No Horse Wanted by Shannon Kennedy

RATED 4.5 STARS








The only thing that Robin Gibson wants for her sixteenth birthday is a 1968 Presidential Blue Mustang. Following their family tradition, what her parents promise her is a horse of her own, one with four legs, not four wheels. Mom competes in endurance riding, Dad does calf roping, her older brother games and her older sister loves three-day eventing, but Robin proudly says that she doesn't do horses. She'll teach her controlling family a lesson by bringing home the worst horse she can find, a starved, abused two-year-old named Twaziem.

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Robin Gibson belongs to a family of horse lovers, but the only horse she’s interested in is a 1968 Mustang in Presidential blue.  She is hoping to buck the family tradition of getting a horse on your 16^th birthday and getting the car instead.

Things don’t work out as Robin planned and her parents insist she get a horse so she picks out a pitifully undernourished and neglected horse that looks to be on his last legs.  She plans to rehabilitate Twaziem and sell him later for money towards her car.
           

Robin is a typical teen in most respects.  She is a little mouthy, a little homework shy, a little unsure about boys and a little diva-ish.  She is a good hearted soul though who loves to care for animals and find the strays homes.

I liked that Robin had chores to do at home and varied interests including cross country running.  She made friends with girls she didn’t think she’d like because of her caring heart.

Her brother, Jack, was a typical teasing older sibling and her parents were supportive without being overindulgent.  Her older sister made a brief appearance but she was mostly away at college.

Robin’s friend, Vicki, was a girl stuck in an all too familiar situation.  Her parents divorced, mom is overloaded with her job schedule and she expects Vicki to pick up the slack. I liked the way Robin stood up for her friend so she could continue her cheerleading.

Robin also ended up being friends with Olivia, another cross country teammate who started out as an adversary and with Danielle, a girl she got to know at the stables where they both trained.

Any girl who has a secret or not so secret desire to own a horse will enjoy this story.  It is a great combination of teenage life and practical information about owning a horse. I think even preteens as young as 12 would enjoy this story very much.

Even if you aren’t a horse fan, I recommend this book for the compelling story of this group of friends.
  Note:  There are some mild curse words in the story.

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Daughter of Time by Sarah Woodbury

 

 

 

RATED 4.5 STARS

 

 

 

Meg’s abusive husband is dead, leaving the young woman with a 21/2 year old daughter to raise and living at home with her mother and sister.  When she takes her little girl, Anna, for ice cream one evening, Meg’s entire world is turned on its ear.

She loses control of her car and when she wakens, she has been saved by a man on a horse wearing a chain mail shirt.

How Meg adjusts to life in the 13^th century and how she falls in love with the Prince of Wales, Llwelyn ap Gruffydd is the subject of this time travel novel.
Meg is a modern woman thrown back into a very different time from her own yet she makes remarkable adjustments and accepts her fate.  She cares deeply for her little girl and keeps her by her side as much as possible.  When she decides to “marry” the Prince, her life becomes one of concern for her husband and strategic planning to keep the kingdom together.
Llwelyn is a very open minded 13^th century man. He is skeptical of Meg’s story of being from another time but he can’t deny the strong attraction he has for her and his growing love for the little girl, Anna.
All Princes and Kings are surrounded by a circle of men, some who are loyal and some who are false and Llwelyn is no exception.  Trying to figure out which men were going to betray him made for an intriguing part to the story. ,
The romance was straight forward and there was not a lot of sex making this story acceptable for young teens as well as adults.
My one criticism would be that there should have been a glossary of pronunciations for the cast of characters. The pronunciation guide that the author gives us is not very helpful.
All in all, I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more in the series.

 

Sarah Woodbury bio:

With two historian parents, Sarah couldn’t help but develop an interest in the past. She went on to get more than enough education herself (in anthropology) and began writing fiction when the stories in her head overflowed and demanded she let them out.  While her ancestry is Welsh, she only visited Wales for the first time while in college.  She has been in love with the country, language, and people ever since. She even convinced her husband to give all four of their children Welsh names.  She makes her home in Oregon.

 

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Divergent by Veronica Roth *Spoiler Alert*

 

  Rating 4 1/2 STARS

 

In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprise everyone, including herself.

 

 

Beatrice Prior doesn’t belong.  In her faction of society, everyone is selfless and Beatrice feels like she is missing something in this way of life.  So on her Choosing Day, she opts to become a Dauntless, the faction she has admired from her schoolyard for their bravery and freedom.

Becoming Dauntless is not a walk in the park.  As a matter of fact, it is quite the opposite.   Since there are only some openings in the Dauntless, the trainees have to fight for their places.

 Beatrice changes her name to Tris and is beat up in competitive fights with her peers, learns to use weapons and becomes strong and agile.  She is strongly attracted to Four, her trainer who runs hot and cold towards her unlike Peter, her sworn enemy who even goes so far as to try and eliminate Tris from the competition.
After facing her worst fears in a simulation, Tris is accepted into the Dauntless faction and the next morning all hell breaks loose.

 

Tris is brave and clever and smart.  She is fearless in her determination to become a Dauntless.  I liked that she kept some of the traits of her former faction and her ties to her family because of it.  I could just imagine her, a tough little thing, fighting for her place and figuring out who she really was.

Four is an enigma that any young girl would want to investigate.  He is dashing and brave and seemed totally fearless.  His relationship with Tris is intriguing from the beginning.

Her fellow trainees are believable teens and I liked the bond some of them formed through their trials during training.  I also understood the enmity that was bred with some of the other trainees since violence is such a part of their world.

I would have liked to learn more about Tris’ parents, who are both mysterious in their own ways.  I would have liked Tris to get a chance to investigate her parents’ past.

*I felt disappointed that Tris didn’t get the opportunity to really be a Dauntless for a short while.  I felt like we all got cheated when war broke out the very next morning after Tris became Dauntless.

Sometimes all the violence got to me but under the circumstances it was inevitable.  Nobody wins a war without it.

If you don’t mind the violence of war, Divergent is a good read.  You should try it.