My Little Pony: Princess Cadance and the Spring Hearts Garden by G. M. Berrow

Bought this secondhand and it arrived almost brand new! The packaging was very secure. There’s only a small sharpie mark at the top and a thin cut on the spine but they’re hardly noticeable, it looks like the book hasn’t even been read!

A perfect book. No problems and came early.

A very sweet book that is in keeping with the other G M Berrow books. A little short and meandering but still a nice easy read, both for children and for adults reading to children.This book is set around season 6 of the TV show, and is considered to be canon with the series, so it might contain a few spoilers for people who haven't seen the TV show that far. Not that most children will be interested in that. But adult fans of the series might want to know.The book feature Princess Cadence and her efforts to involve the community in restoring an overgrown garden in the royal palace. It is one of the more gentle of G M Berrow's books. It has a slow pace without any real climax, but is quite gentle with a good mixture of simple descriptions and more complicated words that will help children to expand their vocabularies.For adult fans, this is the UNCUT US version of the book. The UK version (renamed Princess Cadance and the Glitter Heart Garden) will some details cut\changed.

loved it

So...this is it, right? The final Princess Book? I wonder if Twilight is jealous, because the other three got hardback books while she just got a paperback one. Although, hers was the first, so there's that...Reader, ye be warned here and now: I'm pretty sure this book contains SPOILERS for upcoming season six episodes. Or maybe it's just one episode. I don't know, as I haven't seen the episode(s) yet. Or maybe G.M. Berrow is just inventing stuff, in which case, can I get another Princess Cadance book please? Because this Alicorn has a backstory that I would like to hear.Oh, minor spoilers for the book too, as well as the first two episodes of season 6.So, the Crystal Empire isn't fairing too well at the moment. After the events of The Crystalling, in which Cadance's and Shining Armor's daughter, Flurry Heart, shattered the Crystal Heart, the Crystal Heart has been a bit unstable. Cadance has been trying to keep it together using her magic--remember, she is the Princess of Love and the Crystal Heart is powered by Love--but it's getting harder and harder for her. She had planned to throw a huge party by gathering all the Crystal ponies and have their love power the thing, but over half the citizens are sick and can't make it. What's a Princess to do?Apparently, have a vision of the future (yeah...we'll get to that in a second) of a garden, with lots of ponies in it laughing and having a good time. Thus, Cadance sets off to restore the Crystal Palace's old garden in hopes of making her vision of laughing ponies come true. But she's not doing it alone. Figuring that maybe some little foals (although the book calls them teenagers, which I had a really hard time swallowing so we'll just say they're the same age as the CMC) would like to help, she recruits a class touring the castle to come play in the dirt with her.Too bad one of the fillies in the group doesn't appreciate it, and sets out to ruin everyone's time. What follows is a little bit of a brat pony who endangers the ENTIRE CRYSTAL EMPIRE out of spite (although she didn't mean for it to go that far...), Cadance learning that her future vision shouldn't be the only thing she relies on, and some interesting thoughts on what it's like for an entire race of ponies to be gone for a thousand years.Okay, I'll address my one real complaint about the book now. The "villain", if she can be called one, Olivine. She is apparently the Crystal Empire's Diamond Tiara. The girl is a moody little brat who is upset that no one pays attention to her or wants to be her friend, but the reason no pony wants to is because she's so strung up and moody. You've probably come across her character-type before, to be honest. However, what really bugs me is that is what she does, and what doesn't happen to her.She sabotages the garden with plants that drive ponies into laughing fits for HOURS, among other things. Have you ever laughed until you hurt? Yeah, now imagine doing that for hours and hours...Thus, Olivine most likely causes physical torture to ponies, endangers the Crystal Heart (and she knew the Crystal Heart was in danger because she saw it at the start), thereby endangering the whole Empire--because if the Heart fails, the Empire is overtaken by the Frozen North--but she gets off pretty much scot-free. Yes, she gets about two sentences worth of stern talking to from her mom, but that's it. Now, I didn't want her thrown in a dungeon, but maybe ground her or something?Thankfully, the rest of the book is about Cadance running around trying to fix the garden, and in doing so we get a glimpse at her character AWAY from the other Princesses, and even Shining Armor, which is a nice change. It's fun to see what this Alicorn is like when she's alone. Fun fact: turns out she's a total slob, tossing her clothing all over her room instead of hanging it up. It's little things like that that really make this book fun to read.And what's Shining Armor doing during this? Well...let's get into those potential season six SPOILERS, shall we? Starting with our Prince.Shining Armor receives a letter from Princess Celestia, and it clearly bugs him. However, when Cadance asks to see it, he hides it from her, telling her that she should just worry about fixing the garden and the Heart. When pressed, all he says is that Princess Celestia wants him to train more soldiers. And that's it. We're never told what was in the letter, or why Celestia suddenly felt like he should train more guards. Convenient excuse to get Shining Armor out of the book, or a hint that something is going down in the Crystal Empire soon? Remember, if you will, the lone Changeling we saw at the end of the The Crystalling...Next is Princess Cadance's sudden ability to get future vision--or rather, she's had this ability since she was little. What, you didn't know that? Oh, come on. She got it when she defeated Prismia. Don't remember who that is? She's the pony that Cadance mentions in Twilight's book. Honestly, can we just get an episode showing how this Alicorn came to be? It sounds like she's got a pretty killer backstory, taking down an enchantress when she was just a filly. I wouldn't be surprised if this new power shows up in a future episode as well.But now for the real killer--or maybe I'm just missing an episode or my memory is going. Has Princess Cadance ever spent time with the CMC in the show? If she has, please tell me, because I don't remember it. Yet in the book, she says that she just recently had them remind her about how a cutie mark doesn't define you, it's just a part of you. Or something like that; I'm paraphrasing. The point is, it made it sound like Cadance had been struggling with her cutie mark--or maybe one of her subjects was--and the CMC came in the help. Correct me if I'm wrong, but not only does that sound EXACTLY like what the CMC do now that they have their cutie marks, but we also haven't SEEN them doing this yet. At least not with Cadance around. Future episode, perhaps? I think so.Bottom Line: Cadance's adventure is going on a grand epic like Celestia's, nor is it dealing with grief and guilt like Luna's, but hers is no less fun to read. We get to see a side of her that hasn't really had a chance to shine in the show just yet (if you're read the comics, you've probably got a better grasp of her character), and it's kind of interesting seeing how some of these Crystal Ponies cope with being gone for so long. I just wish Olivine's character had gone more along the lines of, "I was just trying to help but goofed!" instead of the moody angst "I'm-going-to-ruin-your-fun-because-you're-ignoring-me" character.