Stacy Gregg's Pony Club Rivals

I had a wonderfully giggly and escapist weekend with friends and new books. I enjoy reading for plot just as much as reading for trends in the industry. Somehow, I was never really a pony book reader, I appear to have missed Stacy Gregg and her new series Pony Club Rivals and I'd recommend them for an engaging distraction from reality. The Auditions is the first in a series and it's a beautiful updating of the boarding school story set at an exclusive riding school for future champions of dressage and showjumping. Based in the US, it recruits via a series of complicated competitions and it seems that the heroine has more chances to compete for entry than anyone. A perfect beginning of misunderstandings, false accusations and no outright victory leads on to the rocky and uncertain road to the dream school complete with the emotional turmoil of teenage hormones and the knowledge that your mother, tragically killed in a riding accident naturally, was a better rider at your age. Plenty of horsey detail and enough terminology to muddle the non-rider, but there are good friendship subplots, silly tricks and scrapes to keep the story galloping (sorry) along. You even get a couple of polo matches.