This was such a nice, sweet book... at least for the first 75%. The last quarter got more complex and had a whole lot more plot threads, setting up future books. I liked the first three-quarters a lot more, but when book 2 comes out, I'll happily snap it up.
Set on a fantasy world, there are three levels of animals. Level 3 are just plain animals (for example, a horse). Level 2 are slightly magical/intelligent animals (like a frost horse). Level 1 are really special, very magical and very intelligent creatures (a unicorn).
Very very few people (only two in the whole world, at least as far as we know in the first book) can speak to level 1 and 2 creatures. The main character, a 14 year old boy, is one of them.
The first three-quarters of the book was about that boy trying to right wrongs he unknowingly did. All the evidence was there that what he was doing was wrong, but he's a kid and the adults around him tried to keep him from seeing the truth, so it's perfectly understandable that he didn't realize the harm he was doing at the time. It was such a wonderful, nice, kind story.
The last third things ramped up and the plot got more complex. At first I was frowning over it, because I had liked the earlier part of the book so much better, but by the end of the book I was caught right back up in the story.
The one issue I had with the book was that it was written in the present tense. It kept throwing me off. I feel like I haven't written one in present tense before, but Google tells me that The Hunger Games was, so I read at least that one.
The author is selling the next book (as she had this book) chapter by chapter through Kindle Vella. While I did enjoy this book a lot, I'd rather wait for her to publish as a real book than pay for each chapter.