Hoffman is an amazing novel. The book is well written and the story kept me involved to the end. After I finished the book I continued to think about the main characters and care about what happened to them.

I guess this is a re-release from this author. It deals with some taboo subject matter, so be warned. There is minimal magic, mostly it is the girl's mother who weaves the tales that our main character spends the rest of the story trying to escape.

I guess you could say this is a coming of age story about Teresa. It starts off with her as a little girl, just before puberty. I found it interesting that none of the normal hormonal drama took center stage as she grew up. She is very much a bystander in her life. She just goes where it takes her and doesn't take much into her own hands.

As a little girl, so gets a sleeping sickness which she blames for her inactivity. But more and more often, people do tell her she needs to take charge of that as well. All you can do is be carried along with her, rooting for her to get out of the mire of her life.

This was my first Alice Hoffman book, although I’ve been aware of her for years, and I came away from reading it with mixed emotions. The writing is lovely, lyrical at times. The characters weren’t particularly likable, fortunately I’m not a person who requires that in a standalone book. I wouldn’t call it an enjoyable read (the themes are rather dark), yet there was something compelling about it that kept me reading. Themes like the damage parents can unwittingly do to their children, and how do those children rise above that damage, are always interesting. But there’s a definite “ick” factor involved in one of the main threads of the book, and in the end that colored my overall view of it. I did enjoy the writing though, and without the ick factor I would’ve given it an additional star. It definitely left me interested in reading more of Alice Hoffman’s books.

The hours I spent reading this is time I want back. What a terrible read. I stuck with it thinking it would take a turn and become something worthwhile but it never did. Ms. Hoffman has been my favorite adult fiction author and I know her books are sometimes dark which is usually fine. But this one (now incest is cool?) is just a big letdown. Where is the magic? I didn't care about any of the characters and that left me cold.

This is one of Alice Hoffman's earlier books originally published in 1999. It's amazing when you read a book like this you miss modern technology. Cell phones are such an important part of our lives today you want Teresa to get in touch with the people around her. She had an unusual childhood and as she struggles to grow into a responsible adult she has to deal with the past and the stories her father used to tell her. I found myself losing interest as I got into this book. I enjoyed Ms. Hoffman's book, Faithful, much more than this one.

I enjoyed this book, just like all of the other Alice Hoffman books! I expected it to be more of a "fairy tale" and was pleased that it was not! Good story, good characters!

This book was a little too far-fetched for me. Although the writing was good, the story just didn't keep me interested. It had many elements that I like in the book; dreamscapes, fantasy, nightmares, and a dark quality. Somehow, it just didn't fit together well.

This book, published in 1982, is being reissued this year. The Connor family, composed of King Connor, his wife Dina, the two sons Silver and Ruben and their young daughter, Teresa. Connor and Dina had married against her affluent parents wishes. Connor worked in construction while Dina kept house in San Rosa, California, far from New Mexico where Dina's family lived.

Eventually King and Dina's marriage broke up and King moved out. Ruben, the older son followed his father to Los Angeles. Silver remained home with the reclusive Dina and Teresa. Then Bergen, a private detective, showed up. He had been hired 20 years before by Dina's late father to find her. Bergen eventually fell in love with Dina, who many years younger. Teresa had developed a mystery illness that forced her to sleep for long stretches. In an effort to calm Teresa, Dina told her mythical stories about Arias, handsome cowboys who roamed the dessert on their fast horses.

Silver, the handsome son, was pursued by many young girls but eventually married Lee when she was 4 months pregnant. He also began to work as a drug dealer to support his family in San Francisco. Silver and Teresa shared a close bond that eventually led to incest. Silver's marriage was not a happy one and became troubled after Dina died and Teresa moved in with the couple. Needless to say, this caused much conflict in Silver's marriage

There were many unexplained details like Teresa's mystery illness that doctors could not diagnose and the unnamed cancer that consumed Dina. Hoffman introduced some of the magical elements that permeate her later books This is not one of Hoffman's best works. However when an author has a string of popular books, their publishers will try to cash in by reissuing some of their first works.

As a fan of Alice Hoffman I was excited to receive a galley copy of White Horses. While the story was haunting the subject matter was just too much to get past. There is no romanticism to incest. A beautifully written book but a badly chosen topic for the plot with no resolution other than incest victims treated like lovers who are choosing their futures like lovers would. A no go for me.

“There were other times when she stayed awake nearly till morning, convinced that if she were quiet enough, if she waited long enough, the night would reveal itself to her in a slow stream of syllables shaped by its wings; a song only she could understand.”

Well, this is a very good example of how even pretty good writing alone doesn’t make a good book.

Actual rating of 2.5 stars.

Dina, of Santa Fe, spends almost all of her life looking out of windows and waiting for a mystical cowboy - decorated in turquoise and riding a white horse - to sweep her off her feet and lead her to a life of love, adventure, and mystery. Since was a little girl, she listened to her father tell her stories of Arias: lone, shadowy riders of the full moon, and ever since then, Dina waits for one to find her. Becoming impatient, she runs off with a scoundrel of a man, King Connors, and follows him to California to start a new life. We follow the story of her their children, Reuben, Theresa, and Dina's favorite, Silver – who she believes is one of her beloved Arias. Passing the story on to a naïve Theresa, she, too, is convinced that Arias are real, and believes her brother to be one of these fictional, dark men. She, too, spends her youth longing and looking for love in the wrong places – but she in her older brother, Silver. (Yes...she is in love with her brother, and he with her - I will address that.)

While the characters may have been mostly three-dimensional, I just didn’t care about them. I didn’t care what happened to them. (SPOILER!) At one point, I was crossing my fingers that Angel Gregory would just kill Silver. But that was an empty plot arc. It built up and led to nothing. Could we have at least gotten a shootout?! (end spoiler) Less than halfway through I was pretty frustrated with all of them. Dina was the only one who redeemed herself, but it was way too late for it to make any difference. I can't tell you why, despite that being what a reviewer is supposed to do. Something was just off. Maybe it was a chemistry issue. But I don't think I am alone here.

Theresa is a great example of someone who loved to play the victim, to be the princess waiting to be rescued. “She came to believe that she was destined to be whatever was expected of her, and in time she went out with any boy who asked her,” Hoffman writes. She only dated other boys, and then men, to repress memories of her and her brother together, because even as a child, she knew it was wrong. Still, it takes her over a decade to realize that Silver is a fucking asshole. I mean, I understand that she has no education past high school, and that her mother basically brainwashed her with fairy tales, but I got pretty sick of Theresa really quickly.

So, no, the incest didn't bother me. Yeah, it's weird. But, hey love is love. I'm not one to judge. My first kiss was with a boy who I thought was my cousin. (He wasn't - I was about six.) But what was happening between Theresa and her brother Silver wasn't love. It didn't feel like real love at all; it felt more like some sort of combination of illusion and desperation.

It didn’t matter to me how attractive Silver was supposed to be. Usually, he is exactly my type: tall, dark, handsome, and a complete narcissistic asshole. Maybe I’m coming to a point in my life where I am through with that type of man. Because I wasn’t buying it here. His charms faded after the first chapter or so.

“The odor of roses was so strong it made him dizzy.” And yeah, let’s talk about the roses. When Theresa falls under one of her "sleeping spells"(which I didn't bother to mention because I failed to see how they even added to the story), she sends out a strong odor of roses. It literally made me nauseous. I never really liked roses, but I don’t think I will ever be able to smell them again without thinking about this mess of a book. I guess it was supposed to be enchanting or add to the thinly spread, magical aspect of the novel, but that, too, failed.

The writing itself, context removed, was the only redeeming quality which saved me from giving this novel less than 2.5 stars. Let’s see for a minute here...

"A man who traveled beneath an orange moon on nights that were scented with wildflowers and thick with heat suddenly seemed much less marvelous than a man who would sit on the back porch and hold her hand for hours without having to say one word."

Like, damn. That’s good. That is one of those rare moments in prose where you have to put down the book, take a deep breath, and read the passage again, letting it soak into your soul. Except, it’s ironic, because the only man in this bloody book who fits that latter description (Bergen) was an absolutely useless character, and didn’t really do anything to help anyone. Ugh.

Although I was vastly underwhelmed and disappointed in my first Alice Hoffman novel, I will certainly give her another chance. After all, Practical Magic is one of my favorite films of all time.

I’ll leave you with this, which was my favorite line, and I think something that everybody needs to hear:

"It's no good to need someone more than you want them.”

If that reminder is all I take with me from this novel, so be it. It's better than nothing.

An early Alice Hoffman - and a good one. The story centers around Silver and Teresa Connor, siblings in a very dysfunctional family, who have an incestuous relationship that overshadows their entire lives. The book made me feel really sad for Teresa who had a fantasy that her brother was an "Aria" - a wild, romantic cowboy type her mother had always described to her. Her bother was truly a messed up drug dealer. I didn't really have a favorite character, except maybe Bergen, who seemed more normal than anyone else in the book. A good read, but certainly not my favorite Alice Hoffman book.

Thanks to Alice Hoffman and Open Road Integrated Media through Netgalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is from an advance review copy for which I thank the publisher.

I had to wonder why an author of Alice Hoffman's stature found herself in the position of having to put a novel out on Net Galley to garner some reviews, and now I know - it's really not very good. I've never read anything by this author before, but I've always been curious, so I requested to review it and it was, surprisingly, granted! Now I know I don't need to read anything else by her!

The book started out intriguingly enough, went down hill a bit, came back strong, but then began a slow decline to the point where, at just past ninety percent in, I couldn't stand to read it any more because it was such an ungodly mess. I'm not going to go on about the spelling errors which were quite common, and not the kind a spell-checker would find - such as the word 'wont' (and no, it's not missing an apostrophe) where the word 'worst' was required. Only a serious read-through would find that kind of error. I just want to talk about the chaotic story and how poorly done it was.

The blurb advises dramatically (employing the tired - and way overdone - "In a world" format): "In a dangerous world, Teresa must rescue herself and rewrite her family mythology before it ruins her life." I'm sorry but Teresa is so robotic, useless, and inept that you know for a fact she's never going to get it done. She is one of the most cardboard-thin, vacuous, and utterly uninteresting characters I've ever encountered. And her world isn't dangerous. Not remotely. Her brother's is, but he was never actually in any danger!

For that matter, not one of the characters in this book was painted realistically, much less appealingly. They were all caricatures dipped in the most washed-out of watercolors, mostly in shades of gray. It's a book of stains in the place of where real characters ought to have appeared. It's like they were there, but have faded so badly, all that's left is a vague and faint imprint. Teresa, the main character, about whom the story ebbs and...ebbs, is the most gossamer and unlikable of them all. There was not a single person here that I liked in the entire book, which had people come and go as though the novel itself were just a revolving door with a neon sign flashing, 'now look at this one!'.

Note that there is an incestuous relationship running through the book which no doubt many reviewers will find disturbing - like this is something that never happens in real life so writers must never write about it! Or like this is the most reprehensible thing they can think of. Yes, it is reprehensible. It's a form of rape and abuse of authority, but there are lots of other horrible things people do to each other, and what really bothers me is that reviewers don't seem to be anywhere near as repulsed by these other crimes as they are by incest.

That's worth expending some thought on. Are we so thick-skinned now that this is the only remaining "sin" which can shock us? Personally, I don't care that authors write about incest. It's just as fair game as is rape, murder, robbery, drug abuse, road-rage or whatever you care to mention. What I care about is that there is some organic reason for it being included. Here it felt like it was only in the book because the author deemed it was necessary to give some pep to a novel that was otherwise lacking anything to recommend it. In this book, there was no motivation offered for it and ironically, the most disturbing thing about it is that the author mistakenly romanticizes it without offering any other commentary.

Unless everything was resolved in that last nine percent which I didn't read, there were plot threads set-up which went nowhere, illnesses which went unexplained, threats which were never honestly pursued, and issues which were woefully unexplored. It was like one long tease, which is a way was perfect because that described Teresa to a 'T'. The other annoying thing (aside from pointless, meandering, story-crashing flashbacks), is that the author has the story make huge leaps in time, by-passing months or even years of history and takes up the story like it's the next day, and nothing and no-one has changed. It simply was not credible.

Up to about half-way through, i had hopes for this, but after that I was wondering when something was going to happen. It felt as though there was always a possibility that something would happen, but nothing really ever did. It's like a day where dark clouds build up, the heat is weighing on you, the air gets muggier and more oppressive, but then no fresh, chill wind comes racing in, no rain pelts down, no thunder rolls and rules the heavens, and no lightning breaks. It was that dissatisfying.

In the end, this stiflingly still air was biggest failing of the whole book. Maybe it all came together in those last few pages, but I was so bored and irritated by then, that I honestly just did not care what happened next. Life is too short for novels like this, and I cannot recommend it at all.

I absolutely love Alice Hoffman, and was so excited to be able to read White Horses. It’s written so beautifully, so like Alice Hoffman, however the subject matter may be taboo for some readers. The love that Teresa and her brother Silver have towards each other, can push away some readers, but Hoffman’s writing style is flawless.