The Horse Dancer

By: Jojo Moyes

Narrated by: Julia Franklin

Sarah's grandfather was a horseman of rare talent - only the exceptional are allowed into France's elite riding academy, Le Cadre Noir. But life took an unexpected turn, and now from a council estate in east London, the Captain hopes to train his granddaughter towards a better life.

Natasha is a lawyer whose job is to represent the best interests of children. Her confidence in her judgement has been shaken and her marriage has died - but an encounter with Sarah may lead to Natasha learning all she needs to know about life from a fourteen-year-old girl and a large horse named Boo...

©2009 Jojo Moyes (P)2009 WF Howes Ltd

Great Book

I really enjoyed this book. I listen to books while I work and on a couple days I found myself working past the end of my day because I didn't want to stop listening. The horse parts were interesting and authentic enough to make a horse person (like myself) happy, while not being overpowering for people that aren't so interested in them. Yes, the main characters do make a lot of bad choices, but I still think the story as a whole was excellent. Loved the narrator too, she was easy to listen to and did the various voices well. I really didn't want the book to end. During listening to it I frequently could picture it in movie form so clearly that after it ended I went to search on google and see if it was coming out as a movie. I didn't find anything about that, but it wouldn't surprise me at all to see it as one eventually, I would go see it. It has a few swear words and a couple of not overly graphic sex scenes (one of which was unwilling), but I would still say the book would be good for anywhere from a rather mature pre-teen through adult.

Two stories. One really interesting

And the other was torture. Maybe it was the way the reader portrayed Natasha…. Maybe it was just Natasha. But really, this isn’t a book you need to pay close attention to. So glad it ended.

Narrator's accents distract from the story

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I think I would recommend the print version, but not the narration. Many reviewers have loved the narrator, but she doesn't do it for me. There are too many accents and she does not do many of them well - for example, the requisite American cowboy speaks VERY slowly (Americans do not speak that slowly or flatly), and her French pronunciation was atrocious!
Still, the premise of the book is a good one, and I will read this in print.

Don’t give up!

It took me about an hour to settle in to this book. Couldn’t understand the connection until then, but once it’s made, it was a great book. I find myself learning lots of “proper English” from Jojo’s books! New one comes out tomorrow and it’s already purchased.

Beautiful

The narrator helped bring this story to life.
JoJo did it again! I felt tears & laughter & surprise through out again. When she wrote of Sarah on Boo's back, riding & preforming, you could actually see them in your minds eye. Beautiful!