Title:  Pegasus
Author: Robin McKinley
Genre: Fantasy/Young Adult
Pages:  400

Rating:  B+

Synopsis (from Barnes & Noble):  Because of a thousand-year-old alliance between humans and pegasi, Princess Sylviianel is ceremonially bound to Ebon, her own Pegasus, on her twelfth birthday. The two species coexist peacefully, despite the language barriers separating them. Humans and pegasi both rely on specially-trained Speaker magicians as the only means of real communication.  But it's different for Sylvi and Ebon. They can understand each other. They quickly grow close-so close that their bond becomes a threat to the status quo-and possibly to the future safety of their two nations.

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Wow, it's been a long time since my last review.  So much has happened since November, it's going to be a challenge catching up with all the TV shows and movies I've seen, and the books I've read.  My first review of 2012 is of Pegasus by Robin McKinley.  I love Robin McKinley's books, especially her fairy-tale adaptations, but while this book was good, it just didn't live up to her past work.  There were points where the story seemed to bog down in long-winded descriptions, and sometimes I just wanted to give up or skip a few pages to get past the dull moments.  And I'm also going to have to assume that this is the first book of a series, or there will at least be one sequel, because this book ended so abruptly, with so much left undone and unsaid.

What this book did get right was character development.  Princess Sylvi and her pegasus Ebon had so much depth that they seemed almost alive.  They made the book worth reading; I always wanted to know what adventure they were going to go on next.  McKinley's greatest talent (in my opinion) is making her characters lifelike and approachable.  If she'd just cut a few paragraphs of descriptions here and there, the book would've been so much better.  B+