Soul Riders

I listened to this audiobook with my 10 year old daughter. My daughter is a frequent Star Stable online gamer. She loves and is obsessed with the game. I've really been trying to push books or audiobooks on her, so mu h that I'll listen or read with her to help. So we devoured this together! It was fun and it seemed like a great adventure. My daughter is eager to hear more from this series and I'm extatic that she enjoyed it. The narration by Jennifer Jill Araya was just great! She really made you feel the adventure and the emotions throughout!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and to the publisher for giving us some audiobooks to review! This is just fabulous! We need more of these preteen audiobooks!!

I was curious about this one because Netgalley just introduced audiobooks. Soul Riders is a beautiful audiobook that younger teenage girls can enjoy. I am not the target audience here, so my rating may not be entirely compatible with teenage girls. :) Soul riders: Jorvik calling is the first part of the fantasy trilogy. Lisa is a teenage girl who recently moved to Jorvik. Her mother died in a horse riding accident just a few years ago. The narration is beautiful, suitable for the story.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this! All opinions are my own.

The author did an excellent job of world building, especially the magical elements. I really enjoyed the light ride, and how they found and began to use their powers overall. On the down side, in my opinion the book is incomplete. It is too big of a cliffhanger, even for a known series. More things needed to be wrapped up in this section of the story. What was included was well written and enjoyable, it just felt incomplete. It definitely left me wanting to read the next book though.
I loved having the audio verison of this book. I liked that I didn't have to guess at the melody for all the songs or just read them as poems. The musical component was real beneficial in this case.
"I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

I was incrediby fortunate to experience this as an audiobook - and i would definitely recommend it as it gives a totally immersive experience. The story itself is a wonderful story that has some strong and brilliant female friendships that I loved. The characters develop over the course of the book and I am definitely interested to see where the rest of the series goes.

But, I definitely say that the audiobook is so well done is makes the whole experience different and immersive - if you can listen to it do it! It's a magical and wonderful story

I received this audio book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

This book was so good! The character development was incredible, I quickly came to know and care about the four girls and their horses. The plot was well developed and nicely presented and the world building was well done.

The audio part was very well done. The narrator did a great job in depicting each character both by voice inflection and energy. The music helped in taking me into the book.

I will gladly recommend this book to my students and to parents as a chapter book to share with their kids.

I look forward to reading the next book in this series!

This wholesome book would be best suited for 7-11 year olds. The main character, Lisa, moves to an island because of her father's job. She used to ride horses until an accident happened three years earlier. Within the first couple of weeks it seems she makes new friends, an enemy, overcomes fear and anxiety, and learns about a special power. Her and her three new friends all share an affinity for horses and horseback riding and a special gift/power. Linda, the resident researcher of the group, discovered information about a group of 4 people who rode Star breed horses called Soul Riders. The group gets the inclination they might be Soul Riders after sharing experiences and comparing previous events. Eventually an organization called Dark Core comes to try to disband the happy girls by whatever means necessary.

The narrator of the audio book did a fabulous job and the flow of the story was wonderful. Lisa, the main character, is also a budding singer and the audio book provides the music and songs she hums and sings in the story. There were two bonus tracks in the audio book that provided the full songs.

4.5 stars This was super cute! I’ve always had a love for horses. Even growing up I had horses art all over my walls. This story brought back my childhood and the bond you can get with these animals.
We follow 4 teen girls who all live on a Scandinavian island that sounds just beautiful. They find each other through their love of horses and slowly realize they each have powers or gifts. These gifts lead them to believe the stories of Soul Riders from legends and that the mysterious happenings are real and from an evil group of people with the worst guy in charge. They have a quest and need to save some horses, people and possibly their island!
I loved the characters and I loved that it didn’t feel super young. The girls are 15 but I feel anyone with the reading ability to read this long of a book would like it. Even young kids! I listened to this with my 5 yo because of her love of horses. She didn’t have quite the attention span but loved the horse parts. It’s exciting and adventurous and honestly I’d recommend it to anyone.
The only parts I didn’t like were the songs and music. This very well could have sounded weird due to the increased speed I listen to audios. Also, the 15 seconds of music at the end of each chapter felt long and annoying but maybe kids would like it.

The content is super low and I believe anyone could read and like this.

Thank you so much to Andrews McMeel Audio via NetGalley for the free audiobook in exchange for an honest review! I love audiobooks and have listened to a ton of them but have yet to actually review one, so bear with me! Feedback is appreciated!

I have not played nor even heard of Star Stable before, and I don’t think that affected my enjoyment of this book at all. As a lifelong rider I definitely connected a bit with the young girls, especially Alex, who likes to ride super fast on trails and seems fearless. The other characters and their horses each have interesting stories that I think will be thrilling to girls in the target age range for the books. Speaking of, do you even see this cover?? It radiates magic!

Jennifer Jill Araya seems like the perfect narrator for the book as well. She clearly differentiates between the girls’ voices, and does a decent job with the male voices as well. She portrays excitement and fear and sadness through her voice and I enjoyed listening to her. The music seemed super cringey for someone my age but was honestly really well done, with full songs composed and included within the story and as bonus content at the end. It definitely will add to young listener’s experience.

I also feel like the book is entirely appropriate for young girls. There is no profanity, no romance, and the scary parts are suspenseful but not overly terrifying. I would have NO problem handing this to any child capable of the reading and listening level. The emphasis on friendships, building trust, and self confidence are great themes for young readers. There is the theme of grief related to parental loss but nothing else too strong. My only qualm is that Lisa probably should have been more worried when her father didn’t return her text messages in a reasonable time frame. He just literally stays gone forever and I found that a little odd.

I was also surprised to find that this ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, I was expecting each book to wrap itself up like, for example, Saddle Club but with a fantasy twist. Man do I love reading about horses though, especially magic ones. Even as an adult. This is a really good building block for girls trying to get into fantasy as well, such as the Green Rider books for young adults.

Again I would fully recommend this to any age level of listener or reader. I thank the publisher and NetGalley again for allowing me to review the audiobook! All opinions are my own.



Full review can be seen on my blog at https://onereadingnurse.com/2020/07/27/audiobook-review-star-stable-jorvik-calling-by-helena-dahlgren/

Araya did a wonderful job bringing this book to life with her narration. She portrays each character so well it was easy to picture a different person each time she read through the dialogue. Together with Dahlgrens fantastic writing I lived through every part of this adventure. From the hard reality that Lisa's mother was no longer with her, to the thrill and peace that riding a horse brings, and the thrill of newfound powers! Even the mundane feeling of moving to a new house, especially in the heat! (Having this experience myself, I really felt for her.)
It was nice to receive this as an audiobook as they provide an entirely different, more immersive experience. This audiobook provided music at the end of each chapter. Personally I would have preferred if that wasn't part of it as I have heard many audiobooks before without it and it does not take away from the book in any way. However I did highly appreciate the snipets regarding Lisa and her songs. As the reader you aren't left having to guess at what the songs would sound like. And at the end of the book they were generous enough to provide the entire song.
The only thing I had difficulty with regarding the audiobook, was that the narrator's voice seemed to jump. One sentence would be very quite and the dialogue would be twice, if not three times, as loud! The inconsistency threw me off a little bit which broke concentration and made it difficult to listen to while putting my little one to sleep. I was constantly turning it up and down. Not sure if this was just an app issue? It didn't really seem like it but maybe.
This felt very much like a Middle Grade book rather than a YA book. The personality and actions of the girls was a lot more innocent than that of your average teenager in high school. Of all the YA books I have read (and oh how I have read) the attitude of the main characters is vastly different.
This book would be better suited for pre-teens, maybe even new teens (13/14).
Overall it was a nice short book with a cute adventure.

I really enjoyed this, my first audio book. The narrator was engaging and I loved the music included, it was a nice added touch.
The story kept me interested and I can’t wait to read the next in the series.
I felt a connection with the characters and the setting. Great read.

I loved the narrator for this book; she did a fantastic job of changing her voice just enough to keep each character separate, but it was not distracting. The story was wonderful. I will definitely be watching for further books in the series. At the beginning of the book, we are following Lisa who just moved an island with her father. The island is famous for its horses. Lisa used to love horse riding but her mother had been killed in a riding accidents a few years earlier. As the story progresses, we meet other girls and their horses until we realize that there is something special about these four particular girls and these four particular horses. Highly recommended!