Winter of the Crystal Dances

Whinnies on the Wind #1

by Angela Dorsey

Evy can understand horses, but she's not sure if it's a blessing or a curse. Her secret "gift" certainly seems to get her in a lot of trouble. When the starving mustangs wander close to the wilderness cabin she shares with her mom, she knows she must help them - an act of kindness that snowballs into a series of events that change her life forever!

Genres: Animals, Fantasy, Horses, Fiction, Adventure, Middle Grade, Childrens

153 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

ANGELA DORSEY currently lives on Vancouver Island and is thoroughly enjoying the ocean breezes, awesome hiking, and lack of snow! In the past, she has lived in a number of small towns throughout B.C., and loved them all.

She loves hiking, traveling, and animals, and has a tendency to name her pets after things that remind her of her coastal home, such as Misty, Raven, and Cedar.

Angela writes novels, screenplays, and non-fiction, and has a number of literary publications (short stories, poems, and postcard stories) and articles published as well.

Reviews

[Kellie O'Connor · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful, tender and heartwarming tale of a 13 year old girl named Evy and her Mom who live in British Columbia in a cabin in the woods. Evy has a special gift that enables her to talk to horses. Well not exactly " talk" as she says, she can " feel" their emotions and can sense when they are near. Her gift takes her on adventures with the wild mustang herd that lives near the cabin. She saves the life of a baby horse she named Twilight. Only Twilight is wild and doesn't think that Evy saved her. As Evy tries to train Twilight to be domesticated, the adventure of a lifetime begins! Is Evy successful or does Twilight go back home to her herd?

I have been around animals since I was born, so I can really relate to Evy. I've learned how to communicate with horses, goats,dogs and donkeys. Every movement means something,the slightest twitch if a tail, ear or hoof ( or paw) is their way of talking! Have you ever had the chance to look into the deep, soulful eyes of a horse or any animal? I have and it's a beautiful thing!! 💞🐎

Highly recommended to all animal lovers!! 🐎🐎

[Elizabeth Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Book that kept me turning the pages

It was interesting hearing the horses thoughts and heart breakimg at times. A good page turner. The motions Evy were well written.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful adventure story about eleven-year-old Evy who lives deep in the woods with her mother, two horses, two cats, and a dog named Loonie. Evy has a special ability. She is able to communicate with horses and also to hear their thoughts and feelings - even the thoughts of a herd of wild mustangs!

[Shelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read

I really enjoyed reading this. The character of Evy was well developed and interesting. I really liked the idea of Evy being "psychically linked to the horses.

[Clare O'Beara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This atmospheric gentle fantasy is highly enjoyable and should be loved by girls who like horses.

A girl aged thirteen and her artist mother live in a mountain cabin without electricity. They ride horses and watch the local bands of mustangs. But now the winter has brought deep snow, and this might be good for scenic paintings but it's no help to wild creatures in need of food.

Told by Evy, who has the gift of being able to feel the emotions of the horses, and sometimes communicate with them, this winter's tale is replete with change and responsibility; with friendship. I love the varied vocabulary and landscape descriptions. We can learn a lot about caring for horses and injuries. I thought the feeding the wolves part was overdone, but it adds drama. We are left to wonder what Evy will learn when she explores the reason why her mother never goes to town. That's for the next books. Have fun!

The author made this book available as a free download. This is an unbiased review.

[Ev Bishop · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic story in every way. I adored the characters and the setting and the adventure . . . and couldn't turn pages fast enough.

[Charity Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really gripping storyline... it sure kept me on my toes & I can't wait to read the next one!

[Christine Meunier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Young Evy has an unusual gift as is shown in Winter of the Crystal Dances. Living a secluded life with her mother, she is able to take advantage of her fascination with local mustangs. The animals are struggling to keep weight on and survive in the cold weather. Evy doesn’t know this solely through observation, she can hear the mustangs. Hear what they are thinking and communicating to each other. She can also feel their emotions – like they are her very own.

Read more at http://equus-blog.com/winter-of-the-c...

[Kristi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has been on my kindle for a while and I finally got around to reading it. I think it's more of a grade school level read but still very interesting. And it doesn't hurt that it's about horses and being able to "hear" them and communicate with them. I love horses and think being able to communicate with them would be amazing.

Rating: G
Language: very clean, no profanity
Recommend: yes

[Candace perry · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was an awesome book but this one was free and the others are like three dollars I thinking should be free as well but that is just my opinion but I do recommend this book to lots of kids up am twelve about go on THIRTEEN and I am very interested units book and I am going to get the whole series with my twenty five dollar gift card and I don't just get anything but I wanna finish the series SO MUCH

I love this book so much and I recommend it to everyone even grown ups but u should make the other free just a hint

[Sudarshan Kadri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful

I absolutely love this series and it is a great book to read. The plot and how Twilight finally learns to trust Evy is really emotionally captivating I also love the whole mystery side plot of her mum's big secret and I can't wait to read the rest of this series of books

[Debbie Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Touching!

Evy can hear the thoughts and emotions of horses. She not only communicates with her own horse but also with wild mustangs. It's an extremely cold winter. The mustangs are starving. Evy goes to great lengths to save the herd and to win the heart of one filly.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A satisfying ya read. Loved the emotions with the horses and feeling what they did. Hated the lack of closure in the ending regarding what was hunting the horses.

[Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Imagine

Wouldn't it be wonderful to learn to live that way, so intuned with nature & all Gods creatures. She tells the story so well..

[Michaela · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a wonderful book . I so recommend this book .

[Celia Buell (semi hiatus) · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a kid, I loved books with covers that looked just like this. Although I no longer read them by the time I would have been old enough to enjoy a middle grade / young adult book like this, there was something about Winter of the Crystal Dances that was very nostalgic for those books I loved as a kid.

Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to make me fall in love with the book itself. For one thing, I couldn't stand Evy. While her heart was in the right place, she was annoying in her insistence that things had to be her way. Coupled with her refusal to tell anyone anything (including the horses), she wasn't an easy character to root for.

There were a few areas that were very predictable, at least for me as an adult reader. I kind of liked this predictability entwined with the unpredictability of Evy's life. But I didn't like that most of these cross over to the next book without much explanation.

I also didn't like the ending. At first, it seemed like Evy was learning from her past. But then things switched, and it just seemed like the whole story made less sense. I think it should have stayed with the original ending, which helped Evy to grow as a person at least a little bit.

I don't know if I want to continue this series. I'm definitely curious about why Laticia has made Evy live as a recluse all these years, but that's also one of the predictable parts of the story. If I could find Spring of the Poacher's Moon for free at any of my libraries I might read it, but I'm not going to seek it out or spend money on it.

[Sarah Ryder · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this when it first released through Pony Book Club, and I don’t remember being that impressed with it even though I usually love this author’s works (though this lack of care could be due to the fact that her Horse Angel series has just ended on a disappointing low and I was suspicious…). Anyways, I had lower expectations this time around but was in the mood to try again and see if I wanted to finish the series and I ended up really enjoying it!

I love the whole living out in the Canadian bush, wilderness adventure vibe as it’s very much how I live as a farmgirl, and the depictions of nature and the cold and snowy winter and Evy’s love for it all were so vibrant and real and beautiful, and it really resonated with me. And the way the author writes Evy feeling horse emotions and how she communicates with them is so immersive and adds that little supernatural flare to the story that I love this author for.

Evy is amazing as she both a kid yet also so much more mature then your average 12 year old that easily makes her likable to teens and adults too, and I love how much she loves and admires her artist mom who’s also really cool. They have such a strong bond and truly trust and love each other which I feel is missing from a lot of MG books, and something I’ve noticed I tend to enjoy in the MG books I do love. The horses all have distinct, amazing personalities as well as Kestrel, Evy’s best friend—the author does such a fantastic job writing real characters and relationships!

I’m super curious about Evy’s mom’s secret too—why ARE they hiding out in the bush? 👀 I have a couple theories but nothing concrete as of yet—I guess I’ll just have to keep reading to find out!


‼️Content‼️

Violence: in the past a horse’s shoulder was impaled with a stick (not detailed); injuries and blood (not detailed); a wolf attacks a horse and injures its leg (not detailed); a girl nearly falls off a cliff; a horse kicks a girl’s shoulder

Other: a girl can telepathically talk to and feel the emotions of horses; mustangs and wolves are starving due to a harsh winter; a girl thinks she accidentally murdered a horse; a girl talks about how her older sister pierced her own ears

[Altivo Overo · Rating 5 out of 5]

True thoughts can be hard

Fine depiction of horse behaviors and believable description of their thoughts and emotions. Certainly I would love to have Evy's ability to read equine minds and talk to them, but could I use it as wisely as she does? More than just a YA novel, this novella has a lot of depth.

[Alaina]

rtc

[Carol L. Caldwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love horses, so a story about them is just what I want to read. The plot was good and there was action to keep things moving. I liked the ending. There is a mystery in the relationships between the mother and daughter that I hope will be resolved in another story. I want to know why there are where they are.

[Jenn M · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting story with an intriguing premise. I wasn't thrilled with the story telling execution and writing.

[Sarah B · Rating 4 out of 5]

This horse story was very entertaining and I read the majority of it in one sitting...but it was a lot shorter than what I had thought it was going to be. And I would be lying if I didn't admit it the beautiful cover that attracted me to this book! While this is a children's book I certainly found myself hooked on the tale as well. There is enough mystery and secrets in the main plot - mainly about the girl's mother and why there are living out in the middle of nowhere - to keep me intrigued. Of course I would read this anyway because of the horses.

This is the story of a girl who had a unique ability to communicate with mental thoughts to horses. And there's a herd of wild mustangs that live nearby. It's a brutal winter and the horses are starving..and dangerous predators are about too! Can she save the horses? So that's the basic plot and there's a few dangerous scenes in here too, nice little scares. Of course there's plenty of horse action, both with the mustangs and with domesticated horses. She doesn't always think things through before doing them and that can get her into trouble...which is maybe one reason she's dealing with guilt in this book.

One thing I didn't like was her name. I just thought it was very strange and it's hard for me to even remember it! The horses had great names, like Rusty and Twilight.

I must say I certainly am curious to know what will happen next so I'm going to read the next book in this series. Apparently there's a bunch of them too. Perhaps with each book we'll get to know a different mustang? Also how did she get this power of feeling a horse's feelings and the ability to telepathically talk to them? Does her mother have such a talent too? These are questions I would like answered.

[Hanna Tamara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It kept me interested and kept me turning pages.

[Grace Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Evy is the daughter of a reclusive mother and they live alone in BC. Evy has the strange ability to understand horses, she can actually feel what they're feeling, which sometimes overwhelms her. There were only three basic characters because of the recluse mother and all, but the horses made up for that with their own unique personalities, though I would have liked more about Cocoa and Twitchy. And sometimes, Evy does the right thing too many times and she never gets into serious trouble. But overall, the descriptions were very real, the story is great, and the horsey terms are all accurate. So if you love horses and action, read this book!

[Jessie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Magical realism at its finest, Angela Dorsey did a beautiful job with Winter of the Crystal Dances. I was so happy to actually read about a girl who still rides in the winter like me! At first when I read -20 I thought whoaaaaaa she’s crazy but then I realized yeah that’s definitely Celsius, I live on the northern Ontario border and still get amazed when I hear temps in Celsius sometimes haha. I’d say riding in the teen Fahrenheit temps is my limit, any colder and it’s painful. 4.5 stars, I would read it again and will most definitely be continuing on with this series :)

[Jackie Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute story!

This was a nice easy read and a really cute story. It reminded me a lot of my own fantasies playing with horses in the woods. Enjoyable and light to read. The ending was unexpected but very happy!

[Brenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book

I liked this book because I love horses and mustangs. The book was written from a young teens point of view. She can talk to horses. The last half of the book is very exciting. This book is for anyone who loves horse adventures. Yes, even adults. I am over 65 and I really enjoyed it. I have a horse and I like to think I can talk with her too. She and I understand each other.

[Elo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whinnies on the Wind was my favourite book series when I was a kid, so I decided to read them again. I still love the cozy feeling these books give me. The whole series is a bit fast-paced which is of course a good thing for young readers, so I tried to ignore it and enjoy the book like I would have enjoyed as a kid. The book is still really beautiful. I feel like the original version of the book might be a bit better than the Finnish translation I have read.

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

A horse lovers dream!

This story of a girl who communicates with horses brought back the simplicity of childhood to me. Simple and full of kindness, this story will delight horse lovers of any age.

[Mary Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful story of a young girl, her mother, her love of horses, and her friend. Living in the Canadian wilderness can threaten the life of humans and animals. Great for those horse loving young readers!