Wednesday Riders by Tudor Robins (Review)

Release date: 16 February 2015

Publisher: Tudor Robins

Number of pages: 181

My rating: 3/5

Wednesday Riders focuses more on the personal issues of grief and finding one’s identity than on horses. I do appreciate this; after all, there is more to life than horses! However, I found that all the drama in Wednesday Riders took up a bit too much time and didn’t allow for the other parts of the plot to really shine.

Wednesday Riders takes place a year after Appaloosa Summer. Meg returns to The Island, hoping to spend another summer working at Carl and Betsy’s B and B while continuing her romance with Jared. However, a confession from Jared changes everything. Besides that, Meg finds herself in charge of coaching a group of kids for a musical ride, which proves to be no easy task.

Holy crap, there was so much conflict in this. Meg and Jared’s relationship issues really took up a lot of the book. Unlike Appaloosa Summer, I didn’t enjoy the way that grief was featured in this book. Meg whines and cries a lot, which is understandable after a tough break up. But then she tries to do some pretty hateful things to him, which I found rather immature and irritating. Jared was no better. There were a few reveals regarding his betrayal, and I felt like he was being rather selfish by keeping secrets from Meg after he had already broken her heart. Anyway, there’s a lot of drama with their relationship, and I wasn’t really happy with it. A lot of Meg and Jared’s actions came off as immature and mean. I’m sure that others will enjoy the drama and find it fun, but unfortunately I don’t really tolerate stuff like that well.

There was some conflict between the girls in the musical ride group that I preferred to Meg and Jared’s issues. The author’s portrayal of the drama between Lacey and Bridget was a typical part of growing up. One of the two started to separate from her friends and take a more rebellious path. I think that everybody knows someone who kind of split off and became a bit of a rebel in their teen years. It’s always a tough time, as sometimes they come back, but I’ve found that most of the time, they don’t. I think this part of the book was very authentic, and having Bridget’s previous health issues woven into it was interesting.

Another part of the book that I found to be enjoyable was the musical ride group. I really liked reading about the different horses and how Meg trained them. However, I would have preferred it if Robins had gone more into detail about this. The training was constantly brushed aside in favour of Meg’s personal problems. I had the same issue with Appaloosa Summer; the horse stuff was really interesting, but there just wasn’t enough of it!

Even though Meg worked at Carl and Betsy’s Bed and breakfast regularly, this part of the plot was almost non-existent. I really liked reading about this part of Meg’s life in Appaloosa Summer, and I was disappointed that Meg didn’t really do her best in Wednesday Riders. It felt like she often brushed her job off due to her heartbreak, which I guess was kind of acceptable in the beginning, but I have to admit that I felt she owed Carl and Betsy more than that. I eventually started to feel that Meg was acting very immature about this, and she should have tried harder even though she was upset.

In my review of Appaloosa Summer, I mentioned that it was difficult to classify the book as Middle Grade or Young adult. Appaloosa Summer had some light swearing, pulling it out of the Middle Grade category, but the general atmosphere of the book and the issues Meg faced made it feel like the book was for younger readers. Wednesday Riders doesn’t have this problem. There’s still some light swearing, but the content is much more mature. There is also way more romance, and although it’s nothing too explicit, I’d say that Wednesday 

Riders definitely falls into the Young Adult category.

Although I felt that some parts of the book deserved a little more attention, I did enjoy Wednesday Riders. Sure, there were some frustrating parts, but that’s part of growing up. Watch out for the musical ride group and Lacey and Bridget’s fight. I’d recommend this book for people who like horses and enjoy a bit of drama. I didn’t enjoy Wednesday Riders quite as much as the previous book, but I still feel like the series has plenty of potential, and I look forward to the next book.

A free copy was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.