Love triangles, Thoroughbred style! or TB #33, Racing Parker

Racing Parker
Thoroughbred #33
by Dale Gasque
Published: 1999

I don't know if I can shed much more light on Racing Parker, given that Claire did just a wonderful job the first time around. But I will try to point out a few more things in this book. And yeah, they might be totally Brad Townsend related. I'm not apologetic about this. Obviously.


These covers just don't get better, do they? This is a scene from the book, but it's taken completely out of context and makes Christina look like the wild one as Parker is left looking at her like she's lost it or something. Also, don't they both look remarkably pink?

A Reckless Decision

Christina Reese is confident that her horse, Sterling, is ready for higher jumps. But Christina's trainer, Mona, won't let her move up to training level. Christina feels as if she and Sterling are being held back unfairly.

Then Christina meets Parker Townsend. If he can handle training level, then why can't she? Maybe Christina lacks experience, but Sterling has talent to spare. They're a perfect match! How far will Christina go to prove she's as good as Parker?

I've been reading Brideshead Revisited this week, unaware until I opened up Blogger that Racing Parker is the perfect Thoroughbred companion to Evelyn Waugh. Can't you just imagine Parker graduating from his English private school, going to Oxford, and then eating strawberries and consuming champagne while smoking Turkish cigars with other wealthy Oxfordites (who may, or may not, be obsessed with stuffed animals) before running off and sleeping with those wealthy Oxfordite's dysfunctional sisters? Yes, I think you can. Or maybe it's just me.

Well, anyway. Racing Parker is the Brad/Mike/Ashleigh love triangle that never happened. Usually I absolutely hate love triangles because most of the time the main couple is obvious and the third party is just a seductive smile and a crooked finger that lures one of them into unfaithfulness or something and it goes absolutely nowhere. Jean/Logan/Scott from X-Men, Bella/Jacob/Edward from Twilight, Marian/Guy/Robin from Robin Hood...I mean, honestly. What is so enticing about this besides the fact that I am always...always...rooting for the love triangle to break up the established pair? When does this ever happen? Never, that's when. Lucky me, Thoroughbred is here to answer my cry for mercy on my little shipper heart. Unfortunately it decided to do this about 29 books too late with a different set of characters completely. Damn it.

Racing Parker was big news when it came on the scene back in 1999. Samantha and Tor reappeared, Mona is (apparently?) marginalized (finally), and Parker (previously Ross, which makes more sense in a Townsend way given the fact that almost every person I've ever met who has a trust fund is named after their mother's maiden name...it's like an illness) and Brad and Lavinia and Clay Townsend. It's like a giant family reunion where everyone squabbles at each other before some misfortune lands everyone in a hospital. So given all the returning characters, it's got to be good. Dale Gasque sort of lives up to expectations.

However, the book opens up again with Christina being all petulant about how she knows Sterling. Sterling is talented. No one understands Sterling like she does. Blah blah blah. Mona wants to keep her at novice for a while longer. The world ends. Blah blah blah. Then Parker comes onto the scene, and I've got to say I really liked Parker, which is unfortunate because I never really paid attention to him previously. He is definitely Brad Townsend's son in this book. Or, well, he's the son of Brad Townsend when Brad's busy being awesome.

Because Samantha is back in Kentucky and I guess living at Tor's old stable that now actually has a name, she's busy buying horses while Tor is busy being mysteriously absent. I do not trust that man, and I have a feeling most of the other writers don't either considering how often he's not around. At this auction, we meet Foxglove, Clay and Parker. Clay buys Foxglove for Parker, trying to get him preoccupied with something so he won't get bored and accidentally get himself kicked out of another private school again. Parker is appreciative, but considering he goes and rides a motorcycle through his school later on I don't think he's being very serious about this promise. That said, because he is just about as dashing as a fourteen-year-old boy fresh from England can be, Christina immediately starts blushing and goes tongue tied in his presence. Parker, with his dark hair and gray eyes, is just too much for her to resist.

But resist she does! Christina likes Dylan, despite still maintaining some sort of silly friend policy with him, easily allowing herself to slip away without feeling too remarkably guilty later. Despite her repeated assurances to herself that she likes Dylan, Parker keeps slipping in to whisper in her ear to the point that you have to remind yourself that Christina is twelve. Do that enough and this book starts feeling remarkably weird. Anyway, Parker has a horse now and he rides that horse like he was born to do it, and Christina is further smitten. Then Parker's asshole and devilish riding starts turning her on, so you know it's only a matter of time. Parker is succeeding fantastically in his seducer role without even having to try all that hard. Big bonus points for Parker.

Dylan, meanwhile, is losing to Parker in just about everything. During the hunt picnic, Parker beats him in their race thing. At the hunt ball, Parker gains most of the attention and cuts in on a dance between Dylan and Christina, winning himself a riding partner in Christina at some paired jumping thingamajig because Christina is too busy being flustered at falling into him to really think about what she's saying. Dylan is not thrilled about this development, but he's got to go to Ohio for a wedding and this leaves Christina free to jump with Parker at their event whatever it's called. Because Parker is reckless (which is probably why he's so blatantly winning Christina over), his attitude starts to rub off on Christina. Christina, who tends to let this crap happen to her far too much, takes after his example and starts to push Sterling again. The thing is, however, that Sterling is relishing the challenge. Perhaps Mona has been wrong all this time! (Which, at this point, is not remarkable.) Therefore at the upcoming event, Christina goes back on her form and puts herself into training level instead of novice. Everyone reacts with displeasure, but Christina sticks to her decision, blatantly uses her mother's past with Wonder in efforts to get what she wants, and succeeds.

Only then Parker has to go be reckless some more and wrecks into a cross country jump, bringing everything back to reality for Christina, who realizes how stupid she was being. Parker goes off to the hospital, Christina discovers how depressed and crazed for attention Parker is, and then confronts the Townsends about it. They react by deciding not to ship Parker off to another private school and Parker is determined to not be an asshat anymore by doing the right thing by Foxy, who is now going to live at Samantha's place while Parker heals up and works around the barn. The book ends with Dylan still in a tentative lead for Christina's twelve-year-old heart because he's been such a good guy, according to Christina. However, considering Christina finds him about as stimulating as an old stuffed animal, I doubt that's going to last long.

Points (which, yes, have mostly to do with Brad):

• Gasque helpfully informs us, through Dylan, that Samantha wouldn't want to be around racehorses as her mother died because of one. Not like this fact EVER STOPPED HER IN PRE-GASQUE HISTORY or anything.

• He seemed too self-assured to be one of the Townsend Acres grooms. ...what? Are all grooms naturally self-conscious or is this something Brad Townsend drills into them upon signing their W-4?

• Brad Townsend was one of those trainers that looked like he'd never gotten his hands dirty. Okay, I have several issues with this statement: 1) if it looks like he's never gotten his hands dirty, it's probably because he's mainly an owner. 2) Just because he's clean we're supposed to dislike him? 3) Since when is Brad clean, anyway? He was always out on horseback before Gasque had to go Handi Wipe him to death.

• He was one of Ashleigh's least liked people in the racing world. Yeah, but only in the racing world. Excuse me while I giggle at this.

• "I don't know why he's always felt so competitive with Ashleigh." Oh, please. I've got a ton of valid theories, along with the ones that involve him secretly lusting after her and hating her for it, so I think Gasque could have gone out on a limb instead of doing the literary equivalent of a helpless shrug.

• Brad had almost messed up Wonder's chances of winning the Kentucky Derby by overracing her in the weeks leading up to it. Uh, she ran three times before the Kentucky Derby. In the course of four months. I don't think it gets more normal than that.

• I have waited so many books for Brad's return and his first line in this book is "That's the way, kid!" as he pumps his fist in the air. I so disagree with this line. Blah.

• Parker is exciting and funny, but Dylan is as comfortable to be with as Rags. Christina's turmoil over the boys reaches a critical point. For all those not in the know, Rags is a stuffed animal. I don't know about anyone else, but I think when you're comparing a potential love interest to a stuffed animal, your mind has pretty much made itself up.

• Dale Gasque is a little too obsessed with adam's apples. I mean, I'm as appreciative of male-specific human anatomy as the next...person who's interested in those things...but come on. Plus, considering adam's apples pretty much only develop during puberty, these are some freakishly fast developing kids.

• One thing I love about this book is Lavinia's character. I always thought Joanna Campbell had it totally wrong when she had Lavinia exercising racehorses. I just didn't see that as even remotely plausible considering who Lavinia was. In fact, I'm dead positive it was just another way to pin unfortunate accidents on the Townsends and Lavinia was the most convenient way for those accidents to happen. Gasque makes it known that Lavinia has no respect for anyone in the lower levels of racing, including exercise riders, which I think is far more realistic in regards to how much of a bitch Lavinia is.

• That said, I don't like how she handled Brad and Mr. Townsend. It's like the two have completely reversed roles. Brad was always the one that led Clay around by the nose, with extremely brief moments of lucidity shown on Clay's part. Brad actually acting like a shamed kid at the age of 38 or something is just not right. Clay Townsend acting like he actually cares about anything besides his work...just not right.

• "What charm school did she flunk out of?" Precisely, Melanie. Lavinia really was perfect this time around.

So yeah, you know, I need to put an end note here or something. On the Track is next and then I think I'll finish up the crazy/insane adventures we have come to know as Bonnie and Julie's canine-ridden journey through horse racing scandal heaven.

In which Thoroughbred returns to racing, and seems to enjoy random violence.

Cassidy's Secret
by Allison Estes
Thoroughbred #32
Published: 1999

Man, this book is something else. Really, I had no idea all those horrible, completely absurd fan fics over at whitebrookfarm.com actually could be considered based on canon. How wrong I was.

God, I was so right. The most we see of snow in Cassidy's Secret is a really mundane conversation about how it might be a mild winter considering they're currently experiencing an Indian summer. Where this snowy cover comes from...anyone's guess. Actually, I don't understand how this cover applies to anything in the book at all. The girl...clearly Cassidy. The guy...who knows? The horses? Who knows. The western saddles? Who knows? It's essentially one big what the hell?

Will Cassidy tell the truth, even if it means losing her horse?

Cassidy Smith is worried. Her filly, Lady T, is running against a champion racehorse, Pizzazz. Cassidy's family needs the prize money desperately. Without it, they can't afford to keep Lady T.

Then Cassidy discovers that Pizzazz has been injured -- and his owner is planning to run him anyway. If Pizzazz runs on his bad leg, he could be ruined forever! Cassidy knows she should tell her dad to stop the race. But then the Smith's won't win the money they need -- and they'll have to sell Lady T for sure. How can Cassidy protect Pizzazz without losing her beloved filly?

Wow, where do I begin? I have so many questions, first of all. Like, the editors are now forcing racing back into the fold, but instead of taking the obvious path with Melanie they decide to shuffle off this task onto Cassidy. What kind of crazy sense does that make? On top of that, who the hell really cares about Cassidy? I certainly don't care. That said, Cassidy's got a lot of issues. Let me show you them.

First of all, her dad sucks. We've got to slam some backstory into this book to make all of this even remotely plausible, so Cassidy takes care of that in the first few chapters. Essentially, she moved to Kentucky because her father's owners (her dad used to be a wildly successful thoroughbred trainer, and the Kentucky Derby was name dropped a few times, so we know it's an unrealistic sort of successful) went crazy and killed their own horses. I don't remember why, exactly, but they wanted ultimately to claim the insurance and tried to burn down Cassidy's father's stables. Let me tell you now how stupid this evil plot is: a) it was a localized fire right where the targeted horses were, b) the fire didn't even do any damage and c) the owners poisoned the horses also just in case that fire thing didn't turn out. So, they didn't get their insurance money anyway and Cassidy's dad wound up slapped with a six month suspension because someone has to take blame. And the thing is, this isn't even the stupidest plot in this book. No, it gets better.

So, Cassidy is all with the inner turmoil over having to tell her friends this, especially when she has to add on the fact that her parents are now in a financial crisis. Hey, you know, perhaps they shouldn't have moved from Miami in the first place. You know? But this is further improbable considering they own this Lady T horse and he was a wildly successful trainer, so six months shouldn't matter unless they are the stupidest people on earth. Apparently they are extremely stupid, and they also moved on top of it. So they're stupid.

Anyway, Cassidy tells everyone that Lady T is running in the Ruffian Handicap and she wants to see the race live, so they all go to Whitebrook to watch the race. Lady T wins, but the purse is so teeny tiny it doesn't mean much (like, what?). Ashleigh takes some time out to tell them all this absolutely ridiculous story about when she and Brad went to Gulfstream together. (I am envisioning so many fan fic plots for this already that I will tell you now my mind went a little wild...it was good times.) Apparently he only got stalls for his horses, because he likes to see Ashleigh suffer and cry, and so Ashleigh cried and felt sorry for herself until Cassidy's dad showed up and let her use some of his stalls. Seriously, Ashleigh, grow a backbone already. All she had to do was go throw her weight around with admin...it's not like they would have refused her space, for Christ's sake. So, anyway, thus we are reminded how awesome Brad is and I guess Cassidy's dad is great because he's another one of those types that helps without being asked. God, they are so annoying. Then Ashleigh up and goes to the barn for a second...ooh, mysterious. She comes back after Cassidy tells everyone her sob story about how she's really poor and no one really believes her. That's good because I don't either. She's got two classy eventers, competes in these high class shows, and she's not rich? Then Ashleigh comes back with the sudden information that Lady T is coming to Whitebrook (yeah, no kidding) and so is Pizzazz (some other apparently important horse) and they're going to have a match race at Keeneland!

Sigh.

SO. Lady T and Pizzazz are at Whitebrook and Cassidy is all super obsessed with this. Also, apparently Lady T needs her very own armed PI/security official at all times. And I guess so does Pizzazz. I don't know where Allison gets this, but all of a sudden everyone's walking around with guns, and I appreciate this plot point just because it's so damn funny. Charlie is the guy that's guarding Lady T, and he strikes up some conversation with the kids and I guess this means he's the good guy. Pizzazz's owners are then, of course, bad guys. You know this immediately once the guns are brought into it. As it happens, Cassidy sees Pizzazz stumble in a work and after about an eternity of wondering why he stumbled (Cassidy, horses stumble every day...get over it) she starts sneaking around the barns and hears the horse's owners try to talk a vet into drugging the horse so he can run. The vet refuses. Cassidy is suspicious. Cassidy is suspicious some more. She enlists Christina and Melanie to help her figure out how to prove that Pizzazz is on something, and this results in some hilarity involving Cassidy sneaking into the horse's stall to poke at his legs. I am really not kidding. She discovers that Pizzazz's right knee is more or less dead to the world and decides to ring the alarm bells.

Only no one really cares besides Cassidy. So she eventually remembers the license plate of the vet who refused to treat Pizzazz (DRSFINE...yeah, I thought that was hilarious at first, too) and winds up calling information and actually gets this guy on the phone. He tells her Pizzazz has a bone chip and ohmigod he could die if he runs again. Or be seriously injured. Or something. Shocked and appalled, Cassidy tells her dad and he doesn't care. In fact, he wants to continue with the race because win or lose he'll still win upwards of 100 grand. Actually, he bribes her to keep quiet about it. I loved that part. Essentially: shut up or you'll lose your horses. Ha ha! Nice.

So the day of the race comes along and Cassidy, Melanie and Christina haunt the backside. They visit Pizzazz and see that he's being checked by the vet, who gives them an okay to run. But, like, how? He is totally not okay! (Like they x-ray horses before every race or something. Seriously, Cassidy, you can't tell a horse has a bone chip just by casually looking at it.) So they're wandering around and they see a groom lead Pizzazz into a trailer...and then out of it again. But, like, why? (This is all happening in the middle of the day on the backside during races, I might add.) So they start checking out the trailer and of course the evil groom catches them and pulls a gun on them and forces them inside the trailer. So, the stupidity is coming along at a rapid pace here. I guess the groom decides to lock them in the trailer and leave them there, like that won't come back and bite him on the ass or anything. Christina and Cassidy eventually shove Melanie through the skylight and she runs off for help. Charlie, the good guy with the gun, comes along and I guess he shoots the lock off and they run to take the ringer to the paddock so everyone can see that Pizzazz shouldn't run because like parading a horse that looks just like him will somehow communicate this effectively without having to say anything? Well, whatever. Charlie escorts them to the paddock, but then the evil groom and his evil friend come along and Charlie pulls his gun out and the evil groom guy goes for his gun and ohmigod Christina saves the day by throwing herself at the evil guy with the gun so Cassidy can further save the day by dragging the ringer to the paddock where everyone collectively gasps and seems to realize immediately what has happened.

Then we're treated to this movie moment between Cassidy and her dad. Reporters cluster around them, but neither speak, the situation too pressing and heavy for words, apparently, as two perfect tears drip from Cassidy's perfect eyes. Her dad continues to not speak. The movie music swells and then he says, "There will be no match race. You did the right thing, Cassidy." And then they walk off into the sunset. Cassidy has, I guess, lost everything and her family is screwed, but Pizzazz is safe because she did the Right Thing.

• You know what annoys me? When people have more than one child and then grace them with names starting with the same letter. Cassidy has two brothers: Carter and Campbell. It's like their mother always wanted a set of living dolls when she grew up.

• We've got some changes to report: Cassidy's horse, Wellington, went from gray to chestnut, and Ashleigh's hair suddenly became curly. I'm having flashbacks of the poodle hair Caroline inflicted upon her back during Wonder's Promise. Those weren't good times.

• Brad is mentioned specifically for the first time in ages. I don't even care that his name is brought up in the midst of some completely random and totally incomprehensible story Ashleigh's telling Cassidy about her stupid father...Brad is mentioned! And he's busy being a self-centered jerk in Ashleigh's memories. Oh, sweet, sweet memories.

• Also, you know: That was back in the days when I was still in business with Clay Townsend and his son, Brad. You know, considering Ashleigh (probably? probably definitely) still owns Wonder's Pride, Townsend Princess, Honor Bright, and Mr. Wonderful plus whatever other foals Princess and Honor have produced I think that sorta kinda almost definitely means she's still in business with them. Not to even mention Wonder is still alive at this point and still needs to give us Star in all his ethereal light.

• Cassidy's stupid horse, Lady T, runs in the Ruffian Handicap. Now, I'm not going to waste my time figuring out the purse of this race in 1999, but today it's a Grade I race with a purse of $300,000. What does Allison Estes want us to believe? That it's a $20,000 race, and at most Cassidy's dad, as the horse's owner, will see about $5,000 of that money. Like I said, I don't know what was going on in 1999, but considering the race has been around since 1976 I am DAMN SURE it wasn't being run at $20,000 only nine years ago. Clearly Allison has no clue when it comes down to the money involved in Grade I races, especially considering she just made this big deal over Lady T winning the Filly Triple Crown. No clue at all. Just sayin'.

• You know...it's not the 1930s anymore. The last match race was in 2003 and it was a battle of the sexes between jockeys, so I find this whole reconstructing the Ruffian/Foolish Pleasure disaster of 1975 both in poor taste and remarkably dated.

• What is a guy with a gun doing at Whitebrook? Really.

• Apparently they are driving this Pizzazz horse from California to Whitebrook? Has the trainer of the biggest horse on the West Coast not heard of air travel?

• Exactly how long has Pizzazz been running around with a bone chip? Shouldn't this have been removed months before now?

• Wow, is everyone carrying concealed weapons in Thoroughbred these days?

• "Now what makes you think you can order me around?" Jerry said, one hand behind his back. "This," Charlie said drawing his gun. Okay, this is good, but just wait...
  

• Charlie stepped back just as Jerry lunged for him. But to Cassidy's surprise, Christina jumped forward and tackled Jerry. That's right, guys, Christina just tackled a man armed with a gun to the ground. Didn't see that coming, did you?

Needless to say, this was hilarious. I loved it for it's ridiculousness. Although, I could just be giddy because Brad is back in the next book. I've gone far too long without his awesomeness.

Yes, you too can get everything you want by moping: A Home For Melanie

A Home For Melanie
by Alice Leonhardt
Thoroughbred #31
Published: 1998

Oh my God, after long last I have finally read this book. How long did I await this book at the library, and, more importantly, why on earth was I waiting so long? Really, there's no rational explanation for this, so I'll just move on to the installment.

I hate these covers. Seriously, they're worse than those later covers that look like someone was doodling with a colored pencil set. This cover makes me think someone went to the trouble of actually producing artwork that was then handed off to some novice graphic designer who had no clue how to operate Photoshop properly so they could blur up Trib's body, superimpose someone's face on whoever is riding that horse, and then blacked out Trib's eye for reasons only known to the designer. I fail to see how this is supposed to look good. On top of all of that, let's focus for a moment on Melanie's outfit. Actually, no, scratch that. Let's focus on her jacket, shall we? What is this purple monstrosity? And, you know, it's not just the fact that it's purple. It's purple and fringed. Fringed. And it's probably suede. Purple fringed suede. I just don't think you can recover from that.

Is Melanie leaving the only place that's ever felt like home?

Melanie Graham expected Whitebrook Farm to be the most boring place in America. And she thought her cousin, Christina Reese, would be a snob.

But after an entire summer at Whitebrook, Melanie has changed her mind. Whitebrook isn't dull--it's amazing! There are so many beautiful horses, especially Trib, her favorite pony. Plus, Christina is totally cool--she's the first true friend Melanie has ever had. Now Melanie can't imagine living anywhere else.

There's just one problem: Melanie's dad wants her to return to New York City. How can she convince him to let her stay at Whitebrook--forever?

Oh, you guys, the summer that will not end is finally drawing to a close. Previously, summers used to take about three chapters of time. The early New Generation stretched this one out for eight books. The cover of this book seems to insist that it is actually fall, but we know better. It's still summer. It's the summer that will not freaking end. Although, thankfully, Cassidy's Secret seems to involve snow, so some end must be in sight for this season. Although for all I know it's probably just late September, and the cover artists were getting really sick of drawing summer greenery and began acting out.

Okay, so this book pretty much convinced me that Melanie is a masochist. Allow me to explain. Summer is drawing to a close, meaning that Christina is going to go back to school and Melanie is going to have to go back to New York. You know, where her dad lives. Realizing that she will have to leave Whitebrook Farm, Melanie writes up a list of reasons why she should stay in Kentucky in order to convince her dad that she no longer belongs in New York. Where he, her father, is. There's some talk about how Ashleigh and Mike would have to become Melanie's legal guardians if she stays, and Ashleigh urges Melanie to really think this through before she tries to convince her dad. Not that this helps. Her dad wants her back in New York because he's getting married in a week's time, and he wants to give Melanie the family she hasn't had since her mom died. All perfectly logical.

So Melanie prepares to leave Whitebrook. Everyone throws her a goodbye party, and Ashleigh gives Tribulation to Melanie under the stipulation that she'll return the pony to Whitebrook when she outgrows him. Kevin kisses Melanie, resulting in tween swooning before everyone climbs into the plane and heads off to New York for the wedding. Her dad and Susan get married and Melanie discovers that Aynslee is really annoying and her other friend, Heather, suddenly grew breasts over the summer, treating us to a very brief moment of Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret before Melanie remembers she's a Thoroughbred character and proceeds to go about her business of sulking and complaining to herself about how life isn't fair. Christina and her parents go back to Whitebrook, leaving Melanie in New York with Trib, who is not pleased with his new digs at Clarebrook at all. Melanie's none too pleased either because everyone at Clarebrook thinks she's a horse killer and are treating her like the plague. Even her old instructor, Jonathon, wants nothing to do with her. Because even minor adult characters in this series are petty jerks.

The only friend Melanie has is Bettina, a twenty-year-old German student at Columbia who's riding her horse at Clarebrook. Bettina and Melanie become trail riding partners, only on their first ride these two kids Melanie just happen to know shoot fireworks in the direction of the horses and Bettina falls off and sprains her ankle. Pissed at these two kids, Melanie calls their parents and tattles on them, setting the chain of events in motion. The two kids tell Aynslee, who falls into league with them and gets back at Melanie by drawing a mustache on Abraham Lincoln's portrait in the main hall of their school. Melanie gets blamed for this, and instead of coming out with the entire story of how the painting was defaced, Melanie stays silent and takes the blame. Aynslee is thrilled, but Melanie is in deep trouble. Her dad tells her that if she goes back to her crazy ways he'll ground her and basically send Trib back to Whitebrook.

Trib, meanwhile, continues to grow more and more depressed by his surroundings and stops eating. Melanie, as per the usual, doesn't tell anyone about this because that would mean she'd have to fess up about not being happy. Trib then has to suffer some more as Melanie slowly slips into depression with her pony. She's so bored and depressed that she takes Aynslee up on the offer of a slumber party. Which, much to my disappointment, is just a slumber party and not some attempt to rob a store or launder money or be generally annoying in an evil prepubescent way. Only Melanie does want to do something fun because she's all depressed so what do they do? Aynslee takes them to the roof of her apartment building. And they do a moon dance. And this is totally against the rules and the cops come.

...

Yeah...frankly I think that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard of, but whatever. Melanie, pissed off at Aynslee for putting her on course for a severe punishment which means Trib will be taken away, storms out of the apartment complex before the cops get her and runs all the way back home. If this was a movie, right about here we'd have a montage of the girl running down the street to music by Coldplay or something all soul searching as she discovers the answer to all her problems but can't do anything because she's a masochist. This is Melanie's life: making sure everyone is happy before thinking about herself, thereby making herself miserable but "happy" because others are happy. Some might call this unselfishness. I, clearly, do not.

So Melanie goes back to Clarebrook and discovers that Trib is totally shutting down. Horrified, she calls Bettina's vet and the vet tells her that Trib is basically depressed. Upset by this, Melanie decides that it's time to do the right thing for Trib and prepares to tell her father that Trib has to go back to Whitebrook. Only her dad comes along and is all shocked by the pony's state and immediately applies it to Melanie before she has to come clean with anything and basically tells her he's going to send her back to Whitebrook because he's been the selfish one. Or something like that. I really find the whole end unbelievable, but this is Alice Leonhardt and it's the Thoroughbred Series. Characters get everything they want at the end of every book with a quick two page conversation that's mainly one-sided, giving everything to the main character with little to no work on their part. It's brilliant and horrible all at once.

Remarkably enough, I don't really have any points of interest collected for this book. I think I'm still trying to wrap my mind around how lame the great turning point was. Climbing up onto the apartment roof at night in New York? Please. People have wedding receptions on rooftops in New York. I've climbed around on an apartment roof in New York while drinking at 2am. I am not at all impressed with this. But then again, these kids also thought tipping over trash cans and spraying people with soda is serious juvenile delinquent business. At least, that was before Melanie became a Thoroughbred character and realized that being somber and humorless was more rewarding than being a typical twelve-year-old.

Oh, here's one point:

• Cindy is mentioned for the first time since Cindy's Honor. Apparently she's been living in New York for some time and while Ashleigh and all are in New York for the wedding there's a mention of going to Belmont to visit her. Weirdly enough people actually want to see her. Why still remains a mystery.
  

So, I'm off to read Cassidy's Secret next. Apparently horse racing appears in this book? I don't really see how this is possible considering Cassidy is like the most perfect of perfect riding princesses everywhere. Naturally I cannot wait to read it.

Out of curiosity...

I've been keeping track of the searches people have done that land them on this blog since May. So now, with a full three months of statistics at my disposal, I have collected a generous helping of search phrases I deem hilarious enough to share with (more) regular readers. Now, without further ado (and I apologize because I totally accidentally deleted this post previously):

• poontang
• ashleigh fart
• balls cut off dog
• boys like to grab each other
• boys wearing tight pants
• cross dress fun
• derby still got it? (got what? huh?)
• everyone is selfish
• fucking allie, fuckingallie, fucking allie husband (seriously?)
  
• fucking father-in-law
• farm whores
• gail fucks horses
• help me save my little pony farm ugly stuff before it's too late (yeah...I don't think we helped her)
• is hunter jumper riding dangerous (were they expecting the internet to give them a yes or no answer to this?)
  
• neurotic racing
  
• rape for love
  
• riding horses rape
• samantha and tor thoroughbred divorce (who else is amused?)
  
• she liked wearing tight pants
• shit her pants and she disqualified race
• stallion bonded horse raped

Anyway, just to point this out: we have no porn here at the Whitebrook Farm Blog. Although I do admit I'm providing this list in the hope that I can always confuse more porn and tight pants enthusiasts in the future. Come on, amuse me more.

The Whitebrook Farm Blog Basics

Greetings!

The goal here is relatively simple: we read the Thoroughbred series and then scurry back to report our findings. As it happens, our focus has broadened to reading just about any book that involves horses and recapping it for our entertainment. From The Saddle Club to those completely obscure stand alone novels you've never heard about. We're also here to review television shows and movies, therefore this blog should be active forever.

Recaps tend to run from nostalgic to forthright. We're tend to post spoilers. The blog's purpose is entertainment, and the absolute last thing anyone needs is to take it 100% seriously. We're only serious a small portion of the time here as it is. Read, laugh, request a recap of your favorite horsey book, and sit back to watch the antics. It's all in good fun.


About Us:

You might wonder what makes us qualified to run this blog besides the fact that we can read, write, and operate a computer. Perhaps not astonishingly, nothing qualifies us. The fact that we can accomplish all of the previously listed things is pretty much it. That and we all have a horrible yearning to read books involving horses. Some of us might, actually, have experience with horses or some sort of knowledge picked up from somewhere, I guess. In any case, here's a breakdown of the partners in crime.


The Editor:

Mara actually remembers when A Horse Called Wonder was the only Thoroughbred book in print, because she was ten at the time, which makes her 28 now. Currently she's a librarian (and author and professional book reviewer...seriously!) residing in Pittsburgh, where children's and young adult books involving horses have absolutely nothing to do with her job. Her love for TB was briefly interrupted when she was thirteen and sold the first (and only, at that point) eleven books in the series at a garage sale. When she was sixteen she realized her tremendous mistake and bought them all back so she could read them over and over again for no reason. Mara rides fairly consistently, and focuses on dressage. Her favorite character of all horse books everywhere is Brad Townsend, and she likes to picture him as Christian Bale playing Bruce Wayne, because she just does.

What else is Mara reading? Take a look at Good Reads for more reviews and whatnot. She also reviews supernatural YA at A Novel Year.

If you've got a concern you feel needs to be addressed, Mara is the administrator of the Whitebrook Farm Blog and you can e-mail her here: wbfblog (at) gmail (dot) com

Contributors/Guest Reviewers:

Claire, who enjoys writing biographies about herself in third person in the interests of sounding official, is 24 years old and studied history at George Mason University. This is because she does not enjoy making money. She began reading the Thoroughbred Series in third grade when she purchased Wonder's Yearling from a Scholastic book order form thingy that they always used to hand out in school. She recalls reading it in the orthodontist's office and being captivated by its characters and the maturity of the writing (hey, for a book aimed at 8 to 12 year-olds, the early TB series was surprisingly mature!). This began a lifelong love affair with these books that culminated in the creation of the whitebrookfarm.com website. She of course also read every horse book she could get her grubby hands on, especially when dragged to the pool against her will every day during the summer (water terrifies her). She took riding lessons for eight years before all the barns around her closed and her instructor fell off the face of the earth. After six years away from horses, she is once again searching for a place to ride. This will surely help her point out every gaping inaccuracy in all the books she reads for this blog. Her greatest fear is that the writers she lampoons will one day find this blog and send her nasty hate mail.

Monique: I am a 25 year-old South African who discovered the Thoroughbred Series at the tender age of 8, when I thought the books were an accurate account of riding. They inspired me to ride, because if Ashleigh could jockey a horse, so could I! Sadly, my dreams were shattered when I fell off again and again…leaving me to wonder about the inherent potential the books had lead me to believe in. I did own a pony…a grumpy mare called Cisco…Wonder she was not. Despite her colouring! Not all chestnuts possess the ability to Bond with their One and Only Girl! Now, I am a full-time student, studying Nature Conservation and doing my small part to save the world from the various evils that plague it… (Yes, I mean you, Stephenie Meyer. You and your stupid vampire books!) Monique has more reviews at A Novel Year.

Elizabeth has been reading horse books since she was little. She credits her parents for starting her on The Saddle Club, because they wouldn't let her read The Baby-Sitters Club, and her grandma for starting her on Thoroughbred. In addition to writing for the Whitebrook Farm blog, Elizabeth works in a library and teaches swimming lessons for children. She has a BA from Goucher College and is currently mired in getting an MLIS from the University of Pittsburgh.

Lei remembers buying A Horse Called Wonder not long after it hit the shelves, which means she's probably dating herself here (being which, she's the oldest of the whole crew -- draw your own conclusion here, really, folks) and she's been reading the series ever since. Something of a crazy horse fanatic, Lei has had horses on the brain for longer than she can really remember. She was lucky enough to own a grand old Thoroughbred named Flair, and they were partners for 12 long years until his death at the age of 30 in June of 2007. Now, she's proud to say that she is gasp an adult who rides a pony -- a golden butterbutt of a Haflinger named Mitch, who's birthday is ironically the day before hers. This love affair with ponies has sparked her ire against the animosity towards ponies in any series where pree-teen children whine about wanting a horse and consider ponies to be the Root of All Evil (Lei admits it ... ponies are smart little bastards, but they're really not that bad.) In terms of what she plans to do with her life, she's discovered she rather likes teaching kindergarten and pre-school kids, and thus will probably get a job at a school in a computer lab or as a computer teacher or something.

Heather asked Santa for a horse every year as a kid. Now as a 24 year-old, she has two of her own and takes care of four others to earn her keep. When she's not slave to her equine charges, scooping poop, she's slave to her job at a hospice in Kokomo, IN, keeping supply inventory and maintaining medical records. Sometimes she even has time to ride! Heather's babies are: Feather, an eight year-old, chestnut quarter horse mare, and Pirate, an eighteen year-old, black and white, gaited something or other. Heather's first horsie books were The Saddle Club. She then discovered Thoroughbred and followed the series well into middle school. Going through some boxes last year she found her collection, reread them, and wondered if anyone else remembered these books. Getting online, she randomly decided to Google 'Whitebrook Farm' and the rest was history. Heather's first and foremost goal is to review all the Saddle Club TV series episodes. To her shame, this has led to an unhealthy obsession with Max Regnery. One could say that Max has become Heather's Brad Townsend. Or one could simply say she's crazy, and probably be right.

Aimee is a high school student in Nova Scotia. She wishes she could ride more often, but due to medical circumstances (it's kind of hard to get on a horse when you can hardly breathe, have a nasty headache, and/or dry heaving, isn't it?) and the condition of the roads she can't. So she likes to play horse games to get her riding fix, which isn't exactly the same but good enough. She's planning to go into computers, or to be more specific, A+ Certification. Anyways, her first horse game was Let's Ride: Silver Buckle Stables. She also likes reading the Throughbred series, although it's hard for her to find the books as there's very few in the public library. Her first Throughbred book was #5. And this is the biography of Aimee, although it's not very organized, which is basically how Aimee is until it comes to computers, then you should see her THEN!!!


And that, you know, is us.

Samantha's Journey is a long, boring road full of potholes

Samantha's Journey
Thoroughbred Super Edition
by Karen Bentley
Published: 1997

So I know what you're thinking. First off, it's probably "Where are the posts?" I totally understand and I offer two extremely weak explanations (at least, for me): Breaking Dawn happened and I had to attempt to read it and fail, and I became thoroughly obsessed with Guy/Marian from BBC's Robin Hood, which I find creepy because I've only watched three episodes, and he kinda sorta kills her in one of them. I don't know if this should indicate something to me or not...but I'm going to lean toward not being disturbed by this. Because I am drawn to somewhat-unrequited-but-not-really sexual tension above all else, it appears (and tall, dark and handsome morally ambiguous men, but we already knew that). And yes, this means I've been reading fan fic...which I haven't done for a while so don't judge me.

And now, back to the task at hand.


Yeah, I decided I didn't quite get enough of Karen Bentley. Actually, no, that's not true. I was going to read A Home For Melanie, but then this book came along and then I got all sidetracked with Mr. Tall Dark and Handsome Who Isn't Brad Townsend and wow...that was a long journey. Anyway, so here we are. Another super edition I haven't read. It's not a horrible cover, except for the fact that I'm pretty sure that is a denim shirt. Thankfully there is no denim jacket to complete this outfit of evil. Plus, who rides their horse to a cemetery these days? Whatever. The horse, at least, looks good.

Haunted by the past...

Samantha McLean has a terrible scare when she sees Cindy, her adoptive sister, fall over Whitebrook's track rail during a workout. Cindy's accident is frighteningly similar to the one that caused Samantha's mother's death years earlier.

Cindy's accident brings forth a flood of troubling memories for Samantha. She begins reliving the traumatic years which followed her mother's death - a difficult time when she and her father, Ian McLean, traveled aimlessly across the country in search of a place where they could rebuild their lives. Will Samantha rediscover happiness at Whitebrook Farm? Or will she be tormented forever by the tragedies of her past?

Isn't it weird how a supposedly healed trauma just up and becomes an unforeseen issue resulting in a super edition? Also, what is up with the blue, red and pink color scheme of this book? It is horrible. Red text on a pink background is not acceptable. Even in 1997.

The prologue starts out in Whitebrookland, where the squirrels and the birds sing merry songs and Samantha dances around in her amazing storybook forest that smells like rhododendrons and violets. All she's missing is a poofy pink dress and a speaking unicorn with a rainbow-colored horn. Why is it such a great day? Well, it's not because she's found her true love or anything. No, Samantha is an independent female and is thrilled because she's just been offered the formal job title of assistant trainer at Whitebrook Farm. Call me unenthused if you will, but I kinda sorta already thought that was what she was doing. Nevertheless, Samantha's off hugging herself when Tor comes along to turn her independent womanhood into domestic subservience and asks her to marry him. Wow, things just could not get better!

Completely knocked over that her life is now more thrilling than it was previously, Samantha hauls Tor down to the training oval so they can share the news. Only then Cindy has to go fall off of Honor and Samantha has to have a flashback and run away. Like the suddenly irresponsible and delicate girl she never really was but now kind of is. Cindy may or may not be dead (that Samantha knows about...I mean, she runs off to the broodmare barn...who does that?) and that means that Samantha's life will never be fun and thrilling and full of love ever again. What does she do about this? She cries in the barn. Yeah, shocking. Didn't see that coming at all.

Now we're required to jump back in time to when Samantha was twelve and her life was super freaking fantastic. Her mom, Suzanne, is awesome. Her dad, Ian, is supposedly awesome but Samantha isn't really too sure because she spends every waking moment with her mom. And you know who else is awesome? Gulfstream Waves...the horse with horrible luck in names. Gulfstream Waves is a former claimer turned stakes horse, which means he is now more loved than any other horse in the barn. Except for Miracle Worker, who is a claimer and is loved by Samantha despite this horrible fact. Gulfstream is basically Suzanne's special horse, and is going to run in the Donn and make Ian and Suzanne filthy rich and will somehow finance an entire farm that has been their dream for ages. I continue to not understand how this is possible...it's not like a $400,000 purse goes straight to the trainer and even if it did I'm pretty damn sure a farm in Florida is going to cost way more than what Ian, with his five claimers and one claimer turned possible Grade I winner, can finance realistically. Considering they live in a mobile home and all. Honestly.

Well, whatever, because Gulfstream Waves is the perfect not so perfect horse and he wins the Donn anyway, this means Samantha is so close to owning a Triple Crown winner and getting a baby sister that she can practically taste it. But then Gulfstream Waves has to go remind everyone that he was a claimer (and therefore was abused, because all claimers who are not trained by Ian McLean are abused) and he goes crazy on Suzanne and Samantha thinks she'll help out but just manages to get in the way and accidentally causes her mom to go through the rail and break her neck or something. I find it interesting that this role Samantha has in her mom's death isn't immediately dragged out into the light of day...but it isn't. Gulfstream dies, her mom dies, and Ian immediately has an apoplexy about Samantha being within five yards of a horse that may or may not go crazy at a drop of a hat.

Once Suzanne dies, Ian goes a little off the handle and I suppose that means he's no longer financially sound either because that whole farm dream goes up into smoke and before you know it they're moving to Oklahoma City. Then they move to L.A. Then to Del Mar, Long Island, Finger Lakes, and then to Townsend Acres. I could get into the actual plot, which is they keep moving and Samantha keeps having issues with trying to keep her promises to her father so she won't be shoved off to live with her grandparents, but it was too boring and recapping it would be rather pointless. Anyway, it's essentially the same thing over and over. Samantha moves, finds a horse that needs her magical help, and then she has to move again. Occasionally she has friends, occasionally she doesn't. Occasionally everyone at school thinks she's either a misunderstood brat or a scrubby track kid they can torment for fun. This all lands her at Townsend Acres after about a year of wandering around the country, where she proceeds to act like a very repressed fan girl at the sight of Ashleigh Griffen, Charlie Burke and the handsome Mike Reese. And then we have a repeat of Ashleigh's Dream while Wonder's Pride stares all knowingly at Samantha. Because, as we all know, Wonder's Pride is not only perfect, he can see into the future.

Skipping back into our current time, Tor finds Samantha in the stall and convinces her that all is well and requests a kiss. Samantha complies. Fans of Thoroughbred groan and roll their eyes.

• "I'll train so many different types of horses," Samantha murmured. Oh, really, Sammy? As a thoroughbred racehorse assistant trainer these different "types" would be what, exactly?

• "Finding the next Kentucky Derby winner in an overlooked colt will be my specialty!" Just kill me with a blunt spoon now, so I can savor the pain.

• Do you know, just in general, how lame Tor's proposal is? In short: "I have news!" "Well, so do I!" "Great, you tell me your fantastic news first!" "No, I insist! You tell me your fantastical news!" "Okay! Why don't you marry me!" (This is news?) "Why, gosh, let me debate for a second if this is a dream...wait, I think I am in fact not dreaming! But wait, I need to hesitate for about ten seconds so I can give my future husband a heart attack. (...) Yes, I will marry you because you are blond and like horses, which is of the utmost importance!" "Yay! Let us carry the news to the rest of our equally perfect co-workers and friends and general townsfolk!" Yay! What is THAT?

• Wow, just how fast did that ambulance arrive?

• Even though the four-year-old colt was a claimer -- a horse who ran in the bottom ranks of racing -- Samantha wasn't taking any chances on having him run away with her. This sentence suggests that not only do claimers tend to not "run out" as much as stakes horses, but that people don't really care if and when they do go berserk on anyone.

• Samantha knew that with her red hair and green eyes, she looked like her mother. Oh yeah? That's fascinating, Samantha. Please, tell us when you first "knew" about this ever so important fact?

• Galloping ahead, Samantha saw her mother... This suggests that Samantha is galloping ahead of her mother when it's the other way around. Is it so difficult to expect an editor to be able to write, or is this asking too much?

• Miracle wasn't in Gulfstream's class as a racehorse, but Samantha loved him anyway. This sentence speaks volumes of the Thoroughbred mindset, I think. That, and apparently it's much easier to love stakes horses.

• "Gulfstream's really wired." I think at this point Karen Bentley must have had a race scene outline pinned above her head in her office, and this line was required for all pre-race dialogue.

• I have a feeling even the most dense of traumatized twelve-year-olds would be able to recognize a dead body when they run right up to one and stare at it. Also..."Samantha, your mother is dead." Look, Ian, I love your blunt informative sentences most of the time, but that was poorly done.

• Samantha's never seen a mockingbird at age twelve? What is she? Blind?

• Random fact about Ian: He can drive for twenty hours straight. By himself. He is a man of steel.

• I'm torn between finding Samantha clutching her mother's boot either sweet or remarkably silly. At least, when she starts talking to this single boot...it is remarkably silly. Good job, Bentley. Good job.

• She realized she'd expected the Remington track to be second-rate after Gulfstream. Yeah, unfortunately, you know, it is second-rate after Gulfstream.

• So Samantha is shunned by the kids at her new school because she's wearing rancher clothing, or something to that effect. Just to be clear, she lives in OKLAHOMA CITY which is located in OKLAHOMA where it is FILLED WITH DUST and RANCHES. Where did she live previously? Miami. Are we supposed to believe that Oklahoma City has something on Miami in terms of fashion that we're not aware of? This feels like some sort of fashion Twilight Zone.

• Anyone notice how all of the main horses in this book win? Anyone?

• At the end, after Samantha visits her mom's grave, we get this weird discussion with her dad about how she's always blamed herself for getting in the way and causing Suzanne to go through the rail. And apparently Samantha was also pissed at Gulfstream for this? What? Wow, did none of that ever come up previously. Nicely done, Karen. It wouldn't be a Bentley book if the characters didn't suddenly state that they're over their inner turmoil over something no one was all that aware they were angsting over to begin with.

One thing that strikes me about this book is how it's basically the same chapter over and over and over again. Samantha moves. Samantha whines to herself. Samantha finds a horse she can secretly cherish. Samantha moves again. There was other stuff in there, but mainly I was bored by the amazing rate of repetition and am therefore going to ignore this book and move on to A Home For Melanie. Finally.

(Want more? Claire's review is here.)

What do horses and virginity have in common? Nothing.

Flying Changes
by Lynn Hall
Published: 1991

I swear I am going to get to A Home For Melanie soon. My library is failing me. Perhaps I will just have to skip it and move on to Cassidy's Secret, which just sits with all the other books, looking all enticing with its horrible cover. Yet, I am inclined to read them in order. Why do I have this horrible inability to skip books? It's not like I can't backtrack, for Christ's sake.

Well, in the meantime I am going to review this.

Denny had never known life could be so complicated. She has spent most of her seventeen years living happily with Gramma B., seeing her father, Doe, during his breaks from the rodeo circuit. Then Tyler, Doe's young roping partner, stays at the ranch for a while, leaving Denny wildly but uncertainly in love. While Denny is sorting out her feelings, she and Gram receive the disturbing news that Doe has been seriously injured in a rodeo accident, and Denny's long-absent mother, Rita, insists on rejoining the family and taking care of her "poor, crippled husband." As Denny struggles with love and loyalty, she is also attempting to ease the family's financial straits by training a star roping horse for a wealthy buyer. The much needed sale depends on the tricky flying lead change, and there is only one anxious week for the horse to learn the skill. As difficult as that may be, the sudden flying changes in Denny's own life may be even harder to master.

The book's summary is rather ho-hum, don't you think? I much prefer the School Library Journal's synopsis:

The versatile Hall presents an earthy, first-person narrative for her more mature fans. Denny, 17, thrives in an unorthodox Kansas family. Gramma B. runs the household till rodeoin' Daddy's injured and his prodigal wife (Denny's mom, Rita) returns to take her revenge. The story's theme is relationships between men and women, and how they shift from love to resentment. Denny herself is caught in the shift when she lusts after a sexy cowboy who loves her and leaves her. While coming to terms with her feelings, she busies herself with training a young horse. The horse's problem with flying lead changes gives the book its title and symbolizes the shaky foundations of love--Denny's, Gramma's, Daddy's, and Rita's.

That's the synopsis that convinced me to read this book. Prodigal wife come to wreak havoc on her "rodeoin'," yet injured, husband? Lusting after a sexy cowboy who's at the center of a love her and leave her plot? Well, I'll happily read that. It has a tortured soap opera feel to it, which is entirely off and completely not what the book is about at all. Despite that, it definitely reeled me in. I blame this on the fact that I can actually remember when Bo and Hope of Days of our Lives sailed off on Fancy Face for their round the world excursion in 1987. When I was six. Six-ish. I could have been five.

Well, anyway. Denny, who has a very unfortunate name, is from Kansas. Which I actually didn't really pick up on from the book, but there you have it. Kansas. Where it is dusty and windy and dry and monotonous. I've driven through Kansas...and that's all I've really got to say about it. Which I think is a favorable opinion, really. So, Denny is seventeen and working on this pretty little filly that just has a mental block about doing a flying lead change without stumbling all over herself and nearly falling down. Sun B-Q is her name, by Denny's father's stud, Bar B-Q. Tyler (the sexy cowboy) has a mare called Suzie B-Q (which I find adorable for some reason). I guess these are quarter horses, otherwise these names would make little sense to me. So anyway, Sunny hasn't been figuring out the flying lead change, despite nearly a month of training, and she's got an interested buyer and a price tag of $3,500...if Denny can get her to do this lead change. The buyer will be there in a week, and if the filly performs, Denny gets a nice fat check and the satisfaction of a job well done.

Denny is an extremely likable character. A HUGE change for me in the history of this blog. She's been through her loving a horse to death phase when her horse, Arrow, died of colic about a year previous, and is now officially learning the ropes of adulthood by training up these horses for her father so she can sell them for large chunks of money. Oh, and also? She sort of slept with Tyler and lost her virginity and is feeling a little conflicted because she knew it was probably a mistake that just compounds itself when Tyler starts to wave around his true colors and high tails it out of the ranch and back to the rodeo circuit so he can start earning some cash and sleep with all the dirty rodeo groupies.

This, of course, everyone saw coming. Even Denny. She first met Tyler a year and a half ago, when her father carried him into the house because he was drunk and unconscious. Nice. Only he's really pretty. Like...Shoshone/Irish/Norwegian pretty. And he somehow has dark blond hair that shades into black without the aid of dye. I don't understand that, but Tyler somehow manages it. Tyler is her dad's roping partner, and Denny sort of falls into this giant crush that goes nowhere until Suzie B-Q gets injured and Tyler wanders back to the ranch for a month to wait for the mare to heal up and try to train a new horse just in case she doesn't heal fast enough for the championship whatsitcalled or something. Her dad is still on the circuit, leaving Tyler to play with whatever he wants. Denny allows this because she's fallen in love/lust with his awesome hotness. Can't blame her, really. Only then Tyler leaves and she's all frustrated and pissed off at herself for still sort of being in love with him.

Then Denny's dad has to go break his back because he drunkenly climbed onto the bucking stalls at the rodeo in order to hang a bra from a giant clock. Denny's dad is, shall we say, an immature jackass. Only you sort of like him despite his jackassery. He goes to rodeos and sleeps with the groupies and Denny was a product of one of these unions, forcing him to marry a groupie that he was never faithful to, causing all sorts of bitterness. This is Rita. Who has been long absent. He calls up Rita, probably during the middle of a morphine-induced fog of confusion, and asks for help. So Rita shows up in Kansas, causing all sorts of turmoil with Gramma B., who moves out.

Eventually Denny's dad gets to come home from the hospital, and he's paralyzed from the waist down. Denny worries a bit about money and about how Sunny is still being as clumsy as humanly possible. Only they have this saddle store that Rita is in the midst of converting into a full out western wear shop with her little dog grooming business in the back, and is suddenly making money. So hey, who knew. These people actually can be successful, even if Rita has her heart set on sleeping with every man with a working penis just to piss off Denny's dad. Whoring yourself out is the best revenge. I guess.

Anyway, in the midst of all this are nice little discussions between Denny and her grandmother, best friend (Sue), mother, and father. There's even one talk that strikes a chord between Denny and her father's best friend, Hoyt. All which reassure Denny about who she is and help her get over Tyler, who is, yes, a complete jackass. Sexy, sure, but Brad Townsend he is not. (I mean, who possibly could be?) So, coming down to the end, Denny meets the buyer and rides Sunny for him, and Sunny seems to have ironed out all her kinks because she's feeling pretty feisty and happy that morning for her audience, and manages the flying lead change. The buyer is pleased, tries her out for himself, and leaves with a horse. Denny has her $3,500, gets to pay her father's medical expenses, and everything looks like it's going to work out. Also, Tyler? Tyler who? Nice, Denny. It's only a week later, I think you remember his last name, but your new found confidence is satisfying.

• My biggest gripe: the book takes place over one week. I just don't see this as a realistic time frame for getting over the guy you're supposedly in love with and gave your virginity to. Unless Denny is super composed, which she really isn't. She's got a lot of self-doubt raging inside of her. She's got a pretty stiff upper lip, though. Maybe it's believable, but I would have liked to see this book be a little longer and over a longer span of time.

• Denny's parents. Rita tells Denny's dad basically that she's come back to help out, although really she's just going to irritate the his pride by flirting and/or sleeping with every man she comes into contact with. There's nothing built on this except for a conversation between Gramma B. and Denny regarding how Denny's parents are basically children and will probably figure it out eventually. This wasn't too hot. I expected more.

• I loved Denny's friendship with Sue. Sue isn't into horses. In fact, she's all in love with swimming. Yet there's this nice scene where Denny informs us all about the time when Sue's cat died and then Arrow died so the two decided to do just what they did with Sue's cat and dug a giant hole to bury Arrow in, so they had blisters on their hands for two weeks. I just liked that.

• Not a huge book about horses, exactly. The horses are there, but this isn't an "ohmigosh what would I ever do without Insert Horse Name Here?!" book. Denny doesn't fall in love with Sunny. She sells Sunny. Which is fine with me.
  

Okay, so I really liked this book. It's not exactly perfect, but it's a solid young adult read. So I'm going to stop talking about it now. Good. Perhaps I'll get a Thoroughbred book reviewed next.