Over the Moon at the Big Lizard Diner

This uplifting love story involving horse psychology, relationships, and the mystery of disappearing dinosaur tracks is engaging and thought-provoking. Johanna Parker smoothly and consistently portrays the lost and bereft veterinarian Lindsey Attwood, cowboy Zach Truitt, and the multitude of fascinating characters who call San Saline, Texas, home. Parker's mastery of the bantering dialogue, as well as her empathetic reading of Lindsey and her daughter's email exchanges, are touching and appealing. Parker's charming narration is expressive and clear, resonating with good humor and real emotions. Listeners will be enchanted as Lindsey falls in love, overcomes her fear of horses, and solves the dinosaur case. S.C.A. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

September 19, 2005
When eight-year-old Sydney leaves Denver to spend the summer in Mexico with her estranged father, Geoff, at the start of this third novel in Wingate's Texas Hill Country series, her mother, divorced paleontologist Lindsey Attwood, doesn't quite know what to do with herself. At the behest of her twin sister, Laura, and girlfriend Collie Collins (the protagonist of the series' first novel, Texas Cooking
), Lindsey finds herself in San Saline, Tex., helping solve a mystery of missing dinosaur tracks on a local ranch while posing as a member of a horse psychology class. Lindsey falls for veterinarian-turned-cowboy Zach Truitt, and as their romance blooms, she wrestles with the problems that consume her: faith, fear and doubts about her ability to love again. Of course, in the end, the horse psychology class actually teaches Lindsey a thing or two—she conquers her fear of horses, makes peace with her ex-husband, solves the dinosaur case and learns to both accept and revel in her new relationship. Wingate attempts to mesh mystery with romance, but with slapdash writing and flat characters, her latest novel comes up short of her previous books' sincerity and warmth. Agent, Claudia Cross.