I am so happy be welcoming Esme Higgs and Jo Cotterill to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for The Starlight Stables Gang – book one in a brand new series. 

Summer has always loved horses but she never thought she’d be able to learn how to ride them – not with money being so tight at home. Then she discovers the Starlight Stables where she meets a new gang of friends and learns how to ride in return for helping-out with the horses. It’s a dream come true!

Summer falls in love with life at the stables and especially with Luna, a beautiful dapple-grey pony. But one day, Summer arrives at the stables to find that Luna has been stolen in the night. It’s up to the Starlight Stables Gang to follow the clues and rescue Luna before it’s too late!

Full of fun, friendship and and mystery, this is the first book in the brand-new Starlight Stables Gang series. Beautifully illustrated by Hannah George.

*****

I’ve reviewed the novel below but first, Esme and Jo have shared an extract from The Starlight Stables Gang with us today. Enjoy. 

*****beginning of extract*****

I start to wash my hands, scanning the row of basins. I can’t see two girls talking to each other about horses. Have they already gone? My heart is beating fast. I wonder if I should dash out into the corridor to search for them. And then I get a grip of myself. For goodness’ sake, Summer! What would you do, anyway? Throw yourself on them and sob, ‘I love horses too, can I come rind ride yours?’

And then, while I’m standing there, soap on my hands, paralysed with indecision and embarrassment — a couple of girls are looking at me weirdly — I hear the second voice again. ‘Jessie? You still in here?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Me too.’

They giggle. And then two cubicle doors open at the same time and the girls come out, and I know instantly which one is Jessie because I’ve seen her in assembly. She has long black hair and she sometimes wears lip gloss, which is totally illegal in school but I think she gets away with it.

I don’t know what I was expecting, but my heart sinks a little because Jessie looks exactly like the kind of girl who would have her own pony.

The other girl is short and stocky and has a cloud of orange hair. I don’t know her name. My school is so big. ‘Are you going there again after school today?’ she asks Jessie as they come over to the basins and plonk down their bags.

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