When an earthquake sets off a tsunami on the shores of Wild Horse Island, the mustangs of Crimson Vale are chased by the waves and left stranded on a dangerous hilltop. Darby knows the lead mare, Medusa, will do anything to save her herd—but will she let the ranch hands bring her to safety? Or is it up to Darby to save Medusa and her band—before they're lost forever?
Terri Farley is the best-selling author of books about the contemporary and historic West. Her PHANTOM STALLION series has sold over 2 million books world-wide and it relaunches with new art & content in March 2023. Terri's most recent non-fiction book Wild at Heart: Mustangs and the Young People Fighting to Save Them (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) is a Junior Library Guild selection; winner of the Sterling North Heritage award for Excellence in Children's Literature. Terri's only contemporary fantasy is SEVEN TEARS INTO THE SEA. Terri is an advocate for the West's wild horses and for young people helping to make their voices heard.
I read this one before reading the previous books in the series. I decided I needed to go back and start at the beginning. So, I read the first in this series--and will read more AFTER I finish the Phantom Stallion series. The reason being, there are spoilers in the Wild Horse Island books that refer to things that happened in the Phantom series. So, if you don't like spoilers to your novels, start with the Phantom Stallion series first! That said, I am enjoying the books and have been zipping right along with them.
While the book was alright, I think it was my least favorite of the series so far. I was pumped that I got to hear from Sam from the Phantom Stallion series again, but I really wish that I would have loved this book more. I think that two natural disasters in two books in a row was a little much for me. Also, I thought that Darby was excessively whinny in this book compared to other ones, and she was really hard to sympathize with. I liked her much better in the last few books.