La Duquesa is the second book in the wonder horse series. It looks at the story of an incredibly beautiful grey Arabian mare, known as La Duquesa (The Duchess). It also explores the life of a young girl. She is growing up having what she needs, but not necessarily what she wants.

Maryann has had a passion for horses all her life, and she wrote an English piece that explored her desire of riding a horse. It explained how she and the horse were one – the beautiful grey mare that comes to her in her dreams.

This piece opens the door for Maryann to have riding lessons in exchange for work at a nearby riding facility and boarding barn.

La Duquesa by Victoria Hardesty and Nancy Perez

Maryann is absolutely rapt at the idea of being able to horse ride. She doesn’t have the appropriate clothing. She’s never been on a horse in her life, but she knows she loves them and she’s keen to learn. To the surprise of the boarding property owner, Ginny, she naturally knows how to ride as soon as she’s on a horse.

She has the correct seat, the correct hands, the correct positioning of her legs and her head, and she just seems to flow with the movement of the horse. Straight away Ginny knows that she’s found the next horse riding superstar; one that’s just an absolute natural with horses.

At a similar time, Ginny acquires a horse that has been badly neglected almost at the point of death and is looking to nurse her back to health. As she does so it becomes apparent that this grey skinny, ribby horse is actually a beautiful Arabian mare.

I love how the authors of this story, weave in a little bit of mystery about the identification of this horse and how she came to be in such a malnourished state. And then how she is paired up with this young girl who’s desperate to have a horse of her own.

I also love the focus on the name which you’ll find as you read the novel. La Duquesa is a really enjoyable read. It teaches some stuff about horses for a young girl coming into the horse side of things, teaches a lot about the Arabian showing side of the world and ultimately explores the bond between a girl and a horse that she so desperately loves and wants to look after. Well worth the read.

Author: Nancy Perez and Victoria Hardesty
Fiction – teen/young adult
In My Library? As an eBook, it is.

How to Draw Unicorns is a very straightforward book with lots of illustrations or drawn diagrams. This is to guide those who want to be able to create unicorn drawings. This book would be well suited to young fans of horses and unicorns wanting to learn to draw, and those just starting out illustrating.

The book is a relatively short read, providing more diagrams than text but it is made up of lots of step by step pictures. These help to guide readers on how to draw specific unicorns. There are more than 30 different unicorns undertaking various tasks drawn as cartoon form animals. For example a unicorn skateboarding or cooking or dancing.

Each of these images is shown coloured in for the reader, and then it is broken down in step by step guidelines. This shows how to be able to draw the image, but then how you colour it in is completely up to you.

How to Draw Unicorns by Julia Smith

The book provides exactly what it describes: it will step by step guide on how to draw unicorns. It starts out with a great introduction on encouraging readers to try and try again, if at first you don’t succeed. The key is to just keep having a go. That’s the only way you’ll improve. And it’s quite positive about the way it encourages you to build on your drawing skills. This is especially if you don’t get it exactly as you want it.

The book also concludes in a similar vein. It encourages readers to keep trying to pursue their passion and to follow the step by step guide. In time they will be able to draw unicorns. How to Draw Unicorns would be suited to young illustrators or any unicorn fan wanting to try their hand at drawing them.

Author: Julia Smith
Non Fiction – drawing unicorns
In My Library? As an eBook, it is.

Racing Dream was another novel that I recently downloaded on Kindle to read and review. One thing that I liked about this story was that it was based in South Australia, Australia. I’m in Victoria but it was nice to be reading a racing novel that focused around the Australian racing industry. I enjoyed reading about places such as the Morphettville racecourse and sales, where I have personally been and worked within the industry.

Annabel Martin dreams of becoming a jockey and ultimately winning the Melbourne Cup. After all, this is the prize race that all jockeys aim for. As a young lady, she’s a great horse woman, but she comes from a privileged background. Therefore, she is seen as someone who just gets what she wants because daddy pays for everything.

Annabel is really keen to break through this image that’s been portrayed of herself. It is quite untrue.

As she pairs up with a retired jockey, she is rapt to find that he sees talent in her and is keen to invest time in her.  He teaches Annabel the ins and outs of the racing industry – especially riding racehorses.

Racing Dream by Suzie Hindmarsh-Knights

Annabel’s background comes from riding performance horses for the show ring, rather than racehorses. And although she’s a great horse woman, she does find that thoroughbreds and racing are very different, and she has a lot to learn.

Alongside her learning, she’s introduced to James Mackenzie. James is also an aspiring jockey, with his goal the same as Annabel: to win the Melbourne Cup.

Over the years Annabel hones her craft with the help of her ex jockey friend. In time she runs into James again, and an attraction is obvious between the two, but they are rival riders. Both are competing for the same thing with potentially the same horse: to get in the Melbourne Cup.

Racing Dream is a great look at the hard work, skills and a good work ethic that can get you to the top, but not without its challenges. The story has romance in it.  It also has mystery and suspense and features horses heavily. This made it a really great read.

The one thing to me that detracted a little bit from it was a couple of the romantic scenes between the two main characters. I felt that the story could have been a five star rating without this unnecessary physical romance explored and with less cosrse language, but otherwise it was a really enjoyable read.

Author: Suzie Hindmarsh-Knights
Fiction – mystery/suspense
In My Library? As an eBook, it is.