Racing Savannah

The author of the book is Miranda Kenneally, and the book is called Racing Savannah. This is a book about trial and error, love and heartbreak, and passion for the sport that all the characters love so much. Savannah is a young girl still in high school who is forced to move from North Carolina to Tennessee when her dad finds a better paying job her senior year of high school. Savannah goes unwillingly to the horse ranch where her father will be working. She get to the ranch and falls in love with one horse in particular and decides she is going to race this horse and win all the big prizes. Along the way she finds love and becomes a great female horse jockey, and the rest is history between Savanna and Jake. The cover of the book is girl in jeans and yellow rain boots sitting on the edge of a fence and a guy leaned up against the fence next to her. They are surrounded in by a field of green grass. This book is more for teenagers and young adults, girls would like this book a lot more as well.

When I found out that Miranda Kenneally was coming out with another Hundred Oaks book, I just KNEW I had to read it. Every Keneally book is always filled with some type of lesson, as well as some amazing YA boy. And this one was no different. I read this one for a blog tour, but I wanted to do my review separate... Because I knew this review was going to be pretty long! The number one thing I loved about this one was Kenneally's world building. I'm not sure if it was because I grew up in the south too, but all the scenery and the plantation style home and just everything was all too familiar. I've seen so many homes like that in my Texas home its crazy. I could surely relate to everything on Jack's property. Her world-building paired with my imagination and my knowledge of the south made for an awesome reading experience. Speaking of Jack, I say this about all the Kenneally boys, but for sure Jack is my favorite. Jack was born and raised in the South and all he knows is horses and family. His main goal is to make his father proud of him and make a name for his self and his horses afterwards. I could honestly relate to Jack on EVERYTHING. (Well except the horses...) He valued family so much that all he wanted was for his father to entrust the family business to him. This is obviously a huge deal at his young age. He wants to do everything in his power to make sure his father knows he made the right decision. Pretty much, he doesn't want to let him down. I don't believe for a second that he was playing into the whole social class thing regarding Savannah. I think he was mainly looking out for himself. Because let's be honest, Jack was the sweetest thing ever. Plus he was a SOUTHERN GENTLEMAN that was a real honest to goodness COWBOY. I could hear him talking in his southern accent every time I read dialogue from him. I really liked and related to Savannah too. She was a strong independent girl who knew exactly what she wanted and who valued family above all else too! She wasn't any where near as well off as Jack and his family, but she was content with what she had. She just used it as motivation to help make things better. These are also things that I value, so I saw some of me in her as well. And also like her, I don't always wear what's name brand or what hot right then, but that's fine. It just means that that's not what's important to me. Now Jack and Savannah's romance was amazing as well. (I think I loved it so much because it was a forbidden one!) I hated that Jack had to hide his relationships. I really think he had to do that because his father said he wouldn't have much time to think about girls. Which gave people the assumption that he was never with the same girl more than once. I didn't like all the pressure that was put on him. He never got to enjoy being a teen and just dating. But in the end, when he finally stood up for him and Savannah, they were finally happy. I loved seeing their HEA. This novel brings another Keneally lesson, "you can't help who you love." As I've said countless times, "you don't chose love, love chooses you." And this is the perfect example of that. And it brings with it horses... Everyone loves horses! lol

I wanted to read this one because I've seen a lot of good things about the series and the author. This is the only one in the series that I have read, and I wasn't lost, there were other characters mentioned and it did seem like a drop in to see how they were doing, but that was okay with me. It especially spoke to me because when I was younger I love the Thoroughbred series and I rode horses of my own so that's always something that's interesting story line for me with the personal connections as well. While racing Savannah that was some pretty heavy issues including are losing her mother. she also takes on some of the responsibility for her family they are pretty low income and her step mom is pregnant and having a hard time working social take on some of these shows that her step mom supposed to do. this really told me a lot about Savannah's character that she was very giving and she had a really good heart that she wanted to help. I also liked how determined she was and that she learn to dream and she learned sometimes helping herself in the short term will help family and friends in the long term as far as her dreams and aspirations and finally entertaining the thought of college for herself. Racing Savannah also dealt with some classes since the romantic interest jack is currently working under his father learning to take over running their farm which entails breeding horses racing horses and the care of them. Jack and his family are really well off they have people to take care of their house their horses and all sorts of things and Savannah and her family are hired by Jack's father. I like Jack, he really seemed to bond with Savannah and he really respected hard time because Savannah just had a way with words of understanding them and figuring out what they want and how to get them to perform. there's a lot of chemistry between Jack and Savannah but Jack is also just learning to take over the business and he very much considers what his dad would think and how he would react to basically dating the help. His family is also in negotiations with another Pharm and he has kind of been pushed up on the daughter and order to help seal a business deal and this also affects the kind of how I saw Jack. But I love his character development even though for quite a while in the book I kind of question his motives and if he was going to be the man that Savannah needed him to be set of just two people who have a lot of chemistry and then she kind of moves on to someone else but I really appreciate how it was done and I ended up liking that romantic angle by the end of the book. I would read more of the Hundred Oaks, but am a little sad that horses won't be featured in the other books. Bottom Line: Quick, entertaining, like the horse aspect and Savannah as a character.

Book 4 of a series and characters from previous books return for small roles here. I enjoyed this YA novel. I liked Savannah. She was gutsy and tried to look at her future clearly so she could help her family. I liked that she did not have all the answers. I also liked that her dad did not either. Watching Savannah as she looked towards the future and met different people since her family left West Virginia and moved to Tennessee made me root for her more. She saw more possibilities for her life than she had dreamed. She was also willing to take chances when Jack, the horse farm owner's son, would not. I liked that Savannah grabbed for what she wanted. She was not nasty or bratty. She believed that becoming a jockey would help her family. I loved those scenes as Savannah was racing. They were so well written I felt I was on the horse's back as the jockey. I liked when Jack finally stood up to his father. I liked that he had a back bone and realized what he could have by being honest and courageous. I have ordered the earlier books so I could spend more time in this neighborhood.

super sweet story. read the entire series in order to understand how the other characters fit in. I would have liked a little more info since it has been so long since I read the other books I had to go back and check the other titles to really get it. Savannah is the new girl jockey and Jack is her boss. sweet love evolves into something more and then the end. hoping for more from these characters.