Review: Riding Lessons by Sara Gruen

 

Sara Gruen wrote the novel Water for Elephants which I enjoyed and reviewed a few months ago.  I thought I’d give a second of her books a chance and purchased this book on a whim, (It’s a habit I’m trying to break since I don’t always read the books I buy.*) and then read on a whim as I tried to come to terms with my feelings for Mira Grant’s Deadline.  I’ve always been a fan of novels that feature horses or horse people or horse people and horses or any mix of horses and people really. 

Riding Lessons is the story of a middle-aged woman who ran away from her equestrian past after a tragic accident.  We meet her on the day that she learns the man she ran away with is cheating on her and wants a divorce.  To make matters worse, her teenage daughter is flunking out of school, and being a major league trouble maker.  As is her history, when faced with major issues in her life our heroine flees… back home to the life she fled in the first place.

This story is filled with broken people, broken lives, and broken horses, but it is also filled with hope.  Gruen tells a tale of healing, but before her characters can heal, she first has to break them down.  She isn’t afraid to make life happen to her characters.  I respect that.  By the time the story ends, you are rooting for the characters, and hoping for their sake (and yours, since by this time you have an emotional attachment to the characters), that everything will finally turn out okay.  Because really isn’t that all that anyone can ever truly hope for in life? 

I liked this book.  It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting at the time, but it was exactly the book I needed to read at the time that I read it.  It reminded me a lot of The Horse Whisperer (the book, not the movie).  I read that book at least three times as a teenager.  Sara Gruen knows how to tell a story.  I appreciate a good story.

*In case you were wondering… In the time it took for me to write this review, I found out that Riding Lessons is the first in a series.  I also found out that the second book is out, and is called Flying Changes.  I also bought that book… on a whim.  I can’t go wrong with it, right?  This habit will be the death of me.  I won’t have to go to rehab for a gambling/drinking/drug problem.  It' will be because I can’t stop buying books.