Horsey fiction for adults

[skippy77]

I love these threads because I always get loads of new books to add to my list.

I regularly check the free kindle book thread on Off Course. I have found some fun books there.
http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?394044--ALERT!-Free-Horse-Related-Kindle-Book-ALERT!-

There used to be a horsey book review blog that I checked regularly to find good books but I can’t seem to find it. In looking for it I found these others:
http://equus-blog.com/horse-book-reviews/
http://useventing.com/book-review
http://www.hillbillyfarms.org/HillbillyPress_books.html
http://horsebookreviews.blogspot.com/

[Jenerationx]

Jane Smiley’s Horse Heaven is one of my favorites.

[Kerrysmom818]

I love all of the Dick Francis novels.

[JenEM]

[QUOTE=Tiger Horse;8531506]
I love all of the Dick Francis novels.[/QUOTE]

Any suggestion on where to start with Dick Francis? I’ve never read anything of his, almost bought something last month, then couldn’t decide what to get. Any recommendations on a favorite or good starting point?

[mckenna310]

I HIGHLY recommend In & Out: Year One in the Jumping for Gold Series by Barbara Moss. It’s like a soap opera centered around a Grand Prix rider. Lots of juicy scenes and accurate horse dialogue. I’m so sad she hasn’t written the next one yet.
Also The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle. Very beautifully written story about a girl on a ranch, family drama, etc.

[Dewey]

[QUOTE=Jenerationx;8531501]
Jane Smiley’s Horse Heaven is one of my favorites.[/QUOTE]

I love this book.

[Bogie]

I am working on one now . . . would love to invite some beta readers to try the first few chapters and get some feedback! I’ve written the first draft and am honing the second draft.

[Night_Flight]

Hannah Hooton has a series centred around National Hunt racing, but really more generally horsey than a full-on racing novel. They’re definitely written for adults, but not full Jilly Cooper-style.

I’ve read three (currently finishing the final installment of the Aspen Valley series that’s just coming out) and enjoyed them all.

Full disclosure: I have been given two books in the series to review, but I’d still recommend them if I had come across them on my own and hadn’t been asked to review them.

[RedHorses]

Lyndon Stacey is another mystery/horse writer.

Dick Francis - I really enjoyed Break In and sequel Bolt.

The Scorpio Races, while it is YA fiction is very good. Sorry, I can’t remember the author off hand.

If you like historical fiction (not romance) Dreaming the Eagle (and sequels - there are four altogether) is a well written story of Boudica with lots of good horse action. Boudica led the Iceni and allied tribes in a revolt against the Romans.

[m_m1]

Although I like Horse Heaven, do NOT under any circumstances read Jane Smiley’s Barn Blind. Very well written, but dark, dark, dark. Not even heartbreaking. More like devastating.

I enjoyed Kim Ablon Whitney’s books, and I’m off to check out some of the others mentioned in this thread.

[Thimble]

I’m one of the 7 horsey authors on Horseback Reads but I write for the late middle-grade/tween/young YA crowd, so I don’t have a “horse” in this particular race. But I’d like to recommend Mary Pagones’s FORTUNE’S FOOL. It’s shelved as YA, but given that most YA is better written than adult fiction these days, it’s what I prefer (and I’m a grandmother). I also recommend Natalie Keller Reinert’s grown-up fiction, AMBITION and SHOW BARN BLUES, along with Kim Ablon Whitney’s books.

And, if I may, I’d like to mention that Horseback Reads has a book club and this month we’re reading Wendy Williams’s THE HORSE (non-fiction) and we’ll be discussing it on our Facebook page with the author on February 28th from 2 to 4 pm. Please join us, here:

https://www.facebook.com/horsebackreads

[Thimble]

[QUOTE=JenEM;8531532]
Any suggestion on where to start with Dick Francis? I’ve never read anything of his, almost bought something last month, then couldn’t decide what to get. Any recommendations on a favorite or good starting point?[/QUOTE]
Suggest any of his earlier books before he began collaborating with his son, Felix, who has now taken them over given Mr. Francis is, sadly, no longer with us.

[Coreene]

Fiona Walker, Tami Hoag, Rita Mae Brown, Jenny Pitman and Zoe Williams.

[svvdressage]

LOVE this book. I am on my 2nd copy…my first ended up being held together with Duck tape

[dani0303]

[QUOTE=mckenna310;8531543]
I HIGHLY recommend In & Out: Year One in the Jumping for Gold Series by Barbara Moss. It’s like a soap opera centered around a Grand Prix rider. Lots of juicy scenes and accurate horse dialogue. I’m so sad she hasn’t written the next one yet.
Also The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle. Very beautifully written story about a girl on a ranch, family drama, etc.[/QUOTE]

I was just coming on here to recommend In and Out. It’s a guilty pleasure book of mine and I’ve been anxiously awaiting another installment!

[ChasPonyCat]

[QUOTE=Thimble;8532087]
I’m one of the 7 horsey authors on Horseback Reads but I write for the late middle-grade/tween/young YA crowd, so I don’t have a “horse” in this particular race. But I’d like to recommend Mary Pagones’s FORTUNE’S FOOL. It’s shelved as YA, but given that most YA is better written than adult fiction these days, it’s what I prefer (and I’m a grandmother). I also recommend Natalie Keller Reinert’s grown-up fiction, AMBITION and SHOW BARN BLUES, along with Kim Ablon Whitney’s books.

And, if I may, I’d like to mention that Horseback Reads has a book club and this month we’re reading Wendy Williams’s THE HORSE (non-fiction) and we’ll be discussing it on our Facebook page with the author on February 28th from 2 to 4 pm. Please join us, here:

https://www.facebook.com/horsebackreads[/QUOTE]

Ah yes, I agree with Reinert’s books. I read both of those and couldn’t put them down! And I would say those both definitively fall into the “adult” category.

[ChasPonyCat]

[QUOTE=dani0303;8532178]
I was just coming on here to recommend In and Out. It’s a guilty pleasure book of mine and I’ve been anxiously awaiting another installment![/QUOTE]

Clever title in more ways than one, if this book is what I’m imagining based on the two mentions here.

[ww3467]

[QUOTE=ChasPonyCat;8532192]
Clever title in more ways than one, if this book is what I’m imagining based on the two mentions here.[/QUOTE]

You would be correct :).

[VTMorgan06]

Why all the taboo and shame around reading YA? I’m a school librarian, so perhaps I’m biased, but just about every other book I read is YA. I think my top 10 favorite books with be mostly filled with YA too.

I’m struggling to think of any quality horse fiction that I’ve read, I guess I’m so immersed in horses that I’d like to escape into a literary world that will take me other places, not on the back of a horse. When I do read horse books I tend to go nonfiction. Elizabeth Letts’s brilliant The Eighty Dollar Champion comes to mind, and Nancy Shullins’s Falling for Eli is one of th most beautiful personal narratives I’ve ever read, horsey or otherwise.

[Dewey]

[QUOTE=Tiger Horse;8531506]
I love all of the Dick Francis novels.[/QUOTE]

I love Dick Francis, too. Some of the books are very horsey, others hardly at all. My favorites include Straight, Break In and Bolt, Banker, Reflex, Longshot, Shattered. The ones about Sid Halley are also good although sometimes I just want to shake Sid. Another favorite is the very first one, Dead Cert. I lent my copy to someone about ten years ago and never got it back; I’ve been waiting for it to come out as a Kindle edition.