I received a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.
All Heart continues the story of July Carter as she settles back I received a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.
All Heart continues the story of July Carter as she settles back into life helping her father train racing courses. Life is a bit different for July now she has a new boyfriend, an ex-racer horse of her own to turn into a dressage prodigy and now her father is a freelance trainer as well meaning a flurry of new horses to fall in love with and agonise over.
This story was almost as good as Stay the Distance and it felt so great to be back with July and Kali and laughing over Lighter’s antic. July has some good character development over this book and she really sorts some things out that were still a bit unresolved at the end of the last book. July is going through a lot of things that would be familiar to other younger readers just out of high school - she’s in an in-between place and is trying to figure out where the best place for her is. Is it remaining at the stables, going to NYU with her best friend or could it be something else.
While July figures out her future, there’s also stuff going on with Beck. I did hate seeing them go through a bit of awkwardness as I really love these two together and weirdly, it made me want to read Stay the Distance again and I think once I’m off my book buying ban in a few months, I’ll order a physical copy for myself.
July learns her lessons - in both the horse world and her personal life. She knows when she’s wrong and when to apologise or admit that she was wrong and it’s a really admirable trait in her. She learned to sit down and talk when she needed to and to take a breath and believe in herself at other times.
I’m already looking forward to another book because I can’t wait to see how Kali gets on!...more
I received this book from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Wren is left devastated when the man she is planning to marry I received this book from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Wren is left devastated when the man she is planning to marry tells her he’s fallen in love with someone else. After months trying to avoid her ex and his new girlfriend, Wren eventually takes a summer trip to Indiana to spend a few weeks with her dad and stepmother on their farm, and reconnect with her half-sister. While there, Wren befriends locals Jonas and Anders and can’t help but start to fall for Anders despite the distance he is sure to set between them. Because Anders holds onto a tragic secret, and is still grieving the loss of his wife 4 years previously, that would make a relationship with Wren impossible even as they start to fall in love.
I absolutely loved this one. I was totally hooked and I am remembering why I used to love Paige Toon so much and now I need to catch up on her back list that I’ve been missing out on. I found so many parts of Wren’s story so emotional and as a character, I really feel that I got to know her - her strengths and her vulnerabilities as well as some of her flaws - at the same time that she also takes time for some self reflection and sees the ways she acted in her past relationship that weren’t quite right.
I really enjoyed the farm setting and I loved that the main places the characters hung out tended to be on one of the farms. The friendship group that forms with Jonas, Bailey, Wren and Anders was also a really lovely one and I genuinely think that some of the enthusiasm and joy fell off the page and made me happier in turn just imagining the summer days in Indiana, the lake and movie night and all the excitement of plans still to come. It all felt every atmospheric and I really felt like we as readers were transported to the farms.
I also felt so emotional about so many aspects of Wren’s story especially her connection and reconnection with her Dad and sister. Wren’s feeling of ‘other’ in her family in America is so obvious and it’s easy to see the ways in which her past has affected her and the way she interacts with her dad and Sheryl, and I loved the small ways they all got closer and the steps that were taken by Sheryl to apologize. It was also lovely to watch Wren and Bailey form a really solid friendship and sisterhood, and be there for each other.
I also just loved the connection between Wren and Anders. It’s very slow burn, and a real friends to lovers story though it’s obvious from the start that Wren is falling much quicker, even when she doesn’t want to. I didn’t really expect Anders’ ‘secret’ and I do think it’s a very complex one that really delves deep into what love and commitment means to different people, guilt, moving on or ‘giving up’ and to the core, I think it comes down to the right to life or the right to release. I think it’s a topic that may affect some people very strongly and could be a controversial one depending on how you feel about the topic at the core of the secret. But it’s certainly incredibly emotional and torturous for Anders and I really felt for him and Wren s everything came to light and how impossible a future looked for them.
I know some people aren’t a big fan of rambling epilogues where you get the lowdown on everyone’s story but I do enjoy them as a guilty pleasure and this one was one of those for me. Sometimes the neat bow and happy endings is exactly what I need....more
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