Imagine being dumped by your mother as a newborn and shifted between foster homes your entire childhood. Imagine being taken in and offered hope for your future by a kind, loving show jumping socialite. Imagine falling in love with some of the most gorgeous horses in the world, and making a life in the thrilling and glamorous sport of international show jumping.
Now imagine it all being taken away.
Ebony Scott Harris is painfully close to making her dreams a reality when the only mother she has ever known mysteriously dies. She’s forced from their home to live with the gold-digging aunt, who takes her in only to ride the prized show jumpers she claims are now hers. Teetering on the edge of a hopeless depression, Ebony is saved by the discovery of a forgotten horse nearly starved to death, and an unlikely partnership with a handsome stranger, whom she must learn to trust if she is to uncover the truth about her mother’s death and reclaim her home.
But with the evil aunt selling her best and beloved horse, a maniacal ex-coach out for revenge and more savage competitors than she can count, Ebony has a lot more at stake than proving the truth, saving her horses and jumping for gold at the World Equestrian Games . . ." ~Amazon Description
Brittney Joy's Review ~ First of all, I have to admit I didn’t start out liking Ebony, the main character in Jump Girl. The teenager’s punky, angry streak made it difficult for me to relate. BUT, as Ebony’s world unfolded, I began to understand how she got to be that way. And, let me tell you, author Leigh Hutton created some wicked characters (down-right-evil antagonists) to challenge Ebony’s dreams. Most of the antagonists in this book should probably end up in jail – and some actually do. With Jump Girl’s dramatic ups and downs, don’t pick this book up expecting to experience a light, fluffy horse-read. This story has a lot of dark aspects – murder, abuse, betrayal, cut-throat competition.
Even though some of the darker aspects of this novel made me gasp (I tend to gravitate towards more of a “rainbows and butterflies” type of horse story), Leigh Hutton’s action scenes are tremendously written. She is quite the wizard with fast-paced dramatics. The action and adrenaline practically “jump” off the page (no pun intended) and it’s obvious that Hutton was a competitive rider herself, as she accurately (and beautifully) describes the athletic technicalities of riding – for both equine and human characters. And, Ebony’s love and commitment to her horses is obvious. Although, I sometimes wondered what she enjoyed more – the horses or the sport itself?
Very interesting twist(s) on a horse story. And, having said I thoroughly enjoyed the action/riding scenes, I can imagine Hutton’s first book, Rev Girl, accomplishes the same adrenaline-induced reading for the dirt-bike girls out there!
