Soul Riders

This was a very good story. It’s perfect for Middle Aged kids. It’s easy to follow along as well. Looking forward to more like it!

I absolutely adored the prologue, the language was beautiful, and the map at the start is something that I am always happy to see. I enjoyed the story, although I found it a little dialogue heavy, and in places that felt a little unnatural. However, I am not the target audience, and I think middle grade kids would thoroughly enjoy this book..

This book was a little predictable and I didn't find it very enjoyable but I think that girls from about 9 to 12 years old would love this book and its new places and adventures. I think that with there being many different perspectives of lifestyles really gives a broad view on what life can look like and accepting each other and their differences.

I want to start this review by naming that I am not the target audience for this book. I am, however, someone who works with this age group. While the writing was a bit simple, I thought the ambiance and world building was pretty solid for a MG fantasy, I was intrigued by the characters, though the dialogue felt a bit stiff at times. Overall this was a solid read for people in the MG age range.

Soul Riders is an amazing epic fantasy for middle-graders that focuses on female friendships, sisterhood, horses, adventure, and magic. The book is set on an island called Jorvik with its beautiful and picturesque landscape giving it a magical feel to it. The island has it's own elaborate history that is filled with lore and mystical stories. Goddess of Aideen brought life and light into the island blessing it and evil demon Garnok and his darkness are planning to destroy Jorvik and take out the light and goodness from the island. The fate of Jorvik is in the hands of four girls who are blessed with magic and can their own powers that can be harnessed through their special bonds to their horses. Four teenagers who are coming to terms with their magic, their special connection with their horses find themselves forming friendships through their mutual love for their steeds. They have to face some unsavory characters and their plan to destroy their star breeds in order to prevent the Soul Riders from fulfilling their prophecy of protecting the island. Life takes them through some difficult circumstances while testing their strengths and powers. Will the girls be able to fulfill the prophecy or are they doomed to fail?

The story was fascinating and engaging. I did not know there was a video game for the series. It is a great start to the series with interesting world-building. I feel the magic system has yet to be fully formed and we get the basic idea of their powers in this book. The plot and history, the lore all add to the world-building remarkably. The characters could have been more developed and the dialogues in some cases felt unnatural for me. Other than that the book is an excellent starting point leaving the readers with a cliff-hanger at the end. I gave the book 4.5 stars and highly recommend checking it out. If you love magic, adventure, sisterhood and female heroine-centric fantasy with a special connection to the awesome magical breed of horses, then this book will be perfect for you. Middle-graders should definitely try this book out and maybe check out the video game as well.