Take the Reins by Jessica Burkhart

[description from Amazon]

When Sasha Silver and her horse, Charm, arrive on the campus of the elite Canterwood Crest Academy, Sasha knows that she's in trouble. She's not exactly welcomed with open arms. One group of girls in particular is used to being the best, the brightest, and the prettiest on the team, and when Sasha shows her skills in the arena, the girls' claws come out.

Sasha is determined to prove that she belongs at Canterwood. Will she rise to the occasion and make the advanced riding team by the end of her first semester? Or will the pressure send Sasha packing?

Review:

When I was a small little Khy (which was not very long ago), I did not read a single horse book. Not a one. It was all Fudge (you know, the series by Judy Blume?), all the time for me. Horse books were much too "girly." Little Khy did not like "girly" things. Well, present Khy does not like "girly" things much either, but I had to overcome my aversion to horse books to read this one. I heard so many lovely things about it and have been reading Jessica's blog for a while, so I figured I'd pick this one. And I'm so glad I did. :D

This book is great. Sasha is one of the most relateable characters I've read about in a while. She seems very normal. She complains about biology (as she should, because biology is EVIL!), obsesses over a boy (though I don't see the appeal of this boy, since all I really know about him is that he looks like Zac Efron- ew.), is worried that her friends are hiding things from her, and has plenty of petty drama that we've all had going on with the the Trio of mean girls. (Question: Why is there always 3 means girls in a group, never more? Seriously, I want to know) Those are all things most of us have done, and it was...nice to see Sasha try to figure it all out.

Despite my childhood aversion to horse books, I like horses. Horses are good. But I was a little worried this book would be all horses all the time and that by the end I would never want to hear about horses again. Thankfully, it wasn't. There was plenty of other stuff, so I was never sick of horses, but there was also enough about Sasha riding that it wasn't a case of the "stop telling me, show me" thing that occurs much too often in books.

Also, I'm kind of jealous of Jessica. She's like, 22 years old and already has an 8 book series under contract. Can I have that job when I'm 22? Jessica, if you ever need like, an apprentice, let me know.

8/10