Runaway Alex by Natalie Keller Reinert

It’s been a little while since I’ve read The Head and Not the Heart, the original first book in the five book Alex and Alexander series but this prequel was a delightful read. Runaway Alex although a prequel, was actually published five years after the first book in series.

Horse racing isn’t for nice girls like Alex. She’s been told again and again: stick to horse shows, stick to riding lessons, stick to the relative safety of the suburban equestrian center where she has been a working student since grade school.”

I loved learning about Alex’s life before she and Alexander were training together. Her experience riding ex-racehorses and bringing them on to become performance horses after racing, sets Alex in good stead when she considers what she really wants in life. Her parents are insistent she gets a college degree and settles into a well paying job. Alex is desperate to ride racehorses and explore the thoroughbred racing world. The only problem is, there is no way for her to do this where she currently lives.

When Alex’s ability to work with horses is taken from her, she runs away to Ocala. It seems the perfect time to pursue her dream of breaking into the thoroughbred racing world. A chance meeting with charming racehorse trainer Alexander Whitehall seems like fate. Alex jumps at the opportunity. She soon finds herself with a job interview at the destination of her dreams.

Falling in love, learning to ride racehorses and proving to her parents that her passion is not a phase she’ll grow out of all take their toll on Alex as she delves deeper into the thoroughbred racing world. Can she make it work?

Runaway Alex is a beautifully realistic look at the racing world. It explores the passion and grit it takes to pursue a career you love whilst everyone else is telling you to ignore the passion and settle for a safer career. Highly recommended.

Author: Natalie Keller Reinert
Fiction – adult
In my library? It is as an ebook, yes!