Rebecca Sheehan is a 17 year old who finds herself running away from her daily life to escape to the safety of her older brother in Wyoming. Country life is very different to city life and the young red head is rapt to find that in a short space of time, she has a job interview on a ranch where she will get to work with her favourite animal – horses.

There are a couple of catches, though. The biggest? Rebecca has never touched a horse in her life, much less ridden them and worked cattle. The other? She’s told her boss she’s 18 years of age.

Having bluffed her way through an interview with her stern employer, Alec, Rebecca wonders if she will be able to keep up the charade long enough to develop some horse sense and secure a job. As Bec establishes friendships on the ranch, she is surprised to find that these cowboys and cowgirls know how to treat friends and respect women.

This is a far cry from the men Bec has spent time with – and even dated. In spite of herself, she finds she is drawn to her boss and his quadriplegic father. As Alec sees through her lies, Bec is determined to take on his challenge and learn to be a capable horse handler and rider in the week he’s set her.

Alongside this, the past that Bec has run from is catching up with her. A dead boyfriend, an alcoholic mother and abusive step father all seem to be able to cause her concern whilst she is living in what appears to be another world. Cut and Run is a great look at ranch life, looking after an ailing relative and the horrible effects that drugs can have on a person and their family. A great read with a really enticing romance.

Author: Amy Elizabeth
http://authoramyelizabeth.webs.com/
Fiction – adult
In My Library? As an ebook, yes!  And one I’m sure I could happily read again.
Want it? Get it now at Amazon.

“Cowgirl: A better-looking cowboy with brains.” – Author unknown

Steve Cline is a 21 year old man who is the barn manager of a 200 stall horse facility, Foxdale. Arriving at work in the early hours of the morning to treat a horse with an eye ulcer, Cline stumbles across some men who are stealing horses. As he investigates, Steve finds himself kidnapped alongside the horses.

A desperate attempt to escape is rewarded with freedom, but Steve is unable to identify the men who caught and beat him. Nursing a lot of bruising, the young man returns to work in a short time frame, only to find that things keep going wrong at Foxdale. And that isn’t all – where he lives becomes unsafe, too.

At Risk is a realistic mystery about the horse world, the interesting characters you find in the performance industry and a young man’s desire to make something of himself outside of his father’s plans for him. The story is obviously an adult mystery, with frequent cursing and a descriptive sex scene.

The horse focus is written from someone who knows horses, and this appears frequently throughout the novel. The various characters help the story to be full and interesting and the novel finishes well. An entertaining read, but less swearing and sex would have made the book more appealing in my eyes.

Author: Kit Ehrman
http://www.kitehrman.com/
Fiction – adult
In My Library? As a Kindle download, yes.
Want it? Get it now at Amazon.

“Lessons from your horse: when you’re worried, let me entertain you with my mystery lameness.” – Author unknown

The first book in the series, Brumbies by Paula Boer explores the summer school holidays of fourteen year olds Ben and Louise. The pair strike up a friendship when they realise they have something in common – a passion for horses and riding.

Ben works hard on his parents property over the summer holidays, but he still has time to ride out in the local bush area in rural New South Wales. The family has a few working horses and so Ben is able to provide a mount for the horseless Louise. On their first ride out together, the pair are excited to see a herd of brumbies fly past them in the summer heat.

Louise had never seen brumbies before and she is thrilled by the sight of them – most especially a buckskin mare. Further into their ride, they stumble across a couple of young stallions, the liver chestnut taking Ben’s eye.

Very quickly a desire builds in the pair to secure their own brumbies. This is particularly after Ben informs Louise that the brumbies are rounded up each year to cull down on numbers in the park. Louise is devastated to hear that most are sold as dog food after being caught. She can’t bear the thought of such beautiful animals being slaughtered.

Brumbies is a delightful and realistic story of two teens overcoming hurdles to be able to catch and secure some brumbies. The book covers topics of horse care and ‘join up’ making it an informative as well as interesting read.  Interspersed are some lovely illustrations by Rowena Evans.

 

Author: Paula Boer
Illustrator: Rowena Evans
http://www.paulaboer.com/
Fiction – teen
In My Library? On Kindle, it is!
Want it? Get it now at Amazon.

“Ride a wild horse against the sky – hold tight to his wings before you die; whatever else you leave undone, once ride a wild horse into the sun.” – Author unknown

This book was a free download on Kindle after I did a search on ‘horse’ and I couldn’t resist! Any free horse book is worth getting, in my opinion!

Kennedy Blake lives a solitary life with her parents having passed on and her two siblings living their lives elsewhere. Although she is alone, she loves her life that is filled with cattle, dogs, horses and a 400 acre property.

At one point in her life, she thought it was going to be herself, a man and a family on the ranch. But an ultimatum with her fiancée left Kennedy heart broken and no longer interested in trusting men.

Ten years later and Garrett Hamilton is back in town on business, but also to reclaim the heart of the woman he loves. Nevada Free is a great mix of mystery, romance and western.

The story would have been a lot more to my liking however if it didn’t have so many grammatical errors and spelling issues. Changes in tense occurred not only in paragraphs, but also mid sentence, making the initial reading of the story somewhat difficult!

Author: Nan Carder
http://nltalbert70.wix.com/nancardersbooks
Fiction – western romance
In my library? As an ebook, it is!
Want it? Get it now at Amazon.

“Some are slaves on the ground but are free on a horse.” – Author unknown