I find this to be a pretty interesting book. I didn't know there was such a thing as a catch rider: a person that can just show up and ride folks' horses for them, make em look good in competitions.That's all the heroine wants to be. She fourteen and she's had a rough life. Her father is dead, her mother is with a deadbeat abusive man, her uncle is a drunk, she's dirt-poor, and nobody is really looking after her. She's even driving herself around when it's illegal.
She can ride anything with four legs, it seems.
I love how this book showed us riding isn't necessarily about the best training or whatever it is fancy people's money can buy. Riding comes from practice and grit, and this heroine has a lot of that.
But I didn't really like her attitude. I get she has a rough life and I feel for her, but she's so disrespectful to everyone, always up for a fight, being mean. Even when her uncle bends over backward for her and spends tons of money getting her to NYC, she acts like an ungrateful snot. And for someone so eager to look down on others simply because they were working in the paper mill or staying in town...well, I found it odd as she isn't making much more of herself by not paying attention or even attending school half the time. What right has she to judge others? She even griped about an old horse taking up space by being alive.
I did, however, appreciate her sticking up for herself and her mother against the boyfriend and when she told off Kelly at the competition. That one had it coming.
There's also some instances where it just goes on and on about details I didn't think were relevant, such as June.
It's a look at a different world and life though and the writing style itself--first person--was well done.
Three bikes. I received this via Amazon Vine.
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