The lip gloss menagerie continues!

Triple Fault
Canterwood Crest #4
by Jessica Burkhart

Three Strikes, They're On The Outs...
One: Heather pretending to date Jacob, just to mess with Sasha.
Two: A new girl who is so competitive, she makes Heather look tame.
Three: A former BFF with a new hobby: stealing boyfriends.

You expect some statement at the end of this list that collects everything together in a cohesive manner, but you don't get one. Therefore this is an odd little summary that sort of gets to the point of the three books previous (although I can't remember Chasing Blue, no matter how hard I try), but doesn't get to the heart of the matter (or any matter, actually) of this book. Intriguing! Let's take a closer look.

Jasmine, bitchy girl from book(s) previous, now inhabits Canterwood Crest. Sasha spends a lot of time feeling alternatively justified in hating her, and feeling sorry for her when the Trio makes this girl's life a living hell. No one really feels sorry for Jasmine, but since she does attempt to put some minimal effort into making friends initially, Sasha develops this tiny little soft spot that will be used against her later.

As we discovered in Behind the Bit, Callie is a boyfriend stealing, passive-aggressive, ultra competitive, borderline animal abuser. Shocking? Perhaps so. Not too recently, she was in like with Eric, but randomly showed up after break with Jacob, Sasha's almost boyfriend. During all of this, Sasha realized how awesome Eric is and decides he is the one. Awkwardness abounds when she still refuses to speak to Callie and Jacob, but will not tell anyone about Eric because to tell someone would be giving Heather an opportunity to break them up because Heather apparently loves to randomly cause chaos like that.

Eventually Callie and Jacob get back in her good graces, Callie becomes passive-aggressively ultra competitive with Sasha again (healthy!), but Sasha still holds back on telling anyone about Eric, flustering his poor, patient soul. Will Sasha ever man up? Will Eric be doomed to secret boyfriend status forever? Will Jasmine ever get a life? Will Callie ever be a genuine friend and stop being so passive-aggressive? I have so many questions!

Thankfully, Paige has a party. It's one of those parties that people dream up and never actually get around to hosting, but no matter. Paige is the new host of Teen Cuisine, in which she bakes things with real butter and a hell of a lot of confectioner's sugar. Sasha intends to tell everyone about Eric at the party, announcement style, as if everyone at the party really actually cares who she is dating. But Jasmine steps in to inform Sasha that she already told Callie and guess what? Callie flipped the hell out! Sasha, because she is exceptionally gullible, believes this completely. Eventually, Sasha does man up and tells Jacob and Callie herself. They have no idea what she's talking about, and appear to not really care. Sasha is free to go on dates with Eric, and I am still not exactly clear on what a date between thirteen-year-old kids really even entails, but I'm pretty sure I am going to find out soon. I am thrilled about this, let me tell you.

And then Jasmine's evil plan to get on the advanced team is set into motion: Allison and Julia are caught cheating on a history exam. Apparently Allison and Julia aren't the cheating type, so hello cliffhanger. Who will be on the advanced team now? What will become of Allison and Julia? What movie will Eric and Sasha see on their hypothetical date? WHAT LIP GLOSS WILL SHE WEAR?

- I sort of love Sasha and Eric. I heart them. I admit it.

- These books are like experiencing sugar shock. In fact, I am pretty positive no one eats if the food isn't laced with sugar or chocolate.

- I am still not sure why Jasmine is at Canterwood. Did I miss the answer to this somehow? It is possible I did, but it does seem weird to me that she's, you know, there.

- Mistakes: spiraling in. I'm a tad dyslexic concerning right and left. Learning riding aids has been a magical and hilarious experience! So I tend to forgive these mistakes in fiction. That said, you can't ask a horse to spiral in when your leg is telling it to spiral out. That whole sequence of Sasha spiraling in on Charm totally would have earned her a larger circle instead of a smaller one. You were looking for outside leg there, Sash.

I still really enjoy these books, even if the sparkly sugar texting melodrama is well past me.

Behold...a book!

Behind the Bit
Canterwood Crest #3
by Jessica Burkhart

With friends like these...

It's midwinter break and Sasha Silver has been invited to attend an exclusive equestrian clinic. Problem is, Callie, Heather, Alison, and Julia have also been invited. And after the way things ended at Canterwood's Sweetheart Soiree, the line between friend and frenemy is thinner than ever.

You know how people went a little nuts over the boys vs. horses dynamic in Pine Hollow? Oh, crazy people. What would I do without your capslock rage?

I bring up this topic because so many horse books are so bad at finding a happy medium between the two. Ashleigh and Samantha from Thoroughbred treated the opposite sex as if they were hazy on if it even existed, and when boys were there they were not there, relegated to boredom for the rest of their fictitious lives. And from what I can gather, young girls everywhere approved heartily. No to sexual chemistry! Yes to horses! May this never, ever change! Until it does. Sorry, kids.

And then Jessica Burkhart and Canterwood Crest came along, totally confusing this established horse book trope. It is refreshing to see a change. I am definitely reading these books with an emotion I'm pretty sure is glee. Mainly because it's finally been proven: boys and horses can successfully be coinhabitants in a 12-year-old girl's brain. It can be done! Do not shy away from this, authors and tween girls! It's okay! Everyone put away the capslock and take a deep breath. A deep, soothing breath.

I am still enjoying this series, despite what I felt was a disconnect coming into Behind the Bit. I opened it up, read the first chapter, and put the book away for something like two weeks. I don't know if it was just the tween boy drama (ironically) that I didn't want to deal with at the moment, or what, exactly. It could possibly be that Sasha, despite being what I feel is a somewhat submissive personality, can be very in your face with the first person narrative. And when you're straddling the line between perkiness and angst, I just need to be in a certain mood to read this sort of thing. And that sort of mood occurs the day before this book is due at the library, apparently.

While it did take me a while to get going, the book does pick up as Sasha tries to piece her friendships (and possible romantic relationship with Jacob) back together over the two weeks of a clinic, during which the rest of the school is off on break. Eric, the other part of the love triangle, stays behind to help out with the clinic. Jacob, the other other part of the love triangle, flits off to be whatever the twelve-year-old equivalent of broody is. Here is where I say that I loathe love triangles, and yet I am drawn to them like a moth to flame. I find this very pathetic, but it can't be helped. Mainly, I hate them because the outcome is always obvious. I give Jessica points for creating a non-obvious love triangle. Although, I am still very wary of this development. Actually, I suppose this is more of a love quadrangle. Which is better, really.

While Callie isn't speaking to Sasha, Eric and Heather are. Ignoring Eric for a moment, because that was predictable, I loved what was going on with Heather. Because I like antagonistic relationships and/or friendships that are complicated, yet work in a dysfunctional way, this worked out for me. I enjoy that the main cast doesn't always have to get along, or never get along. And I think this aspect of Canterwood Crest is what I'm going to always love.

I also liked the end. Sure, there's a twist that you'll tilt your head and squint at, while trying to remember that these are seventh grade kids, but it works out and leaves you eager for the next installment. So, high marks on much of this book.

Now, let's get to some other points:

• I am not a fan of describing clothing for no apparent reason. Behind the Bit takes this too far, in my opinion. Not to the insane levels of insane insanity like, say, Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter or anything (I'm sure you always wanted to know the color of the Nike swoosh on your favorite character's shoes, didn't you?), but I'm a firm believer in describing clothing for two reasons: to say something about the character, and/or to help set the scene. If your character is in the barn, where he/she seems to always be, I'll assume they're wearing some normal barn attire. I don't need to know exactly what in this or that shade of color, and that was a problem I found multiple times here. To the point that I started to worry that this series was going to start namedropping a few brand names every chapter.

• I love Heather. She is my favorite character. There, I've said it! (I'm sure exactly no one is surprised.) That said, I've got issues with Jasmine. Who the hell is she and why is she such a bitch? I would take school rivalry, or something, but over this book she's just there at the clinic specifically to be an irritant. It's just...plain.

• Maybe this is just 100% how I was taught, but taking up a lunge line by only six inches seems like an easy way to get your line caught around your hand. I...am not sure about this whole scene. Overall, however, I was pleased with most of the horsey scenes in this book.

• Sometimes, I think these books could really benefit from being cut about twenty pages. There's still a lot of extraneous details that don't need to be there, aside from random clothing description, such as getting a little too into the details of studying and how to make a warm bran mash or thin out a mane. It's not that they're bad, they're just slowing the pace of the book. Which I'm sure had a lot to do with my slow start in reading it.

• Oh, and I'm pretty sure I am a part of Team Eric. Although I've been known to jump bandwagons...

That's it! I have no idea what is next, as Riders completely failed to captivate me. I will get back to staring at it in a little bit, and I'm sure season four of Wildfire will serve as a good distraction.

Occasionally, my faith in horse books is restored. But then it's just ripped to shreds again.

Chasing Blue
Canterwood Crest #2
by Jessica Burkhart
2009

Home (Bitter) Sweet Home

Now that Sasha Silver and her horse, Charm, have proven that they're worthy competitors for the Canterwood Crest equestrian team, Sasha's psyched to get back to school...until self-proclaimed It girl, queen bee, and owner of the I'm-so-way-better-than-you-are attitude, Heather Fox, is assigned as Sasha's riding partner.

Not. Good.

And when Heather starts spending a little too much QT with Sasha's almost-boyfriend, Jacob, their partnership is put to the ultimate test.

So recently I took a bit of a break from horse books, because I thought (wrongly) that I had to be reaching my quota on bad horse books by now. How many can I realistically read before ultimately going mad? I determined that the only way I could get back into this was to wait for a good book to come along, and so I picked Jessica Burkhart's Chasing Blue to ease me back into the grind. Jessica's series started out pretty strong, so I thought if any author could ward off the super crazy OMGWHY from overwhelming me, it is Jessica Burkhart. Plus, you know, it helps that I got this book for free.

Okay! Enough about me. Let's talk about Chasing Blue. I have really high hopes for this series, even more so now that I've read the second installment, because it has shockingly enough delivered. I wanted a book that managed to create a weird antagonistic, yet sort of functional, relationship/partnership between good girl Sasha and mean girl Heather, and I got just that. Even weirder, this relationship didn't even seem forced.

Heather and Sasha are teammates at Canterwood Crest, but they're also social rivals. Mainly, they just don't get along. So when it's announced that Canterwood is going to compete in this regional show, and Heather and Sasha are forced to partner up for practice, they're forced to face honesty. This shouldn't be that big of a deal, but we're talking about a horse book here. Honesty in most horse books is horrible. If you dare speak honestly in the Thoroughbred series, you are Brad Townsend. You are not Ashleigh Griffen, and you're not one of her protégés. You're not even one of her friends. You're WRONG. So when the girls in the advanced team at Canterwood Crest are told to grade each other on a jumping exercise, and Heather is the one person who is brutally honest, and Sasha is forced to agree with her even about her own (not a perfect ten, I'll say that right now) riding...I didn't know what to do except blink at the page.

This portion of the book I loved, to be honest. Now let's talk about the boys. A big secondary plotline of this book is a Valentine's Day dance that inevitably becomes the scene for the book's climax. Sasha is still in pre-teen love with Jacob, but Jacob keeps hanging out with Heather for seemingly no reason, rocking Sasha's tween love life to the core. Then there's this other guy, Eric, who likes Sasha and is creating tension between Sasha and her friend, Callie, who also likes Eric. It is a seventh grade soap opera, guys. Granted, it's been a long time since I was twelve, so I can't begin to judge what is going on here, but know that things don't exactly come out in Sasha's favor by the end of the book.

So Chasing Blue ends by giving Sasha some things to fix in the next book. Relationships will be tested, friendships have to be mended, and basically I always respect any middle grade horse book that doesn't try to tack on a happy ending in the last chapter of an angst-filled drama fest. Maybe this is just my experience with Thoroughbred talking. Maybe this is just a good book.

• I was a tad suspicious of the amazing level of awesome that involved the placements of the Canterwood Crest girls in their show. I liked that they really pushed themselves and practiced and were rewarded accordingly, but it seemed a little "whoa, that's an astonishing level of good."

• At the end, Sasha and Eric are outside in the rain in February in Connecticut. Not only this, but Eric is failing to wear a coat. He had best get his butt indoors because Connecticut in February is on average FREEZING. Living in Pittsburgh, where it it still basically winter, this makes me shudder just thinking about it.

• Congratulations, Jessica! I liked the action sequences this time through. I followed, and I paid attention, mainly because Sasha's narration keeps it snappy so you're not bogged down too much with the repetition of "and then this jump and then that jump" which makes me want to tear out my hair.

• Also, this just generally wins: Who falls asleep in a STALL?! Exactly, Sasha. Who indeed.

Okay, with my faith restored in the existence of good horse books, I will now continue with the regularly scheduled program of wincing and/or crying. I have the next book in Running Horse Ridge, and I suppose this now means I have to read it.

Take the Reins: calling to the horse lover in every tween fashionita's soul.

Take the Reins
Canterwood Crest #1
by Jessica Burkhart
2009

A few months ago I had a weird urge to find something akin to Gossip Girl meets Thoroughbred, and if this book was aimed toward young adults instead of middle grade readers, this would have been it.

Okay, here's the synopsis, because two previous posts including the exact same synopsis is not enough:

When Sasha Silver and her horse, Charm, arrive on the campus of the elite Canterwood Crest Academy, Sasha knows that she's in trouble. She's not exactly welcomed with open arms. One group of girls in particular is used to being the best, the brightest, and the prettiest on the team, and when Sasha shows her skills in the arena, the girls' claws come out.

Sasha is determined to prove that she belongs at Canterwood. Will she rise to the occasion and make the advanced riding team by the end of her first semester? Or will the pressure send Sasha packing?

In a lot of ways, this book reminds me of The It Girl, the spin-off of Gossip Girl. Only it's not a product placement machine, because I'm pretty sure the goal of The It Girl is to make every girl who can't afford Manolo Blahniks by the time she's 15 feel ratty and poor. Canterwood Crest has one foot in this socially upscale boarding school world, and one foot planted in a horse stall. This series is the flighty, catty social structure of rich teens slamming into what's supposed to be the responsible and sentimental background of horse ownership. You'd think some serious issues would pop up because of this, but lucky for us horses and the social elite are well-versed in each other.

Sasha is the new girl at Canterwood Crest, recently plucked out of her public middle school because her local riding instructor determined that she had little else to teach her. Luckily for Sasha, Canterwood Crest is also rigorous academically, otherwise I'd think that her parents are easily led and all she wants to do with herself is ride. Sasha immediately starts off on the bad foot, letting her spooking horse (Charm, who I keep mentally picturing as a gray when he is actually chestnut, and I think I have the racehorse Silver Charm to blame for this) get away from her and cause an accident with Heather, the resident antagonist. Because of this mishap, Sasha has more or less painted a target on her back, and Heather is shooting for her big time. Matters are not helped when Heather finds out that Sasha is a fairly accomplished rider, and she feels threatened when Sasha makes the intermediate team with most of the other characters in the book.

Thus starts the pranks. Heather is sort of intense about being a bitch, and these pranks go from fake accidents to switching stalls to sabotage to mind games. All you need to know about how intense Heather is occurs when Sasha walks into Charm's stall and finds her friend Callie hunched in the corner of the stall whispering about how Sasha should really look after her tack. Because I guess Heather has a history with tack sabotage. Sasha has a lot on her hands here in terms of a girl antagonist, but now we will focus on Zac Efron.

There is a boy in this book, because you have to remember that this series is a hybrid. Our Thoroughbred characters never gave boys the time of day because they literally had no room in their brains to ponder anything other than horses. For books like The It Girl, there is nothing but boys, competition over boys, and family dysfunction that usually occurs because of a boy. For Canterwood Crest, there is room for both boys and horses. This might sound shocking, but dear Sasha is probably the most normal twelve-year-old, horse obsessed rich girl I've ever read about. She watches tv, she comprehends wearing clothes that are not ready made for barn work, and she gets the basic concept of a crush. And she has a thing for Zac Efron, so when a Zac Efron look alike comes bounding along she's stumbling all over herself. They have a film class together, and by the joy of arranged seats they get to know each other in a youthfully bashful sort of way.

The book reaches its climax with two events: a winter dance (wherein the Zac Efron look alike dances with Sasha) and the test for the advanced team. The results are the most predictable thing about the book; I don't need to repeat them here because if you've read a horse book you know what happens. However, the results for the seventh grade advanced team are a means to setting up the rest of the series. Catty girls have to mix with the responsible girls to become teammates...not friends. I'm actually more interested in the rest of the series than I ultimately was with this book because I think the concept of nice girl and the antagonist girl having to work together to produce a good team result hasn't exactly been done before (at least successfully) in a middle grade horse book. Typically, the two characters are always pitted against each other in a tired recycled plotline that leads up to a final show, and I have a hope that this will be a breath of fresh air in that if they're ultimately encouraged to act as a team then they'll focus their pissy relationship outside of the ring, which has to be more engaging at this point.

• I've said it before about first time authors: expect craziness. This book was low on the crazy factor, in that there wasn't any definite plot point that felt sticky to me. However, there did seem to be an unnecessary amount of scenes. Such as the section when Paige's mom goes on and on about rearranging their dorm furniture, culminating in the decision to move their beds five inches to allow more space. It's like...well, yeah. You could press the beds right against the wall, but then why are we talking about this? What's the point? That was my main question for a few areas of the book.

• A lack of pertinent description is probably my big question mark throughout. Much of the description is done well, but then when it comes down to action I'm left feeling little to nothing, leading me ultimately to rereading a scene to figure out what the hell just happened. Consider: before the lone horse show in the book, Sasha finds the groom holding Charm, who is not moving. Sasha has a little moment of panic about this when I was wondering what her deal was. Groom holding horse, horse not moving. Is the horse on the ground? What is going on? Lots of horses just stand there, so when Sasha runs up in a panic about things after a description of Charm standing still...I'm totally lost. As it turns out, Charm's mane was chewed up and his braids were ruined, resulting in Sasha simply buzzing his mane off in a rush. And that was it.

• I like Sasha. She doesn't come off as totally superior to Heather in all ways imaginable, which is one of my big problems with horse books in general. Heather is given reasons to act the way she does, and while those reasons are slightly predictable, at least there are reasons. In terms of riding, they feel fairly equal to me on that front, which is another plus.

• Equal character development. Most of the time, I always feel like horse books focus too much on the one main character and the horse. Jessica spends time giving character to Callie, Paige, and even the dorm adviser. I really appreciated this.

• A few typos. Nothing hugely problematic, but noticeable.

Okay, to sum up: I liked it. I guess that's obvious when I don't post a full recap. As a horse book, it's better than a good portion of middle grade books out there. As a cliquey Gossip Girl sort of book, that isn't my area of expertise. The only thing I can say there is that it thankfully did not try to sell Manolo Blahniks to seventh graders.

That said, I'll be looking out for the next one.

Talking about horse books with Jessica Burkhart.

Today I'm talking to Jessica Burkhart, the brand new author of Canterwood Crest. The first book in the series, Take the Reins, is available now.

Time for a quick synopsis!

When Sasha Silver and her horse, Charm, arrive on the campus of the elite Canterwood Crest Academy, Sasha knows that she's in trouble. She's not exactly welcomed with open arms. One group of girls in particular is used to being the best, the brightest, and the prettiest on the team, and when Sasha shows her skills in the arena, the girls' claws come out.

Sasha is determined to prove that she belongs at Canterwood. Will she rise to the occasion and make the advanced riding team by the end of her first semester? Or will the pressure send Sasha packing?

Okay, to the interview:

You've been an equestrian, but unfortunately had to stop riding. What motivated you to finally start writing about horses?

I’d been an equestrian for most of my life, but had a spinal fusion at thirteen for severe scoliosis. After surgery, I avoided horses for six years. I missed my old life with horses! I was always the horse girl and I’d lost that. I needed something to keep me busy, so I started freelancing for magazines. I wrote about everything but horses.

When I was nineteen, I heard about NaNoWriMo and wanted to try it. Great, but I had no ideas. Then, the idea for Canterwood hit. I was so scared to jump back into the horse world, but I went for it. As I started writing Canterwood, I fell right back into the groove of things. All of my equine knowledge was still there from the parts of the saddle to how to do a half halt. Writing about horses gave me back my passion and I’ll never go back to ignoring horses.


There are many, many horse books in the middle grade market. How does Canterwood Crest contribute in terms of fresh ideas?

Canterwood Crest is different because, to some extent, it takes the edge of The Clique novels and mixes it with the horse-centered world of The Saddle Club. Canterwood Crest isn’t just a horse series—it has other elements such as boys and friendship that will hopefully draw tween readers. I try to keep a balance so girls who didn’t like horses would still find the series enjoyable and entertaining.


Has any particular horse book or series influenced Canterwood Crest?

The passion that Ashleigh (from the Thoroughbred series) has for horses definitely influenced me. I put a bit of that in Sasha, my main character. Whenever I reread the Thoroughbred series, especially the early books, I love Ashleigh’s relationship with Wonder, Pride, Fleet Goddess and her other horses. I never wanted Sasha to use a horse as a prop or for riding to come off as an activity that only rich kids did on a weekend. Like Ashleigh, Sasha’s totally horse crazy and she’d do anything for her horse.


Your first attempt at writing a novel-length draft occurred during NaNoWriMo. What were your greatest challenges during that month?

The first challenge was the shock of keeping up with the frantic pace of NaNo. Now, it’s no big deal, but for a first timer it was SO hard. I was sure many times during that month that I wouldn’t make it, but I just kept going.

The other challenge was the carpal tunnel in my right hand that decided to present itself during the second week of NaNo. I’d never had problems with it before, so I didn’t know how to treat it.


Do you have any plans to go the YA route with a horse book in the future?

Actually, I wrote a draft of a YA horse book a couple of summers ago. It’s shelved for now, but it might be something to revisit in the future. Writing an adult horse book (something like Sara Gruen’s Riding Lessons and Flying Changes) would be great, too.


Lastly, what is your absolute favorite horse book ever and why?

My absolute favorite is the fifth book in the Thoroughbred series—Ashleigh’s Dream. A teacher at school gave it to me and she wrote a note inside about how I should follow my dreams of working with horses and writing. It was the first Thoroughbred book I’d ever read and I was hooked. I’m so grateful that I was able to combine both of my loves!


My thanks to Jessica for taking the time to answer a few questions! I will definitely be dropping everything when I read Take the Reins this week. For those who don't have their own copy, it's available now at Amazon.

Links of Interest:
Canterwood Crest
Jessica Burkhart
Jessica's Blog