Friday Book Review: teen fiction w/ horse

Today's read is fluffy. Sorry, if you were hoping for serious. I'll try for some non-fiction next week, but I didn't quite manage to finish the horse bio I've been reading, so I'll have to save that one. So I'm dipping back into the young adult bin for this week.

Moon and Me by Hadley Irwin

Fourteen year-old EJ (Elizabeth Jane) has been transplanted a lot in her life. Most recently, she's been shipped from the hustle & sophistication of France to the wilds of rural Iowa to live with her grandparents. Finishing out the school year in a tiny town, she hasn't made too many friends. Her days consist of school, homework, longing after high school hottie Rick Adams, and riding her grandparents' half-Arab mare, Lady Gray.

That's pretty much it, until Moon comes along. Twelve-year old Harmon, a.k.a Moon, is a child prodigy, and when he decides to take EJ under his wing and suggests she and Lady Gray enter a 100 mile endurance ride later that year, EJ is steam-rollered along. So begins a journey, a lesson in friendship, and responsibility, and a completely unique summer experience.

I admit, I picked the book up because of the cover (girl & horse...) and the blurb's mention of endurance riding, which is an interest/someday goal of mine. Ultimately, the book is far less a horse story and far more the story of the evolution of friendship. A few horse-related flaws here and there, but not as many as I expected after I read the first few pages.

Ultimately? This one isn't as strong as A Perfect Distance or Tin Can Tucker, but it wasn't a bad read. Just less horse-intensive. And I'm not thirteen, either, so perhaps that made a difference :)