I had to go to McNally Robinson to buy some birthday present books for my sister. I had a terrible time finding one of them and I had to keep going by the clearance shelves. Of course the inevitable happened -- I found a book I just had to have. And this is it.

I really loved Water for Elephants so I thought I should see if Sara Gruen was as good in her first book.

I loved Gruen’s book Water for Elephants so when I saw this book, which was her first, on sale at my favourite book store I snapped it up. The fact that it took me 8 years to get around to reading it just indicates how large my TBR pile is and how easily distracted I am from reading books in hand by new books. It does not mean that I was reluctant to read it and when I did I enjoyed it.
Annemarie Aldrich was living a perfect life in Minneapolis (or at least she thought she was) with a patent lawyer husband, a fifteen year old daughter and a demanding job as a software editor. Then, in a few short days her life imploded; she was fired from her job, her husband told her he was leaving her for a woman 15 years her junior and she learned her father had ALS. When her daughter got expelled from school she took her back to her parents’ horse farm in New Hampshire. Her plan was to manage the horse training stable while her mother devoted her days to looking after her father. Managing a farm was not rocket science she told her mother. It did, however, turn out to be much more difficult than she expected. Then her past was resurrected in the form of a horse that brought back all her emotions from 20 years before when she was an Olympic class horse jumper. Her horse, Harry, broke a leg coming down from a jump and Annemarie was badly injured and Harry had to be shot. She never rode again to her parents’ disappointment. Now a horse that looks almost exactly like Harry was rescued from certain death by the local vet (and Annemarie’s one-time boyfriend), Dan Garibaldi. When you throw in the trials of dealing with a headstrong teenage girl and the anguish of seeing a parent diminish almost daily from disease, Annemarie has a tough time dealing with everything.
I didn’t exactly like Annemarie; she was too wrapped up in herself to see the problems others around her were dealing with. She resented her parents for driving her to excel but she also obviously loved the competition. Even with her father dying she didn’t try to reconcile with him and she was often angry with her mother. Her daughter was certainly a handful but that is almost a requisite for teenagers; Annemarie kept her on a very tight leash and then was surprised when she disobeyed. Annemarie never seemed to think that her daughter was having a hard time dealing with the divorce and the separation from her father. However, by the end of the book she does seem to have learned some important life lessons and we can only hope that they will hold.

I left this book on a stand with free newspaper in the underground walkway close to 201 Portage Avenue which is the home of the American consulate. That's because this book is written by a Canadian (or rather a person with dual citizenship in Canada and the US) but is set in the US. This release is for the 2017 Canada Days release challenge which runs for 2 weeks around July 1 and seeks to spread Canadian writing around the world.

When you find a BookCrossing book it is yours to do with what you like. You can read it and keep it or pass it on or if you don't think it is your kind of book pass it on to someone who might like it or release it in a spot for someone else to find like you just did. Whatever you choose it would be great if you could write a short note letting us know what new adventures the book is on.