The Fire Horse Girl by Kay Honeyman

Release Date: Out now!

Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books

Pages: 336pgs

The Story

Jade Moon is a Fire Horse -- the worst sign in the Chinese zodiac for girls, said to make them stubborn, willful, and far too imaginative. But while her family despairs of marrying her off, she has a passionate heart and powerful dreams, and wants only to find a way to make them come true.

Then a young man named Sterling Promise comes to their village to offer Jade Moon and her father a chance to go to America. While Sterling Promise's smooth manners couldn't be more different from her own impulsive nature, Jade Moon falls in love with him on the long voyage. But America in 1923 doesn't want to admit many Chinese, and when they are detained at Angel Island, the "Ellis Island of the West," she discovers a betrayal that destroys all her dreams. To get into America, much less survive there, Jade Moon will have to use all her stubbornness and will to break a new path . . . one as brave and dangerous as only a Fire Horse girl can imagine.

The Review

Even if the book was set in a completely different time, but this tale still resonated and reminded me so much of Mulan and since I've loved the tale of Mulan since I was a little girl and was someone who I'd always looked up to, it was such a pleasure - an absolute pleasure - to read THE FIRE HORSE GIRL as it delivered such magic that you wouldn't believe until you actually read the book. Trust me it was THAT good. Gosh I loved this book so much! SO MUCH.

Our main heroine, Jade Moon, was one of the few very realistic characters I've read in a long time and she was so refreshing on the page to say the least. I loved her to bits! There just was this magnetic and raw emotion that she put into the book and her stubbornness, fearlessness and radiance of girl power was absolutely mind-blowing. She was just . . . gah . . . so bad-ass even if she didn't know it quite yet and even when the majority of people she is surrounded with are constantly putting her down (because she's a girl and is incapable of anything but being married off to have a family). I just respected her so much as a character, mostly because she refuses to be forgotten for who she is - the cursed fire horse girl - and who she could be one day, and rather decides to finally put herself out there to make a mark on the world. So consider Jade and I best friends now after reading this book because I wanted to be that best friend to her! Just saying.

Apart from Jade Moon's awesome girl power, what I also loved was the story itself the book told to us. With the touchy subjects of immigration and the exciting opportunities awaiting in America being addressed, it felt so real to me and I believe the author dealt with such issues in the story really well. She knew her stuff and I love when authors make you really believe.

Overall, THE FIRE HORSE GIRL is one of a kind and I absolutely fell in love with it as soon as I opened the book. From the beautiful writing, the stunning characterization and the epic adventure of one girl's hardship to make something of herself is needless to say one of the best books I've read this year and I'm looking forward to reading more from Kay Honeyman. She's definitely an author to be looking out for in the future!

The Rating

5/5 stars