Horseplay by Judy Reene Singer
Release date: 2004 / 278 pages
First line: “When you’re running away from a bad marriage, Willie Nelson is the music of choice.”
Synopsis (from back cover): When Judy Van Brunt finally decides to leave her cheating husband, she makes immediate plans to quit her teaching job, take the money she inherited from her mother, and run off, leaving a note on her husband’s pillow. There is only one problem: Where is she going? During her weekly riding lesson, her instructor makes a suggestion just crazy enough to work — and before she knows it, Judy has a position as a groom at an exclusive North Carolina horse farm.
Review:After deciding to discard a gloomy novel about grave-robbers and neglected orphans, I thought Horseplay was just what I needed! And the first half was very satisfying — a light, fluffy romance filled with strong horses and even stronger women.
Judy is very likeable and I was quite willing to suspend my disbelief that a weekend “hack” could quickly be showing at the second level of dressage, in her mid-thirties. After I decided to stop show jumping, I started training in dressage and have intimate, painful knowledge of just how hard it can be, and I love watching dressage trials at the Olympics — which does not garner high ratings simply because the riders, usually German, make something extremely difficult look so easy that most casual viewers cannot distinguish between one ride to another.
So, I was quite content to believe that Judy was able to become a decent dressage rider, even on Ivan the terrible that few others could tame. But then, about half-way through the novel, the plot just became bizarre — a murder, a strange cult in the woods at midnight, a convenient doctor — and I sighed…
Now, don’t get me wrong — I finished the novel and did not resent the time. But I was reminded of just how tricky it can be to maintain a high level of anything — whether a literary masterpiece or a fun bit of fluff.
Any other horse lovers try this one?
