The Girl with the Broken Heart

October 1, 2018
Her heart problem is the least of the issues standing between Kenzie and love.Kenzie Caine grew up as the pampered, privileged daughter of a well-known breeder of Tennessee walking horses. When she discovered her father and his trainer were abusing their horses to enhance their performance, Kenzie turned her back on her family--making her feel doubly guilty over the suicide of her younger sister due to bullying. Now, in the summer after her sophomore year of college, she's working on a horse farm, rehabilitating rescue horses. Despite her heart condition, the result of a childhood bout with Kawasaki disease, she is fit and physically capable. Enter Austin Boyd, kicking off a series of clichéd moments and statements like "Fire from Kenzie was better than ice." Kenzie struggles to let Austin in, afraid to risk her heart. She has a plan for her life--to become an equine veterinarian, not to fall in love. Yet her feelings for Austin keep growing stronger. Will learning the secrets Austin has been hiding make Kenzie put her walls back up? The trite romantic trappings aren't helped by stilted prose that contains reams of exposition. Neither Austin nor Kenzie is a distinct character, due in large part to the frequent and clumsy point-of-view shifts. All characters appear to be white and living lives of privilege.Put this one out to pasture. (Inspirational romance. 16-adult)

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October 15, 2018
Grades 7-10 Kenzie has landed a dream summer job working on a farm to rehabilitate rescue horses. Part of its appeal is that she can distract herself from the tragedy of her sister's suicide, her own personal health issues, and a serious feud with her father, also a horse-farm owner, who, until recently, condoned an abusive practice known as soring to make horses perform a crowd-pleasing high step in shows. Austin has been hired to help Kenzie, setting the stage for a potential romance between the two lead characters who have enough secrets between them to keep the plot pulsing with drama. Neither wants or plans to fall in love, and they fight hard against it, but readers, and especially McDaniel fans, will quickly detect romance in the air from their first meeting. Despite a plot overloaded with issues to the point of melodrama, the suspense is skillfully paced, and the characters well rendered and appealing. Horse-lovers and romance readers are in for a treat with this poignant yet action-packed page-turner.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)