Blood Red Horse by K.M Grant.

Blood Red Horse by K.M Grant
First in a Trilogy
Young Readers, 288 pages
Published April 4th, 2006 by Walker Books

You need three things to become a brave and noble knight:
A warhorse.
A fair maiden.
A just cause.

Will has a horse—a small chestnut stallion with a white blaze in his brow. Ellie is a fair maiden, but she’s supposed to marry Will’s older brother, Gavin. And as for the cause, King Richard is calling for a Crusade. The Knights of England must go to the Holy Land to fight.
Will and Gavin will go. Blood will be shed. Lives will be taken. But through it all, two things will be constant—Ellie, and a blood-red horse called Hosanna... -goodreads.com

Will is a young noble growing up in England, where he knows two things: he must follow King Richard in the Crusades, and he needs an amazing warhorse to accomplish that. When his father finally gives him the chance to pick a charger, something draws him instead to a small red horse. No one expects this horse, named Hosanna, to be much of anything; some mock him for making the choice to take such a puny horse into battle. But time and time again Hosanna saves not only Will but those around him. He has a miraculous quality about him, one that calms and soothes the spirit as well as gives courage to men going into battle. The English warriors look to Hosanna for strength, until one day he is taken from Will. My brother suggested this book to me, since he knows I'll read almost anything and I'm a sucker for a medevial adventure. This book will not disappoint for those fellow lovers of all things medieval. However, if you're looking for much romance or anything like that, I wouldn't read this book. Although the blurb suggests some romance between Will, Ellie, and Gavin, there isn't a whole lot in this book. The sequel gives more strength to the relationships.

I really did like this book. It's not a favorite; not one I'm going to be buying anytime soon. I couldn't help but fall in love with Hosanna, or the title's blood red horse, just as everyone in the book has their heart's softened by the creature. He really is unbelievable, but he never does anything totally out there. I thought Hosanna would be saving people left and right, talking, and whatnot when I went into the book, but he never did anything out of the ordinary for a horse. The power he sent people, however, had me wishing for a horse like him. Hosanna is probably the best character in this book. Will and Ellie are both very likeable, with more depth than I expected from a Young Readers book. I even came around to liking Gavin towards the end, but I still have mixed feelings about him. He never is just one sort of person; I can't categorize him, and he never does what I think he will, so Gavin was also a nicely developed character.

But this book is more plot based than character based, so lets move onto the plot. The book moves constantly through with action. Not many parts (and those aren't very long) are filled with Will hanging around, being bored. It shifts constantly between battle to battle, from Ellie back home in England fighting her own wars with enemies at Hartslove, and from a young Muslim man who enters the story once the Crusaders enter the Holy Land. Even though the story was meant to be 'non-stop action', there were times when I felt bored especially with the fight scenes. It got a little old after a while. Maybe this is just me, because I can easily get bored with any battle. Gladiator, woah man! 300, nuh uh. They don't impress me much. If you enjoy lots of details of war without too much gore, Blood Red Horse is definately for you.