Equine Book Review – The A Circuit Series
I have a dirty little secret… I love teen lit. Can’t help it! Years as an English major pretty much satisfied my need for the classics, and every since then I pretty much read trash (but not Nicholas Sparks… I draw the line at Nicholas Sparks hate hate hate hate hate). Teen lit + equestrian lit = total Lauren happy, so thus enters Georgina Bloomberg’s brainchild, The A Circuit series.
Literary genius, these are not. To sum up the whole series, I can tell you:
- They’re quick reads
- There’s teen drama (boys and booze oh my!)
- There’s fancy ponies
The characters aren’t one dimensional, but they’re close. Three main girls fall into pretty heavy stereotypes – rich girl that works hard and is serious, working student that is talented even though she doesn’t have the money to play, party girl that wants to show everyone she has what it takes.
I probably sound very harsh, but let me tell you the good thing about these books. Hunter/jumper nerds will rejoice. Rein It In, the fourth installment in the series, follows the indoor circuit and we get to go to a few big indoor shows. The girls play in all three rings, and although the writing isnt so detailed you’re getting a chart of the course it still satisfies my “living the AA life” thirst.
Even though the books aren’t 100% horsey, all of the drama happens in the barn. This isn’t a series that horses a picture of a horse on the cover to draw you in, and then abandon the barn all together. All three plot lines are heavily ingrained in the circuit.
Speaking of covers, they’re awful for these books. Just ignore them and get to reading.
At around $8 bucks a pop for an e-reader version, they aren’t super cheap. For me though, it’s the perfect book when I need a break from reality. If I’ve got two to three hours free, I can read one in its entirety.
Overall: Great horse details. A must for hunter/jumper enthusiasts, but if teen drama makes your stomach turn, probably not the series for you.
13 thoughts on “Equine Book Review – The A Circuit Series”
Oh geeze. Now I want to read them. It’s really weird because I love, love, love good literature. My favorite books are the classics but I kind of like the silly and somewhat stupid books sometimes because they either, A. Give me a good laugh. B. They end up somewhat decent.
Let me share my secret… I love teen lit too!!! Especially horse related teen lit. I still have all of my Saddle Club, Thoroughbred, Heartland, etc. books from when I was a kid and I read them all the time. I’ve never heard of this series before, but I will totally be checking it out. Thanks for the review! I can always use something new to read. 🙂
I LOVE YOUNG ADULT FICTION. I am going to be checking these out for my fall-asleep reading.
1. I love teen fiction too. I blame Twilight. I was a Fantasy reader before, but now just add teens and I’m happy as a clam.
2. I am also an English major but hate classics. Not sure I ever finished any of them. My emphasis was tech writing if you wondered how I graduated 😉
3. I like Nicholas Sparks. To be fair, I’ve only read one book – The Best of Me – and I hadn’t even heard of him before (my daughter had). And I liked it.
4. I used to read lots of horse books as a kid (but surprisingly, none of the classic ones) and my favorite was Panky in the Saddle, circa 1985. Geez I’m old.
I LOVE young adult fiction! For me it is simply a matter of needing to read something that doesn’t take too much time or too much brain power. After having kids I found that books that take a lot of concentration to read were just too hard to get through when you get interrupted every other minute and now I’m sort of addicted.
When it comes to reading, I can be a real literary snob, but to tell you the truth, I’ve been interested in checking these books out for awhile now. Good to know you liked them. I think you need to take them for what they are – just a fun horsey read
I’ve read all these already! Nice, easy, and entertaining. I’ve also read quite a few of the Bev Petterson books. They are mostly horse racing related, and always involved a crime plot. Oh, and the Blaze of Glory series is also good by M. Garzon. Love books with horses in them! Maybe I need to do my own post on that.
Loved Blaze of Glory! It’s kind of a weird book, but in a good way.
You hate Nicholas Sparks?! Argh. Lol. I love his books! Movies, not always. I just watched one yesterday and wasn’t impressed.
But I’m with you on teen/YA lit! Lately, I’ve been OBSESSED with series about college freshmen, angels, and demons. I know, I know. But its such a nice break from reality!
I wish there was a way to get follow up comments on your posts sent to my email… I love seeing what everyone else has to say.
Also wanted to mention a good horse related author in case you guys are interested. I’m reading a bunch of Dick Francis books right now. He was a jockey and most of his books are based around British steeplechasing (some are set in Australia or Canada). I love them! Oh and they are mysteries. I never really gave mysteries much attention before, but his have me hooked! 🙂
Dick Francis is great! I’ve read one of his books but as a whole I’m not totally in love with the murder mystery thing in general.
Whoop Whoop! I downloaded the entire series a few months ago and read them all in one trip! Can’t wait for the next one to come out!
Belatedly seeing this post, but am another who loves nothing more than getting lost in YA lit. Got burned out on dystopian stuff, completely forgot about equine angle! Shall have to source me some of these books 😀