Amish Horse Whisperer is a short and sweet novella that heavily features horses. Elizabeth Glick had two close friends in life. Paul and David. David she fell in love with and married. Whilst Paul went on a trip away, David looked after Paul’s heavily pregnant mare, Irma.

When Irma gives birth, David has an inkling that something is wrong and goes out in the freezing weather to tend to the pair. Elizabeth is against the idea, knowing it to be too cold out. And yet David goes and assists the pair, saving the foal’s life. The result is that David’s life is lost due to developing pneumonia.

As Elizabeth battles with the loss of David, Paul comes to her aid consistently. He has made a promise to David that he will look after the woman they had both grown to love.

Amish Horse Whisperer is a good mix of horses, romance and the Christian faith. Unfortunately, there were a few things that detracted from the read for me. The tense consistently changed and some sentences didn’t flow very well, making the story at times confusing.

I have read quite a few Amish novels and am learning the non English phrases as they come along. Some are easy to work out in context such as Gotte being God and gut being good. Unfortunately, although unfamiliar terms were easy to understand in other novels that I have read, this was not the case in this novella. The author could improve this by not assuming that all non English words are self explanatory. Weaving definitions into the story would really help.

I am someone who loves horse novels that are educational and correct. There was reference to David’s character giving the foal mouth to mouth to save its life. This is incorrect – horses cannot breathe through their mouth. Technically speaking, it should have said mouth to nose. Aside from these issues, the story is a quick and nice read.

Author – Esther Weaver
Fiction – adult
In my library – Indeed it is as a Kindle version!
Want it? Get it now on Amazon.

Morning Glory is the third book in the North Oak series by Ann Hunter. Alex is finding herself fitting in with the Showman family and she’s just starting to feel like she could belong. With an unusual sense of anticipation for a family Christmas, Alex is dragged shopping with Laura Showman, her honorary sister.

Whilst out, the girls get into an amusing debate about Santa Claus. As they continue the heated discussion, Laura gets distracted whilst driving and there is an accident. When Laura’s future health looks grim, Alex finds herself wracked with guilt. Add to this the fact that the Showmans seem to only have eyes for their ailing daughter, and Alex questions how she could have gotten her hopes up about belonging in the family.

As Alex is questioning where she fits into the scheme of things at North Oak, Brooke is determining what she wants for her own future in racing. When she is asked to ride for another trainer, she is rapt at the opportunity to make some of her own connections. The filly that she rides – Morning Glory – sweetens the deal, too. Brooke is in love and determines to purchase the filly when she comes into some unexpected money.

Unfortunately, Morning Glory is well named and so Brooke struggles to work out what can make the filly perform like she knows she can.

Morning Glory is a great exploration of North Oak’s three teenage girls and their own battles in life. They are human and flawed and can all do with a little grace at times. The third book in the series is an interesting follow on from the first two and introduces readers to a new character who looks like he could be sticking around. Worth the read.

Author – Ann Hunter
Fiction – teen
In my library – Indeed it is as a Kindle version!
Want it? Get it now on Amazon.