Barb’s Book Byts – James Patterson & Mike Lupica:

The Horsewoman

When we started our book club, we discussed authors we all liked so we could find a common thread to pick books to read. One of those authors was James Patterson. In our discussion and while checking Amazon for books, we discovered that he was writing books with other authors. So we decided to start our book club by doing a mini author study on James Patterson. We decided to start with the one written with Dolly Parton, Run Rose Run, which I’ve critiqued on another post.

The latest on our list for this author study was this novel co-authored by Mike Lupica, a known sports writer. This novel shared very little of James Patterson’s special talents for mystery, action, and suspense. This novel focused on the challenges and training of horse riding. It focuses on a mother and daughter who have reached the top of competing in their field of jumping when an accident causes the mother’s dream of reaching the Olympics to look like it’s not going to happen. While the family has placed all its savings on a horse that could win at the Olympics that is half owned by a sleazy rich man, the drama that ensues about who should ride the horse, and who should be the trainer, makes for some twists and turns to the story.

In addition, the authors use the challenges with immigration and the DACA (also known as the Dreamers) situation in the United States, to put a slightly political twist to the story, and give the sleazy rich guy a unique role in the story.

While the author’s writing style made the story flow smoothly, yet it did not make it a page turner or a novel that could not be put aside. It may be more interesting reading to those in the horse world, but at times it seemed a bit tedious to this non-horsewoman reader.

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