Showdown by Brittney Joy (Review)

Release date: December 19 2014

Publisher: Brittney Joy (via Createspace)

Number of pages: 222 pages

My rating: 4.5/5 stars

Wow, I finally got around to reviewing this after, um… like two months? Oops… I did love this book but I got flooded with homework and work commitments for a while. (And then I got lazy). But really, I couldn't put this book down until I finished! I read both of them in one night, sacrificing sleep.

Lucy goes along with Taylor to a large horse show over a weekend. The two girls did not get along at all in Lucy’s Chance (the first book), but Lucy ends up being Taylor’s helper over the weekend. Taylor is determined to win, and Lucy is just determined to survive the weekend. The book is told from both Lucy and Taylor’s point of views.

Lucy is just as awesome as always. She’s the typical hardworking girl who loves her horse but isn’t really into the whole show scene. She and Chance have a really great relationship, and as always, I really loved reading about her and her horse.

Honestly, I like Lucy, but I really think she was outshone by Taylor this time around. Taylor is just an incredible character. I really loved reading from her perspective. She’s quite wealthy and is very much into showing. I know that sounds like the recipe for one of those typical spoilt rich horse show brats who can’t really ride at all (ugh) that seem to frequent most horse books, but I felt that she very different. Sure, she can be a bit of a jerk sometimes, but she genuinely cares for her horse Star. She’s not above taking care of Star and realising her own mistakes in regards to her riding. She makes some bad decisions and can be really mean to others, but I liked her as a character. She’s flawed, but it’s a realistic kind of flawed. She’s super competitive but also has a bit of compassion.

While Lucy kind of blends in and helps Taylor at the horse show, I feel like Taylor’s role in the book stands out a bit more. Not only is she actually competing, she goes through a lot more than Lucy does in the book.

A new character who I really love is Tiera. She’s so adorable and super sweet, and was the perfect friend to the girls. 

There are plenty of ups and downs in this book, and the horse show stuff was very interesting to read about. There’s plenty of excitement in there as well as a different environment from Red Rock Ranch. I really started to fall in love with the characters and the locations themselves.

I really enjoyed Showdown and would recommend it to people looking for a short-ish, fun, middle grade read about horses.

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