Book Review: The Atlantean Horse

I was sent a copy of The Atlantean Horse, book 1 of the Feathers of the Phoenix series by Cheryl Carpinello. This YA fantasy book is a quick and fun read.

The book follows 18 year old Rosa who has a supernatural power to hear voices/see visitors of people from the past. Like ancient past. One day she gets a visit from a stranger saying she needs to retrieve the Five Feathers of the Phoenix. When she and her cousin, Jerome, go to visit their grandfather on a small island near Greece, strange things begin to happen. Rosa hears a voice coming from the statue of a horse on the island telling her that she and Jerome need to find the Five Feathers of the Phoenix to raise Atlantis and let its people return home.

The book was a really fast read and the story was interesting. It’s a great start and introduction to a series. I think it’s a good, quick read for middle grades. Rosa is 18, but she acts and speaks like a younger person so I think if she was maybe 13 instead of 18 it would make more sense and be more relatable to young readers. There was also a lot of references to Rosa visiting Ancient Egypt in the past and helping Tut. I don’t know if there’s a series that came before this with Rosa and this storyline, but there were a lot of references to this past storyline. The only other thing that I found a little weird was the way the relationship between Rosa and Jerome was written. They are cousins, but instead of being portrayed as best friends or perhaps cousins who are sarcastic with each other, it was almost written like a young romance with them holding hands when they’re scared or having to stand close together when they’re hiding. Normally, them just needing to stand close to each other wouldn’t be weird, but there was one scene where it was described as them having to stand close to each other and Jerome’s breath on her face.

For these reasons I gave it 3 stars on Goodreads because I did think it was an interesting and fun quick read despite the few things I thought could’ve been done a little differently for the storyline.