I downloaded this novella recently on Amazon after a search for some more horse reads. The main characters of Alissa Callen’s The Purple Hills are an audiologist returned to her country town due to an ailing father and a single father, horse chiropractor. I enjoy reads set in the country, I guess quite often because that’s where the horse stories are. And of course, reading stories about people who have horse careers always interests me! Then add in the promise of romance and I’m sold on the idea of the book in question.
The Purple Hills
The Purple Hills had all of these appealing qualities and was an enjoyable, short read. Horses did feature in the story, but not in quite enough detail for me. I loved how the first chapter started with a miniature pony streaking past a window.
But although this pony Jelly Bean was a constant in the story, there didn’t appear to be a lot of horse focused moments. And even though the main female character has a horse Cloud, he only really features in one scene. Add to this the fact that the main male who is a horse chiropractor, I think this story had a lot of potential to feature horses in a way that wasn’t just a reference to them. As a horse fanatic, unfortunately I cannot say that this was the case!
That said, the story is an enjoyable read and the characters realistic and easy to come to like. The Purple Hills is a novella worth reading and I believe could have only been built on by making the horse aspect a descriptive part of the story, rather than a simple addition. The story focused more on the human relationships – which were enjoyable to read – but I would have enjoyed additional information in the story about the horses, especially from the side of Hugh whose profession was that of horse chiropractor.
Author – Alissa Callen
Fiction – adult / romance
In my library – as an eBook it is.
0
20
20