Product Description

As a world-class equestrian and Olympic contender, Annemarie Zimmer lived for the thrill of flight atop a strong, graceful animal. Then, at eighteen, a tragic accident destroyed her riding career and Harry, the beautiful horse she cherished. Now, twenty years later, Annemarie is coming home to her dying father's New Hampshire horse farm. Jobless and abandoned, she is bringing her troubled teenage daughter to this place of pain and memory, where ghosts of an unresolved youth still haunt the fields and stables and where hope lives in the eyes of the handsome, gentle veterinarian Annemarie loved as a girl . . . and in the seductive allure of a trainer with a magic touch. But everything will change yet again with one glimpse of a white striped gelding startlingly similar to the one Annemarie lost in another lifetime. And an obsession is born that could shatter her fragile world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1062192 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-09
• Format: Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Binding: Audio CD

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. When the main character in a novel is as annoying as a boil, an audio performer must be thrilled at the chance to portray someone who isn't particularly nice or competent. Maggi-Meg Reed's Annemarie shouts, cries, whines, cajoles and lies her way through escalating crises. Reed is superb. She does an equally adept rendering of the other characters, including Annemarie's mother, with her thick Austrian accent and tight-lipped stoic voice. Eve, Annemarie's daughter, is a perfectly petulant teenager, speaking to her mother in a strident and querulous tone. A local policewoman has such a perfect New Hampshire accent that one wonders why the other locals don't. Despite the unsympathetic Annemarie, Reed's stellar performance makes Gruen's 2004 debut novel hard to turn off. A Harper paperback (Reviews, Mar. 1, 2004). (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From AudioFile
Annemarie Zimmer has issues. She creates problems with her parents, daughter, ex-husband, ex-boyfriend, and employees. Maggi-Meg Reed captures Annemarie's self-absorbed rants and conflicts with just the right amount of strident enthusiasm and engagement. Set in the fascinating world of horse farms and equestrian events, the novel--maddening protagonist and all--is tough to resist. Reed's performance is effortless as she takes the listener through Annemarie's daily trials, centered on a rehabilitated mystery horse whose appearance brings back old ghosts. Annemarie must come to terms with the riding accident that ended her career as a teenager before she can move on to become a true adult. RIDING LESSONS is an ideal beach book, especially for horse lovers. L.B.F. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Annemarie, 18, is a world-class equestrienne who is sure to be a contender in the next Olympics. Then, a terrible jumping accident causes the death of her magnificent horse, Highland Harry, as well as severe injuries to Annemarie herself. Damaged as much in spirit as in body, she marries Roger, moves to another state, and gets a degree in English, vowing never to ride again. Twenty years of a more or less emotionally empty life go by until one fateful day when Annemarie loses both her job and her husband. With her defiant 15-year-old daughter in tow, Annemarie returns to her parents' riding school in New Hampshire, where her father is dying from ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). Suddenly, Annemarie is bombarded with all sorts of emotions and responsibilities, including the rekindling of an old romance and the discovery of a broken-down horse that looks remarkably like Highland Harry. Fans of Nicholas Evans' The Horse Whisperer (1995) and Jessica Bird's impressive debut, Leaping Hearts (2002), will also enjoy this emotion-packed book, which is so exquisitely written it's hard to believe that it's also a debut. Shelley Mosley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Disappointing
After reading "Water for Elephants" I was looking forward to reading
another book by this author but to my disappointment this book was awful.
The main character Annemarie was ridiculous, thinking of preparing a
gourmet meal when she couldn't even cook and and dying her horse with
hair dye, please!! Also I could not believe that she could not "get over"
her teenage problems with her parents and be there for her Father when he
was dying, terrible. The romance interests were lame and the ending was
predictable. Can't believe it was the same author that wrote the wonderful "Water for Elephants"

Disappointment
I bought this book strictly on the jacket synopsis. It appealed to me because I used to ride competitively and love fiction. Boy was I disappointed.

Annemarie is such a broken character that I found her unpalatable. At 38, she sneaks out of the house in the morning so she doesn't have to face the father that she knows is dying? Shallow should be this woman's middle name. It is very difficult to root for her or find satisfaction with the novel when she discovers what she thinks is contentment in the last few pages.

The equine stuff is fairly believable, although the constant references to the "stablehands" like they were second class citizens wore thin. The people that keep a barn running and successful are the people that Annemarie shuns and is revolted that her daughter associates with. I find this inconsistent with my experience.

There are several questions left unanswered (why is Dan, the veterinarian living in a condemned-sounding trailer?).

This is a book that makes you think that you, too, can be a novelist if this is where the bar is set.

unlikable protagonist
I found it very difficult to feel compassion for the main character in this book. She was 37 but acted like a spoiled teenager much of the time, and expected her daughter, who was one, not to act like one. This did feel like a first novel; I expect if the author were to write it again it would be different. I too, loved Water for Elephants, and she (sara) has obviously matured as a writer. I think it important for the main character in a novel to be likable, and at least gain the readers sympathy. I felt Annemarie was just too emotionally immature to be credible, especially having undergone such a catastrophic injury and surmounted the odds to overcome that trauma,physically and emotionally. I really only decided to finish the book to see how it ended, although it was Harlequin quality writing, in my humble opinion...