Where in the World Are You? contest winner!

Thanks to everyone who entered my newsletter contest. Bob in Kentucky is the winner of the $15 Amazon.com gift certificate.

I loved reading all the entries from around the country and outside our borders. G'day to my Australian readers! Special greetings to friends in British Columbia and Alaska! I know, Alaska is part of our country, but it's fun to see how far my book traveled.

Hope you'll all be on the watch for the next newsletter contest, coming sometime during the holiday season.

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Blessings,

Ann

Riding Lessons, by Sara Gruen

Riding Lessons was Sara Gruen's debut novel. I'd never heard of it, but like most readers, had definitely heard of her later book, Water for Elephants (which I loved!)

Riding Lessons is an entertaining story about a former world-class equestrian, told from her point of view twenty years after her glory days. I seem to be on a horse kick lately, as I recently reviewed Deborah Vogt's Snow Melts in Spring, which also concerned horses.

Gruen's book takes a different approach, in that it's almost a love story between Annemarie Zimmer and the horse that took her to championship status. The novel opens with a brief flashback to Annemarie's youth, then drops the reader smack in the middle of her current life with one of the best introductory chapters I’ve ever read. By the time I reached Chapter Three I was glued to the pages with horrified fascination, the way you'd watch a train wreck.

Gruen did an amazing job of writing throughout the book, although at times I felt Annemarie’s behavior was a little over the top. I'd recommend Riding Lessons, with the caveat that if you loved Water for Elephants, you probably won’t like this one as much. But for a story about a woman and horses, it’s one of the most interesting novels you’ll ever read.

A Promise for Spring, by Kim Vogel Sawyer

At its heart, A Promise for Spring is the story of two people who need to be reminded that God is not only in control, but that He is trustworthy.

Emmaline Bradford is a gently-reared Englishwoman who has waited five long years to join her fiance, Geoffrey Garrett, in Kansas. To her shock, when she finally reaches her destination she finds Kansas to be brown and barren and Geoffrey to be someone she no longer remembers. She wants to head back to England as soon as possible, but Geoffrey persuades her to wait until spring.

The details of farm life in what I imagine to be the late 1800’s (A Promise for Spring doesn’t spell out the date) are fascinating and true to life. Sawyer doesn't gloss over any of the hardships facing Emmaline. One tidbit in the book that I especially enjoyed was that one of Geoffrey's neighbors pronounces her name "Emmalion." For some reason that tickled me. As the story goes on, we see that Emmaline truly is a lion when it comes to facing down fearful situations.

Geoffrey's challenges in maintaining a sheep ranch are also well-researched and authentic. His forceful personality works for him as a rancher, but doesn’t win him Emmaline's regard at first. How they both resolve their difficulties kept me turning pages until I reached the satisfying conclusion.

Start with "Emmalion" and Geoffrey, add in two ranch hands and the above-mentioned neighbors and A Promise for Spring equals an enjoyable read. I recommend it.