"Stay alive, stay astride, stay out of the water... Every November, the Scorpio Races are run beneath the chalk cliffs of Skarmouth. Thousands gather to watch the horses and the sea that washes the blood from the sand. The mounts are capaill uisce: savage water horses. There are no horses more beautiful, more fearless, more deadly. To race them can be suicide but the danger is irresistible. Sean Kendrick knows the dangers of the capaill uisce. With one foot in the ocean and one on land, he is the only man on the island capable of taming the beasts. He races to prove something both to himself and to the horses. Puck Connolly enters the races to save her family. But the horse she rides is an ordinary little mare, just as Puck is an ordinary girl. When Sean sees Puck on the beach he doesn't think she belongs. He doesn't realize his fate will become entwined in hers...."
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| UK Cover |
I've had an ARC of this for quite sometime now, thanks to my lovely friend Jenny at
Wondrous Reads. She knows what a huge Maggie fan I am and how eager I was to get this book. I finally got round to reading it!!
I LOVE the UK cover. It goes in really well with Maggie's other UK books, but still keeps its individuality. I approve greatly and bought the book as soon as it came out partly for its prettiness!!
The US cover is also beautiful and has much more of an adult look to it. Quite a great cover for adults to have a sneaky read of YA!!
At first I did have some difficulty connecting with the story. I had never read or even thought of rabid / zombie / evil horses from the sea before and so took me a while to grasp the idea. I did get there though and enjoyed it when I did get there.
I was kind of expecting to read this epic story set in an American style landscape, so I was suprised to discover it definitely wasn't in America. You are never really told when it takes place, but I felt the names were very Yorkshire like so my mind kept taking me there. I've since read some of Maggie's notes and think she was going for more of Irish / Scottish style. I was kind of close!!
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| US Cover |
There are so many relationships in the book and I loved reading of the developments. Even the human / animal relationships were beautifully formed. As an animal lover this was something I could really relate too. Feeling isolated, but finding friendship with a faithful companion.
I even began to think of Puck's horse Dove like I do my dog (Tilly) She like Dove is small and sweet and rather scared. I began to feel even more worried about Dove because of that.
This had your usual villan. I HATED this character!! I seriously wanted to inflict pain on them. This either shows I am rather violent minded or Maggie is just THAT great a writer. I'm going for the latter!!
I loved that this book had kind of short chapters. For me it really built tension and made me want to devour the book even quicker.
I was so happy with the outcome of the story. It was wonderful to know that this is a standalone story and so no more harm could come to characters I had become so fond of. I felt really heartwarmed and satisfied!!
This is a great new tale from Maggie and hope Shiver fans will give this a go, even though it has a different theme.
Rating 4 Out Of 5
This Is Published In The UK
Scholastic
This Can Be Purchased
HERE and from good book retailers
