Reviews

Riding Lessons by Sara Gruen

squggl3's review against another edition

5.0

This is in my top 5 books of all time. I read this first as a horse obsessed teen, and then as a young adult and now as an adult in my 30’s. It has captivated me everytime. Each time I learn more about the characters and gain a new perspective. Please give all of Sara Gruens work a try!

vulcanmr's review against another edition

2.0

Original but painful. Characters you don't care much about, unclear plot. Gave me anxiety. Won't be treading the sequel

betsyshane's review against another edition

3.0

I can't in good conscience give this book a good rating because it was terrible. I mean, like, atrociously bad. The main character is whiny and narcissistic, the plot is paper thin and the foreshadowing is about as subtle as a hammer to the head. That said, I knocked this sucker out in like, 4 1/2 straight hours. Couldn't put it down. Another one for the "Lifetime Movie" books. Also, it's about horses.

dommdy's review against another edition

2.0

I haven’t finished this yet. Am I supposed to like AnneMarie? Because I definitely don’t. Which is disappointing because this is a series. I may not read the rest. I don’t like her mother or her daughter either.
I did finish, and my annoyance with Annemarie made me grumpy at her good fortune all around at the end.

neelchainz's review against another edition

emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

This book and the main character are infuriating. I'm not a fan of the writing either. It was purely the drama and horses that kept me going. I read it in a day because I wanted to just finish it.

scorpstar77's review against another edition

4.0

I read Water for Elephants a few months ago, and I adored it. I decided I wanted to read some other books this Sara Gruen chick had written. Not disappointed. You can definitely see how her writing and story-telling abilities have progressed from this book, Riding Lessons, to her most recent, [b:Water for Elephants|43641|Water for Elephants|Sara Gruen|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170161179s/43641.jpg|3441236]. There's no question which is the better book, and yet this book is more than what you'd take it to be initially from the cover. It appears on the surface to be a slightly cheesy but entertaining romance novel centering on some "horse people". The heroine is a former nearly-Olympic-level rider who had a horrible accident in her youth and hasn't gotten back on a horse since. Her marriage has fallen apart, she's lost her job, her kid is in the throes of rebellious teenager-dom, her relationship with her parents is strained, and her father has been diagnosed with a terminal illness. She moves back home and falls back in love with her childhood sweetheart, but more importantly, falls back in love with a horse. It's that relationship, between her and the horse, that is one of the most stunning and incredible parts of this book. The other amazing relationship is what happens among her, her daughter and her mother, three generations of women, all very much the same and headstrong, and how they are able to help and heal one another, even through their conflicts. The romance takes a backseat in this book to the horse and to the female family relationships, and it's a better book for it. It knocks it up a notch, and Gruen's writing is just fantastic, as I expected.

ajsj456's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

chelsea_not_chels's review against another edition

2.0

Read for the 2018 Popsugar! Reading Challenge for the category "A book about or involving a sport," in this case, horseback riding.

Hated the heroine. She is determined to not only destroy her own life (which, yes, some shitty stuff happened to her and she got into a spiral; I'll give her that one) but the lives of everyone around her (which I will not give her).

alysamorley's review against another edition

2.0

Ehhh. I had a hard time getting through this because I found the protagonist incredibly irritating in basically everything she did or said, every choice she made, and all her interactions with others. I don't necessarily need to like characters I'm reading about, but it really does help with the reading process when I somewhat like the person whose perspective I'm reading from. It helps if I'm not enraged the entire time.

I do like horses, though, and reading about other equestrian enthusiasts. So that's what originally drew me to this book and kept me going.

danenbma's review against another edition

3.0

So so bad yet totally engaging. The character is dumb as rocks and totally unrealistic and annoying but somehow the writing kept me engaged. Maybe i just like horses so much it made up for it. i don’t know.