The Long Shot

Rating:
Summary: A rather sweet romance...
Review: ... good enough mainly because of the many likable secondary characters - everyone behaves plausibly, and most everyone is kind. The heroine is smart, resourceful, and loyal to her friends. Unfortunately, the hero is somewhat obtuse and kind of flat, which might explain the lack of sexual tension. There are indeed too many details about horse dressage. Still, this is a good story, well written, and probably worth the price of a paperback.

Rating:
Summary: One of my favorites.
Review: Finally, a book about old friends where the heroine hasn't been pining for the hero since she was ten! Sam is independant and quirky. She discovers that love can bloom from friendship, but she didn't spend the interim waiting miserably (and virginally) for him to turn to her. Sam lives her own life, and has all along.

The part of the other woman was original also. Whitney and Sam genuinely are friends, and Whitney has quirks and problems of her own. She isn't all perfect, and she isn't all evil witch, the truth lies somewhere in between, in reality.

Cullum is the only tiresome character, but Sam and Erin, Sam's sister, and Whitney, and even Neal Beaumont (the other man) were so refreshing that I didn't mind.

Rating:
Summary: One of my all-time top ten ever.
Review: One of the things I adore about this book is that there is no "bad guy" and no "suspense" like in most romantic fiction today, simply engaging, well-written characters who work through both problems life has handed them, and those they have caused themselves.

Michelle Martin's style in this book is comparable to what I think of as the greater works of Susan Elizabeth Phillips- Hot Shot, It Had to Be You, and Fancy Pants; the ones that made you laugh unitl you cried, not the overdramatic weepers that followed those wonderful books. She has wit, and so do her characters.

I like this book also since the women don't sit back and wait for a man to fix their lives, or for that matter, NEED a man to complete them; they take life, and love, as it comes.

I love horses, and have since I was a kid, but I found the central equestrian theme to be well-balanced, and certainly true to life.

It's a sparkling, vivacious read, and I love it enough to wish Michelle Martin would write more, since she seems to be retired.