Fifteen-year-old Thea Atwell is angry
and somewhat frightened. She knows she's responsible for the tragedy
that is ripping her family apart, but she hates the idea of being
abandoned at the Yonahlossee Riding Camp in the mountains of North
Carolina far from her beloved home in Florida.
Thea has lived a sheltered life with
her parents and twin brother, Sam, on their thousand acre citrus
plantation. Taking lessons from her father, she's never been to
school and has no girl friends. Her favorite companion is her pony
Sasi. This makes Yonahlossee particularly difficult. She has no idea
what to expect from other girls.
Thea, however, is adaptable and soon
has a best friend. She's an excellent rider and shows that she can
excel in an area important to camp status. Although she makes a place
for herself at Yonhalossee, she is homesick throughout the first half
of the novel. It is only after an illness when she realizes that her
parents won't come for her that she decides to make a way for herself
and forget her family. How well she succeeds is the second half of
the book.
I enjoyed the book, particularly the
descriptions of the riding camp. The author does a good job of
portraying a girl who loves horses and lives to ride. The thirties
were a different time when being respectable was much more important
than it is today. I thought the setting and time period were well
done.
The characters were interesting. The
girls all have individual personalities and it was fun to get to know
them and become involved in their lives. My one criticism of the book
is that the secret that seemed so terrible was used a gimmick to keep
the tension high. Personally, I figured out what had happened, if not
in all the particulars, at least in general. It was obvious from the
opening, so dragging the secret out through three hundred plus pages
got a bit wearing.
If you love horses, you'll enjoy this
book. I did.
I reviewed this book for the Amazon Vi
ne Program.
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