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.

Recently I had the chance to read My Golden Horse for review. Ellen Sanz has gone through a lot for a 17-year-old. Ellen is used to travelling around from horse show to horse show with her talented equestrian mother. That is, until they find their life turned upside down by a horse accident.

Suddenly her accomplished rider of a mother is unable to ride horses any more. Although she escaped with her life, Ellen finds herself the caretaker for her mother who cannot come to grips with the turn her life has taken.

Unable to afford their town house anymore and not able to ride horses for a living, Linda decides to return to her parents’ farmhouse in a small country town. Ellen is upended from the few friends she has, the touring lifestyle and everything she knows and holds dear.

My Golden Horse

It is easy for the teen to feel resentful toward her mother. To top things off, Linda is in an incredible amount of pain and addicted to medication that helps her to numb it all. Ellen cannot see how being banished to a small country town to live with her out of it mother and kind but overbearing grandparents is going to fix anything.

To make things worse, there is a horse living at her grandparents’ place. Why would they have a horse on the property after the horse riding accident that her mother had? Ellen is amazed that they would consider such a thing.

The wild palomino mare inadvertently calls to Ellen. She is drawn to the unusual colour, so different to the bays, browns and chestnuts that her mother used to ride.

Unsure what to do with herself, it’s Ellen’s grandfather who suggests a change of focus – getting a part time job. It doesn’t take Ellen long to warm to this idea – although the job on offer is working with horses. As the teenager steps into this new role, she finds herself challenged with hard work, pursuing a passion she didn’t want to admit to and ultimately, with some new friends.

My Golden Horse is an entertaining, horse filled story with a small amount of romance thrown in. An interesting and educational read that is well worth the time invested to read it.

Author: Caroline Akervik
Fiction – young adult
In My Library? As an ebook copy, that it is!

In Search Of is a book written combined by Mara Dabrishus and Tudor Robins. I’ve read Mara’s Stay the Distance and some of her other novels, and many of Tudor’s stories including Appaloosa Summer, and Stolen Saddles. So I was curious to see what these two women would do together in the form of a novel.

I’m used to young adult novels by Mara and teen, maybe young adult novels also by Tudor. The story In Search Of actually has a look at some adults probably in their 20s, but a little bit older than what I’m used to from these two and their main characters. In Search Of has a look at two people, a young man named Cam and young woman Lynsey. Both are competing in a triathlon event.

It tells the story from each of their point of views, interchanging between the male and the female. It’s very interesting how the two are thrown together in the race, and then the events that unfurl when they assist a gentleman in the race who’s taken a tumble.

It takes a little while for the story actually to introduce the idea of horses. And at first I thought it wasn’t going to be a horse related novel at all. But they were woven throughout the novel with reference to them.

And in time they became quite the main focus point. In Search Of was a really interesting, quirky, amusing novel of two young adults finding their way and learning what they really want. Although they had been going through life, getting educated and dealing with family members pushing their desires for their lives, Cam and Lynsey finally settle on what they want in life, and discover it together.

This was an interesting read and quite amusing, but definitely for adult readers, rather than teens. It’s got quite a bit of swearing and adult scenes in it. The horse focus later in the novel becomes a lovely highlight.

Author: Mara Dabrishus and Tudor Robins
Fiction – adult
In My Library? As an ebook copy, that it is!