Author: Maggie Dana
Publisher: Pageworks Press (website not found)
Rating: WORTHY!
I'm not a big fan of series, so this one looked like a potentially problematic novel to begin with since it’s book one of the 'Timber Ridge Riders' series which was once a series called 'Best Friends', but I am a fan of an engaging and well-written story, and the author took away my fear right from page one. Knock-out Punch! That's the way to do it!
If I could patent and sell what it is which draws me immediately to one story, or if I could invent a spray to remove what it is which leaves me cold about another, I’d probably be a quintillionaire by now. As it is, I'm only an Ian-aire! Whatever it is, this story has it, because I felt quite at home.
This just goes to show that you can get me to read anything you like if you can find a way to draw me in. I don't care what age range it’s aimed at, or what gender. I don't care what the story is about, just give me a reason to read it! Make me want to turn the next page and I'm yours, shamelessly yours! One thing I can say helped in this case is that this isn't a first person PoV novel. 1PoV is something which I normally detest, so mega-kudos (or is that Maggie-Kudos?!) to the author for that.
Maggie Dana seems to be making a career out of writing middle grade equestrian epics, and what young girl doesn't want to read a story about horses? I have no idea, but that's what this story revolves around even though it’s actually about people. Kate McGregor applies for a job as companion and helper to Holly Chapman. The latter is wheel-chair bound (or is she?!), and Kate's only just turned fourteen. She has no experience, but Liz (Holly's mom) is getting desperate, and Holly and Kate take to each other immediately. Liz's mom decides it would be good for her to have someone her own age around, and so Kate is hired, she and Holly become room-mates so Kate doesn't have to commute, and the adventure begins!
You know there's a fly in the ointment - in this case, a horse-fly(!). Or more accurately, several of them. The Chapmans are only guests in their home, which is owned by the association which hired Liz to train riders. It used to be about fun, but now it’s about winning a competition at all costs, and if Liz doesn’t deliver a victory, she's out of a job and she and Holly are out of their home.
As for Kate, she fakes a fear of horses not because she's hippophobic (scared of horses, not hippos!), but because she carries a huge weight of guilt. She believes she's responsible for the death of her own horse, Black Magic. Worse than this (if that's possible) she makes an enemy of Angela Dean, the daughter of the main pain in Liz's life. Angela is a spoiled trouble-maker and, I have to say, rather a caricature. One almost expects her to twiddle her waxed mustaches as she cackles.
So we know up front that Kate is going to overcome her phake phobia, and that the real reason for her refusal to get back on the horse is going to be resolved and she'll be vindicated. We suspect that Holly will regain the use of her legs since it’s psychological. We know that Angela will be bested, and Kate triumphant in some competition or other. There's no mystery here. The only mystery is how the author is going to extricate her main character from the roadblocks with which she's hemmed Kate in. The answer is: it’s nicely done!
There is, unfortunately, a boy blip on the horizon. When I first encountered this I felt a faint twinge of nausea. Is this going to be yet another novel for young women where the reader is made to feel like she's only of worth when she has a guy to validate her existence? I was hoping he'd turn out to be gay and they become fast friends, but given the milieu, it was highly doubtful the author would take us there; plus the gay best friend motif is rather a cliché now. OTOH, if you take the tack(!) that he's the only guy in a field of girls, then to make him straight would pay against cliché, so what you lose on the swing, you gain the horse-ridden carousel!
The writing, in general, was par for the course. Not brilliant but eminently readable, and the writer evidently knows her stuff when it comes to horse-riding, care, and competition (not that I'm any kind of an expert!). There were some instances of "Say, what?" however, such as towards the end of chapter eleven where in one paragraph we're told that Denise racked up thirty faults (on a "cross country") for, in part, being too slow and then immediately in the very next paragraph, we’re told that it’s "not a race"! Either speed counts or it doesn’t. It may not be a race per se, but it is a race against the clock, and it seemed really odd to talk about being faulted for slowness and then having an instant avowal that coming in fast won't garner you any points. Yes, technically, in a deductive scoring system you're not earning points, but if you're too slow, you are going to lose them, so speed is of the essence. That just seemed like poorly-worded writing to me.
Another issue was with Kate's mantra that it’s about horse-girl-ship (not horsemanship, surely?!) and fun. We hear an oft-asserted claim that competition isn't important, but then we seem to find that everything is focused on Kate winning competition and triumphing over Angela. There's way too much competition in society, particularly in the US, so while I did like this story and wouldn't mind reading another installment of Kate's adventures, I also hoped that further episodes wouldn't be all about competing and winning. I hoped there would be far more to this world and these characters than that.
It wasn't all smooth sailing (or riding). One really big annoyance is that this novel was very aptly named. Allow me to explain that! Angela Dean turned out to be Angela Demon and was depicted increasingly in such extreme measures that she really did become a caricature fit better for the Cartoon Network than for an intelligent novel. Maybe the intended audience likes this kind of thing (which would be rather sad), but that doesn't mean a writer can’t elevate her readership and bring them up to something better, more nuanced, and actually realistic. Life is very rarely this harsh a contrast between midnight black and angelic white.
That was bad enough of itself, but what was actually worse was keeping secrets - that is, of Kate's passive enabling of Angela's atrociously abusive behavior, by not telling on her. Bullying is not acceptable, and as long as we teach young people via stories like this that bullies should never be brought to book, should never be called out on their behavior, should never be reported, then we're no better than the bullies because we’re saying it’s OK, and we're happy to facilitate acting-out and deliberate sabotage. IT'S NOT OK! It's never OK, not even in a novel, unless you have some higher purpose in allowing a character to temporarily get away with it - and it had better be a much higher purpose!
Another issues was with the horses, which were supposedly loved but which were not treated very well. Horses don't naturally choose to make crazy jumps over high obstacles unless they're frightened or panicked, yet these purported horse-lovers were making them jump and race, and risking injury not only to the horses, but also to the riders. If you're willing to put that aside, then there's entertainment to be had here.
