I really enjoy reading books by Liz Isaacson. She often combines three of my loves in books: faith, horses and also romance. Although many of her books are cowboy focused, horses don’t always feature highly. But I was pleased to find in Craving the Cowboy, that this wasn’t the case at all. Horses are a large focus in this novel.

Cowboy Dwayne Carver’s first love is horses – raising as well as training them. Unfortunately for him, this isn’t able to be his first focus as he works hard to fun the family ranch and focus on cattle, fences, pastures and any other form of maintenance on the farm.

Horse trainer Felicity Lightburne is hired to help with the training of the farm horses. Four of these are unbroken and Dwayne is eager to shadow Felicity to improve his horse handling and training skills. What he doesn’t anticipate is the beautiful, capable woman who turns up for the job.

It’s obvious Felicity is fighting some demons and Dwayne is aware that he has issues of his own. But he can’t help but be drawn to the beautiful cowgirl. Their passion for horses draws the pair together and it isn’t long before Dwayne is falling for her.

Craving the Cowboy by Liz Isaacson

Although the new love is exciting and the horse work enables the pair to spend most mornings together, there are many responsibilities in family life that pull at the two  of them – and pull them in opposite directions. Craving the Cowboy is a really entertaining read with a lovely romance included. The horse aspects feature quite heavily in the novel, adding to it’s charm. Highly recommended.

Author – Liz Isaacson
http://lizisaacson.blogspot.com.au/
Fiction – adult / romance
In my library? – as an eBook yes!

My daughter is an avid reader currently. It’s a joy from my end to encourage her – I have over 800 horse books on the shelves! So for those that are aimed at her age or a little higher to challenge her, I am happy to make my books available to read. And when she brings home a horse (or unicorn) novel from the school library, I am keen to read it, too! The latest book that she has brought home was The Sunday Horse. This book is written by Marie Gibson and illustrated by John Hurford.

This short chapter book explores an adventure that a young girl named Silvie has with a large draught horse. Over summer, each Sunday Silvie is rapt to find Belle, the park horse come past her home. She always has a treat for the horse and loves to see her.

Belle’s owner Ezra reaches out to Silvie and in time has her helping him with the park rides. Silvie is so proud to boast to her classmates that she is helping with the beautiful draft horse. She even gets to ride up on the carriage and hold the reins!

The Sunday Horse shows a young girl’s delight with a big, beautiful draught horse. The author Marie Gibson does a great job of focusing on the horse’s size and features, describing the fit from Silvie’s perspective as bigger than her family dinner plates.

Although Belle has a lot of allure for Silvie, a cold wet morning has her not wanting to get out of bed to see the beautiful horse. The events that unfurl from this ignored visit lead poor Silvie to question if she’s ruined any further chances of visting with Belle. The Sunday Horse is an interesting read with some beautiful illustrations to go alongside the story. It’s a simple, educational read, too and sure to delight young horse fans.

Author: Marie Gibson
Fiction – children
In My Library? No but it was an enjoyable read.

Recently my daughter brought home some horsey books from school. I just had to take a look, knowing that I could read and review one of the books that she brought home as it was Princess Ponies a Unicorn Adventure.

Now I’m not familiar with this series but thought I’d check it out. My seven year old, nearly eight year old devoured it. It did not take long to get through this one and then the next one in the series for her. This story was a delightful fantasy read, focusing on a young girl named Pippa.

Pippa has ended up on a magical island where there are horses. They talk and are led by a king and queen horse. These horses are able to communicate with young Pippa. They have let her know about a mystery on the island: there are some magical horseshoes that are missing on the island.

Princess Ponies a Unicorn Adventure

Eight horseshoes in total are supposed to be on the island. If they aren’t restored to their usual location in the near future, the magical island will cease to exist. Pippa has been working with the horses to get these horseshoes back to where they belong. Four of them have been found so far. And in this new journey, she is seeking out the fifth.

As she does so, Pippa works with a couple of her close horse friends and discovers a cloud forest which the ponies think is haunted. It actually turns out to be the home of magical unicorns! Pippa goes on a journey there and soon befriends the unicorns.

She is rapt to discover one of the magical horseshoes that has been missing. However, being able to get it requires a test of courage and her really going out of her comfort zone. As she does so, Pippa displays qualities that the unicorns recognise they should be displaying themselves.

This novel is a positive, upbeat story with plenty of fantasy thrown in and a lot of adventure. It encourages good qualities, and for people – and horses – to give situations their best shot and to be able to overcome their fears.

It was definitely a good read for my young daughter and I enjoyed the story and the things Pippa overcame in the story. I also appreciated the very horsey focus aspects in regards to how horses move, communicate and what they may eat. It was spot on factual information whilst mixed in with an entertaining story. Recommended for young readers.

Author: Chloe Ryder
Fiction – juvenile fantasy
In My Library? Not this one, but it was enjoyed when it was borrowed.