“All righty then,” the reviewer said with a weary sigh.
“Rip out about half the pages from this book, and you’ve got a pretty good read. Those lost 200 pages are naught but filler,” she moaned, rubbing her bleary eyes, “and do nothing but slow the pace of the book down to a crawl.”

Well, that about covers it. If you’re looking for a story that goes into detail about horses and horse care and horse training, if you like lots of snappish but not snappy, banter, if you’re craving a hero who starts out a winner, then matures into a major pain in the … but, I digress. Here’s the scoop.

When wealthy Ty Stannard was fourteen and a talented equestrienne, she fell in love with her idol, Steve Sheppard, the circuit’s top rider, totally nice guy, and most popular hunk-on-a-horse. At nearly ten years her senior, Steve still treated Ty with a sweetness I loved. But it’s been ten years since that day, and Steve has fallen on hard times.

Watch as the nice Steve becomes the jerk Steve.

It seems his former partner was a druggie who was responsible for the death of Steve’s beloved horse. Their Kentucky stable, Southwind, now stands in ruins because he beat-up the former partner (this seems to be a trend with this author’s heroes since this is almost exactly what happened in Ride a Dark Horse, last year’s release by this author and one I enjoyed with reservations). As a result, he spent a fortune on court costs, he’s been labeled a loser, and few will trust him with their horses. When Ty learns this, she offers him financial backing, but she doesn’t tell him she’s the same love-struck teen he’d met years ago. Because he doesn’t know Ty’s the same young girl he’d met all those years ago, he perceives her to be some spoiled socialite only after him for his body.

Watch the jerk Steve becomes the overbearing Steve.

In a counter-offer, he snidely agrees to take Ty’s money, only if she’ll come and work at Southwind. She agrees and does. Initially, he treats her badly, is sarcastic with her, calls her little names, belittles her social status. What a creep.

Watch the overbearing Steve becomes the nasty Steve.

Eventually, good-hearted, patient, sweet-natured, generous, lonely, and beautiful Ty wins him over, but I’ll tell you, she can have him. Besides, any man who would chain smoke around horses, or smoke at all, is a complete and total turn off to me. Yuck. Why authors have smoking heroes is beyond me, since so many readers find it offensive. Why give a hero a habit that half your readership isn’t going to like? Why have him smoke at all? Blech.

There is a romantic subplot involving Ty’s best friend, Lizzie, and Ty’s childhood bodyguard, Sam, that I liked much better. Ty’s nasty father does a little reverse deus ex machina thing and tries to ruin Steve, but alas, true love conquers all. And encompasses all when we run into our protagonists from this author’s Ride a Dark Horse at a horse show.

I really wanted to like this book but the negatives simply outweighed the positives. For that I blame Steve. The other characters are nicely drawn and affable, but not our hero. Sure, he comes around, but for me, it was far too little, far too late. And while parts of the book were good, the action moved ahead too slowly to keep my interest. And I do so like horses, which made the book palatable.

Except for Steve.