REVIEW: Princess Cadance and The Spring Hearts Garden · 6:34am Oct 6th, 2016
I've been delaying this one for a while, but here it is. the most complex and rambling review I've written yet. this one's gonna be really weird, and perhaps controversial. can you trust me on this one?
Princess Cadance and The Spring Hearts Garden
by G. M. Berrow
Let's talk about Princess Cadance, ya'll!
I don't know her that well. She likes tiaras?
. . .
But, after reading this book, I can safely say that...
I still don't know anything about her.
. . .
THE END. REVIEW'S OVER. GO HOME.
what?
it was okay.
unlike the Twilight, Applejack, and Fluttershy books, it doesn't do anything unusual or risky or wrong. it's fine? 
but Cadance means as much to me as any other ill-defined OC. coincidentally, the OC filly in this book was a much more interesting character. I liked Olivine. it's more like her story.
Who can I even recommend this to? If you're part of the Cadance fan-club, you're better off reading fanfics. it's not like you get a valuable snippet of her backstory like in Twilight's book. instead you learn that she has brief psychic visions, kinda like Pinkie Pie's sense... because she's also pink? that seems logical.
ooooh, you know who else has Pinkie Sense and is pink?
HAZE's OC i mean pinkie pie 
G.M. Berrow hasn't written a book about my OC.
yet.
Pinkie Pie and the Rockin' Ponypalooza Party!
by G. M. Berrow
This is that one book that's practically canon, for several reasons.
1) It introduced Pinkie's family and gave them names, over 2 years before they appeared again with the same names on the "Hearthbreakers" episode.
2) the Ponypalooza Rock Concert in the title was mentioned 2 years later on the "Mane Attraction" episode.
Heyyyy, I haven't seen any of the characters or events of Equestria Girls being mentioned in any episodes. Except for that Flashy Sentry cameo. 
Neither is too important to continuity, but it's a very fun book with great characterization for Pinkie Pie.
It begins with a party. Pinkie brainstorms, plans, organizes, and executes a party within the first 1/4 of the book, before the real plot even begins. This is what she's naturally good at, of course. In the middle of the big town party, her family has appeared in Ponyville looking for her help.
Marble and Limestone had very little personality at this point, besides being shy and monotone. There's nothing to tell them apart, unlike the later episode where they're very different, and instantly memorable. The existence of another older sister (Maud) is hinted here, long before her reveal, but Pinkie is interrupted before she can actually say her name. Her parents are just about the same as we'd already seen in season 1.
So, her family is at risk of losing the rock farm because of a terrible financial situation. They can't sell any regular rocks anymore, because after the Crystal Empire reappeared, ponies are crazy about buying shiny sparkly gemstones. There was even some sneaky foreshadowing to this in the party section, where Pinkie notices that Cheerilee has been using said gemstones to decorate her house's walkway. Even after reading this before, I overlooked it as a throwaway detail.
The news that they might lose the farm hits Pinkie so hard, she cancels the big party going on, tells everypony to go home. They all gasp. She never does that. You know this is serious to her. Even though her friends question why, since she didn't seem to enjoy living on the rock farm at all.
The parents are very interested in Princess Twilight, thinking she can solve their problem. Pinkie suggests an ambitious solution in the way you just might expect: host the biggest party ever! a "rock" concert! advertise it over all of Equestria! publicity for rocks! and an opportunity for the author to make lots of pony puns on band names!
Igneous Rock tells her it's the silliest idea he's ever heard. "This is not something one of your parties can fix. Why can't you be serious for once, Pinkamena?"
Pinkie then makes a pinkie promise: for their sake, she'll be super-serious and not throw any more parties.
Already this is heartbreaking. She follows through on this, going straight-haired, undecorating her room, putting away her party supplies. A bit like that scene in "Pinkie Pride" though this lasts for more than 1 minute. She's constantly tempted to return to her usual self, but she values her family so much that she forces herself to stay serious.
Everyone familiar with MLP knows that parties and fun is Pinkie's consistent thing, she thinks any bad situation can be improved with a good mood. It's not that she's suddenly OOC, but that she does have some priorities in her life. From what we know of her, it's plausible that she'd put her family's happiness above her own. And I'm sure many MLP fans can empathize with a pony repressing her true self....
It turns out that after Pinkie left, Twilight supported the rock concert idea, and the family now thinks it's a good idea simply because it came from the mouth of a princess! But the damage is already done, and none of them know how to pull off such a huge event without Pinkie's expertise. The real conflict here is trying to get Pinkie interested in parties again, since she's not very useful in her new super-serious mode.
This is a great story concept, one that could fit into the show just as easily as "Party of One" did. Though maybe not, since Pinkie "didn't learn anything!" and it's her family that has to learn the moral of the week here. But what a moral it is, even with most of this book dedicated to silliness and fun. Maybe it actually works better as a book, since it doesn't need filler musical numbers for the Ponypalooza concert celebration at the end.
BONUS:
Hey, I finished all the chapter books! This calls for a party! 
Except for those Equestria Girls books, but most of those were by a different author. I haven't even read them.
and the Wow Glimmer book, which I'm still waiting to ship from Amazon. I'd have to wait to see the season finale before I could write anything in-depth about her, just so I can understand what character arc the show creators planned for her.
I do have the three Daring Do chapter books. I, uh, still haven't read them yet. Berrow doesn't have a great track record with adventure stories, and I haven't heard much praise for these ones. I'll get to them eventually, but I don't promise any reviews. It's just in-universe fiction.
what do you want me to review next? NOT EPISODES.
PREVIOUS ENTRIES:
Book 1 / Twilight Sparkle and The Crystal Heart Spell
Book 3 / Rainbow Dash and The Daring Do Double Dare
Book 4 / Rarity and The Curious Case of Charity
Book 5 / Applejack and The Honest-to-goodness Switcheroo
Book 6 / Fluttershy and The Fine Furry Friends Fair
Book 7 / Princess Celestia and The Summer of Royal Waves
Book 8 / Discord and The Ponyville Players Dramarama
Book 9 / Princess Luna and The Festival of the Winter Moon
Book 10 / Lyra and Bon Bon and The Mares from S.M.I.L.E.
I trust you with my life Haze
4242514
Poor Cadance, this seems to be her curse. I feel bad for those who like her. But as a Celestia fan it makes me feel better I'm not the only one suffering :p
That is NOT easy to do, so I'm impressed. Pinkie is tough to get right.
Awwww.
Why not?
4255138
I could do them, but several reasons make me less interested.
1. so many people already review them. my opinion is a drop in the ocean.
2. everyone already watches them. I prefer exposing new things to people.
3. for most individual episodes, I don't really have much new to say. I like comparing the books to the fanfic culture we have here, but I watch almost no TV anymore (for example, a few weeks ago I had no idea "the Rashomon episode" had become a common cliche of cartoons and shows). other reviewers are more discerning of the show's flaws than I am, anyway.
4. [CLASSIFIED]
4255287
Those all make sense. Hrm. I'm not sure what to suggest as a replacement. You probably don't want to review other fanfiction, for much the same reasons I'm sure. Er...the comics?
4256485
..... the good ones or the bad ones?
4256581
All the ones with Celestia!
I'd say whichever ones you have something the say about, be they good, bad or controversial.