If Wishes Were Horses

After reading Anne McCaffrey's An Exchange of Gifts back in August, I bought it and If Wishes Were Horses, which is another of her novellas. I decided to start reading If Wishes Were Horses a few days ago. It's short (only 85 half pages), but I've been pretty busy so it took me a bit longer than I thought it would.

If Wishes Were Horses is the story of the Eircelly family (a noble family made up of lots of children who are almost all twins). Their father is called away to a war, so the rest of the family is left to take care of themselves and their village without him. The war drags on much longer than planned, getting nearer and nearer to the eldest pair of twins' birthday. For Tirza, this isn't much of a problem: she may miss out on getting a traditional Ball, but she knows she's getting a crystal as per her family's tradition. But her brother, Tracell, had his heart set on getting his own horse. With the war still raging, horses are impossible to come by. How will Lady Eircelly make his birthday wish come true?

If Wishes Were Horses was a fine story. I liked that it was about the whole family getting through this hardship. I don't think it was as good as An Exchange of Gifts though, which was a bit of a shame (An Exchange of Gifts was awesome and I'd love to read more set in that world!) But even saying that, If Wishes Were Horses was still a great read. :)

Betty and Veronica's Princess Storybook

I saw this when I was checking books in at work this morning and had to read it.  It's an Archie-style retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Rapunzel, Snow White, Rumpelstiltskin, and the Little Mermaid.  Betty and Veronica play the title characters (sometimes shared, as in the Little Mermaid and Rapunzel), and other Archie characters play the supporting cast (Cheryl as the Sea Witch and also the wicked queen's mirror were both a lot of fun!)

Another fun feature of this book is that each story is introduced with some historical facts, telling you when and who first wrote it down, how popular it's been, stuff like that.  There were a few cases where I actually enjoyed this more than the story (Rapunzel and Beauty and the Beast in particular). 

All in all, Betty and Veronica's Princess Storybook was a fun and super fast read.  It was exactly what I needed after work today.  :)