Riding Lessons: A Novel

Sara Gruen writes good stories. (liked Water for Elephants and The Ape House)
This is not a heavy book, but rather a quick read which holds one's attention. Anyone with a background in riding or handling
horses would enjoy it.
Kirsten Dawson

I would recommend Sara Gruen and both her novels, Riding Lessons & the sequel, Flying Changes to anyone who appreciates characters who are gritty and flawed, in other words, real human beings . Annemarie is far from perfect, often behaving badly in her roles as wife, mother and daughter. She frequently puts herself through situations that leave her NOT smelling (or looking) like a rose. I know next to nothing about the world of competitive jumping, but Gruen's lovely and passionate descriptions of the horses in these books made me really feel and smell the horseflesh.

I enjoy any book about horses and a little romance. It's about a woman who is going thru a divorce from a cheating husband and the added problem of a rebellious teen daughter. She drags her daughter back east to live on her parent's riding stable. She encounters a few problems going back to live in her parents house.

The storyline kept me going to the end. Water for Elephants was one of my favorites so I like to follow authors I have read in the past. I really liked the way the relationships between all the characters played out.

Although the plot had potential, I lost empathy with the main character who seemed to me to be selfish, narcissistic, and kind of cruel to the important people in her life. I did not read past 1/3 of the novel.

A horse story. What more could I ask for. Annemarie and Harry (her horse) were winning the contest making all the jumps, when the accident happened. Of course I cried for the horse. Great story, very well written.

I read Flying Changes first and really liked that too. It may have been better to read them in order, but I still liked them both. In Flying Changes she says a few things about what a horse does with a person they love. I'm a horse person and my horse does those nickers and whinny's when he sees me so it warmed my heart to hear her talk about those horsenalities in the same way I interpret them. (When in actuality he probably sees a food truck coming his way;-)

I read her book, WATER FOR ELEPHANTS, and enjoyed the book. I found RIDING LESSONS a bit slow and dull. She didn't always develop her characters as well as she possibly could have. It was an easy read, but not quite up to WATER FOR ELEPHANTS in my opinion.

The "heroine" of this story did everything but create sympathy reagrdless of her tragic accident as a teen -- which made it difficult to love this book. Her self-centeredness and self-pitying attitude made me grind my teeth.

ENJOYED BOOK. KEPT YOU INTERESTED. DIFFERENT PLOT, A LOT OF IT "TRUE TO LIFE". ANYONE WHO HAS LOVED AN ANIMAL CAN RELATE TO THE FEELINGS IN THE STORYLINE. AN ANIMAL, WHETHER IT BE A HORSE OR A DOG OR ANY OTHER PET, HOLDS A SPECIAL PLACE IN YOUR HEART, AND WHEN THAT BELOVED PET LEAVES YOU, IT TAKES A PIECE OF YOUR HEART WITH HIM/HER.

I always like a happy ending and this book provided that! The main characters are interesting and get through some difficult situstions. Some of the situations seemed a little overly dramatic, but overall, the it was a good, compelling story that you definetly wanted to finish.

I am bothered by the first chapter where the horse, in organized competition, jumped over the fence and landed his full weight on his fetlock which shattered and sent his rider, a little girl, into a coma and body cast for months. I was glad that the girl didn't jump to her feet hollaring "That was fun! Let's do it again!" And so the story is committed to the question, what happens when she has a little girl of her own who grows up dreaming of a horse of her own? Just to narrow her choices she returns to her parents' horse-riding academy where her dad is dying and her mother never understood why she didn't saddle up at her earliest opportunity. I mean what for God's sake is wrong with this girl? And then, get a grip, she meets a horse identical to the one who died in chapter one. Spooky.

Captivating beginning which gradually descended into endless descriptions of emotional self-indulgence by the heroine which over powered the sensitivities of the supporting characters. Horse lovers will enjoy. I was disappointed as I so looked forward to more from this author.

This is an amazing read. So filled with real life happenings. Characters are real. Divorce, death, loss, all of the experiences some of us have had. I didn't want to finish it. But couldn't stop reading.