Sweet & Bitter Rivals

By: Jessica Burkhart

Narrated by: Rebekkah Ross

From the author of the Canterwood Crest series comes the first book in a middle grade series about an equestrian boarding school following a girl who struggles to keep her eyes on the prize while receiving anonymous threats.

Abby St. Clair can’t wait to start another season with her elite riding team at her boarding school. She has something to prove after literally falling on her face during the biggest competition of the year the previous season. And she could really use a win after her mom left her family, her dad remarried, and Abby’s new stepsister, Emery, proved to be a strong rider and stiff competition.

Abby wants to return to some semblance of normal but is hiding a secret: she accidentally cost her biggest rival, Selly, a chance at team captain. Then Abby begins to receive anonymous messages, threatening to expose her unwitting sabotage and a video that makes it look like she’s trash-talking Emery. With an important competition on the horizon and the knowledge that someone in her circle knows way too much about her, the pressure is on.

Abby tries to put on blinders and have the perfect meet with her horse, Beau, but she’s about to find out the hard way that secrets don’t make friends at Saddlehill Academy.

A horse story... With no horses??

This book is laughably terrible. This author knows zilch about equestrian life and decided to infiltrate the niche by slapping a horse on the cover and tossing in a few horse-related phrases here and there. And when I say 'few,' I mean blink-and-you'll-miss-it few. Doesn't detail ANY care of the horses or riding until the last two chapters, and it's reallyyy not good. As in, author thinks dressage = horse puts head down. No mention of transitions, balance, etc. "woah he only put his head up one time in the dressage and he put it right back down!" Um, that's not dressage or riding...Not to mention the weird and completely unrealistic inter scholastic "show stable" where some students event, some ride hunt seat, no one ever rides or knows what they're talking about.

This book is your typical, run-of-the-mill boarding school drama. There's gossip, new step-sister - you know the drill. WHERE ARE THE HORSES? That's the million-dollar question because they're virtually nonexistent in this story. Save yourself the agony and steer clear of this literary travesty. An authentic portrayal of the setting would have been fine but instead the author chose a narrative that has been done to death. Terrible beginning, middle, and end. Nothing worth salvaging.