Equine Book Review – At Risk
I’m a big reader. I can read a book while I walk, read a book in traffic, read a book on my phone discretely at my desk… I read a lot of books. It should be no surprise that I ended up as an English major in college where I – now get ready for this shocker – read more books.
The down side of being an English major is that you can get really burnt out on reading. After I graduated I took a break from reading and squandered my time on reality television (helloooooo Toddlers and Tiaras!). When I did get back to reading, I told myself that I could read whatever I want as long as I was reading. So now, I read a lot of horse books.
The High Level Summary
Shenanigans are going on at Foxden, a super huge giant omg we have 190 horses on the property equestrian center and intelligent and oh so handsome barn manager Steve Cline is going to figure out what! Danger! Mystery! Grumpy clients! Zomg what is going to happen to Steve and the horses?
The Positives
While I am not a mystery book aficionado by any means, I do enjoy a good mystery. When it comes to plot and suspense, this book is good. There is an appropriate build up of events and suspense, and while the beginning was a bit slow for me towards the end I could literally not stop reading. We’re talking droopy eyes but must continue and I’m going to go hide in the bathroom at work and finish this chapter kind of reading.
The Horse Presence
Horses are more than just a backdrop in this story, which I appreciated. It also focuses on the sporthorse side instead of racing, and I prefer a show horse story to a track one. The author knows about horses and it’s obvious, so you won’t read anything so insane that it puts you off – at least from an equine perspective. The one thing that stood out to me was the almost 200 horse barn. I don’t know of any barns that size that are sporthorse barns, but maybe others do?
The Negatives
Hello editor, where are you? Although someone ran spell check through this book, it is very poorly edited. Missing words, etc. I can look past that though, but there were other short comings. The characters are poorly developed, and even though I am a visual reader I came through the book having no concept of how anyone looked like save one sexy female character – and that was vague at best. I think the plot is strong, but if you like intense developing relationships and good overall description than this isn’t the book for you.
Overall Grade: B-
This is a free e-book through Kindle. It has some faults, but it was definitely an above average free e-book. Good horse inclusion, and good plotline.
8 thoughts on “Equine Book Review – At Risk”
Ah, Intellectually Slumming is what I call watching reality tv (thanks dance mom’s and toddlers and tiaras).
I got really burnt out on art as an art major.
Reality TV is the sole reason that I cancelled my cable. Now I can get it through Netflix or Hulu, but it’s much more limiting and therefore I don’t spend 8 hours watching a marathon of Pawn Stars.
Just downloaded it!
Cool! Let me know if you like it
I’m always looking for good books to read, especially of there are horses involved.
I’m sure I would have SO much more free time if I wasn’t so addicted to reality tv! (Dance moms, toddlers and tiaras, American idol, etc.)
Reading burn out is the sole reason I quit English Lit. after only one semester at uni. I loved the subject and got really good marks, but I realised that if I continued I would never be able to just read for pleasure any more. I couldn’t stand the way I was analysing every text I came across, from airport novels to cereal boxes.
Also an avid reader who became an English major. Your opening spoke to my soul.
Yeah, I was a major reality TV slut. Like you, got rid of cable in exchange for hulu and Netflix and finding that a I am watching way more quality TV (well except for last night when I proceeded to watch real housewives of bh and house Hunters).