Green Rider by Kristen Britain

Caitie talked me into reading this series by comparing King Zachary to Tom Hiddleston. So I read it and fell in love.

Karigan is just trying to get home to her family to explain why she's been expelled from school. It isn't her fault, not really. But it all goes awry she stumbles on a dying Green Rider, a messenger of the king named F'ryan Coblebay who makes her promise to deliver his message to the king and not to read the contents of the letter so they can't torture the information from her. If all that isn't ominous enough he tells her to beware the shadow man. Karigan promises to take the message to King Zachary and F'ryan gives her his broach that signifies that he is a Green Rider to others. She also inherits his stubborn too smart to be normal horse she calls the Horse. (Side note I was 100% convinced the horse's name would turn out to be Sundancer or something because Caitie loves this book and that's what she named her faithful steed [read: car]. But no the horse's name is Condor which is actually way better than Sundancer and doesn't make me bust out into hysterical laughter.)

Karigan gets into a lot of trouble and I truly loved that about the book. She gets waylaid on her journey so many times by so many different things that the only conclusion any reader can come to is that Karigan is a magnet for trouble. When she finally makes it to the castle to give the message to the king, the message she had risked life and limb to deliver holds no important information. However the letter she thought was simply a letter to F'ryan Coblebay's lover turns out to be the real letter to the king in code. The Green Riders manage to crack the code and discover King Zachary's brother is planning to usurp the throne from Zachary with the aide of an Eletian who has cracked the D'yer Wall that has safeguarded the kingdom from the horrors of the Blackveil Forest a land poisoned by Mornhaven the Black. Karigan gets mixed up in these events and actually helps save the kingdom. But by the end of the book has Karigan insisting she is not a Green Rider and that she just wants to return to her normal life.