My Little Pony: Princess Cadance and the Spring Hearts Garden

The Princess Collection #3

by G.M. Berrow

Love is in the air--or at least it should be on Hearts and Hooves Day! But when an outbreak of the pony sniffles turns this loving holiday into a disaster, Princess Cadance must find a way to get everypony through the winter blues. And what better way than a Garden Hearts Celebration? With helping hooves from Crystal Empire School students, Cadance creates a garden of beautiful wonders to lift spirits. However, not long after the festival's in blood, strange things start to happen. Some ponies can't stop giggling and others seem hypnotized. It's up to Cadance to find the root of the problem!

© Hasbro 2016. All Rights Reserved.

Genres: Childrens, Middle Grade, Fantasy

160 pages, Hardcover

Published May 17, 2016

About the author

Gillian M. Berrow (G.M. Berrow) is a writer and television industry professional living in Brooklyn, New York. When she was little, she aspired to become either a princess or a magical pony. Things seem to be right on schedule.

Reviews

[Megan Hawley Steinfeld · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The book was so good! I loved when they were so scared, and I liked when the plants growed completely and Alabaster helped them. And also I loved the one when Cadence was so worried about the Crystal Heart and that the frozen north was going to come back."

[Bulk Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to kick Olivine Jewel down a staircase. LEAVE CADANCE ALONE!

I didn’t care too much for the plot with the school ponies, but I was delighted this book took place after Flurry Heart was born. Finally some more info on the royal family dynamic! Cadance is such a sweet character and it was nice to have her POV. I don’t know how I feel about her being psychic, though.

Back to Olivine. This book is all about this bratty tween who has been convinced by her curmudgeon grandpa that the royals suck and cheated him out of a job, when they did no such thing. So she decides to steal his magic seeds and sabotage the garden project that Cadance has her class working on. She’s also just super rude. TO A PRINCESS. Why did the main plot have to be about brand new characters? The best books in this series build off of preexisting canon; to me that’s what supplementary chapter books are supposed to do.

Looking back at my reviews of this series, I feel like I have to give this four stars, because I did like it better than the three star books. It’s probably around the same level as the Discord book, honestly, but I just liked being inside Cadance’s head a little more.

Now that I’ve finished the “main” books of this series…it’s been a little disappointing. I’m not sure I’ll continue. Based on the plot coherency this series has offered, I have no faith the mysteries will make any sense. I don’t have much interest in Daring Do or the movie, and I’m not sure if EqG books are worth it either. The only book so far that I would say is essential reading is the Lyra and Bon Bon one. The others are a hit or a miss, and at most just kind of cute. Nothing in them enhances the main series much at all (compared to, say, the comics.) But being an obsessed MLP fan, I may have to read them all eventually anyway.

[Booklover1259 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Princess Cadence lives in the Crystal Empire with her husband Shining Armour and her foal Baby Flurry Heart. Princess Cadence had finished the hearts and hooves day song when the Crystal heart started flickering. The princes boosted its power and then ran inside but tripped on some clothes and fell. She then had a strong vision of there being a party in the gardens and told Shining Armour. She then ran out to the garden to see what it looked like and all the flowers and everything in it was ever dead or broken. she decided to fix the garden up with her husband put he was handed a letter saying that he needed to start his royal guard training urgently. The next day the princess got to work but a school walked by with their teacher and she asked if they could help her. They said yes except for one pony- Olivine Jewel. She and her friends couldn't think of anything to do and Olivine didn't want to help, so they went to her Grandpas house and brought back some magic plants. They planted them and then weird things started happening. All the ponies were laughing and the princess could figure out why. she then sung the hearts and hooves day song and everyone started to join in. When they finally went back to normal they couldn't remember anything at all. Olivine apologised and then she finally got her cutie mark which was a crystal heart with some vines entwined around it. I loved this book and I am going to read more of the series.

[Travis Berketa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book with my daughters (well, my 7-year-old assisted in the reading of it). The girls kind of enjoyed it, but for me I didn't know enough about Princess Cadance and her Crystal Empire to actually want to take it in.

The storyline wasn't really compelling either; basically Princess Cadance needed everyone in her empire to sing in order to power up the Crystal Heart, but only a few ponies rocked up so it wasn't charged enough; so she decided to fix up the palace garden to have a party to invite enough ponies to power it up and ended up enlisting the help of some pony-students; one pony student in particular was not happy with helping out the princess; magical plants were grown in the garden which mesmerised any pony who sniffed them; Princess Cadance figured out how to free them through song. As I said - not very exciting.

However, my 4-year-old enjoyed it and my 7-year-old thought it was good.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

My daughter picked this out for us to read together, and I was pleasantly surprised by it. The storyline is pretty good, and there are a lot of cute ponyied words. It's the middle of the series, and though you probably don't need to read the other ones first I'm assuming the King Sombra references would make more sense if you did.

[Nichola Theobald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Evelyn (age 7) says "I love the Cadance My Little Pony book. My favourite pony is Princess Cadance, it's a very good book to read. I love it ❤️ "

Alice (age 4) says "I love Olivine in the book and I love Princess Cadance and I really love it but it takes a long time to read it cuz I get so tired when I read it. Thats why. Goodbye"

Nichola (age 30 something) "not gonna lie....wasn't the best"

[Laurel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely book set in the Crystal Empire. When Princess Cadance decides to regenerate the palace garden, she doesn't realise that she is stepping on toes. And when the granddaughter of the Master Gardener takes matter into her own hands in revenge, turmoil ensues.

[Faith · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very fast-paced page turner, super original and authentic to the show. And to my knowledge, featuring new characters! This was a beautiful heartwarming story and I love the focus on Cadence as we don't see her much.

[CrazyM · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think the book was pretty good, and it's probably good for children who aren't teens but about 10. I liked it, but it was kind of weird. The flowers that made them laugh and fall asleep instead of talking were weird.

[Queenie · Rating 4 out of 5]

yes.

I know.

don't ask.

[Amanda Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating per six year old Lindy.

[eva henley ♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

my favourite book as a child

[Jenn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Carolyn said she really liked this one and wants to read more in the series but I didn't really like it. I think it is geared for older independent readers. Even then there wasn't much story to speak of.

[Shelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this series! It added depth to an already fantastic storyline.

[Mermaid Tale · Rating 5 out of 5]

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