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Published Jun 2023
416 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
Set in the glamorous, competitive world of showjumping, a novel about the girls who ride, their cutthroat mothers, and a suspicious death at a horse show…from the author of Good Rich People
When the nouveau riche Parker family moves to an exclusive community in the heart of Southern California, they believe it's their chance at a fresh start. Heather Parker is determined to give her daughters the life she never had—starting with horses.
She signs them up for riding lessons at Rancho Santa Fe Equestrian, where horses are a lifestyle. Heather becomes a "Barn Mom," part of a group of wealthy women who hang at the stables, drink wine, and prepare their daughters for competition.
It's not long before the Parker family is fully enmeshed in the horse world—from mean girl cliques to barn romances and dark secrets. With the end of summer horse show fast approaching, the pressure is on, and these mothers will stop at nothing to give their daughters everything they deserve.
Before the summer is over, lies will turn lethal, accidents will happen, and someone will end up dead.
"Horse mothers put stage mothers to shame in this wildly entertaining thriller." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"[U]npacks enough mean-girl drama and emotion to fill a horse barn. Equipment tampering, underage drinking, and animal doping will keep readers turning the pages, and long-kept secrets, unplanned pregnancies, and power-hungry manipulators add to the novel's can't-look-away storyline. Laughing at rich-people problems is a popular theme, but Brazier makes us feel for her characters, rich and poor, and delivers a blue-ribbon story of the haves and have-nots. Horses and young riders are center stage, but dysfunctional adults steal the show in this moody mystery." —Kirkus Reviews
"This recommended, well-written suspense poses questions about the cost of parents living vicariously through their children." —Library Journal
"Tensions have always run high in the elite (and usually, rich) equestrian world. Girls and Their Horses dials up the intrigue by several degrees, embedding a new-money family into an insular and highly competitive horseback riding community—where deceit, romance, and even murder aren't out of the question in pursuit of a blue ribbon." —Harper's Bazaar
"A wickedly delicious deep dive into the world of horse-crazy girls, whiskey-soaked barn parties, and high-octane show-jumping circuits...But the cutthroat competition turns lethal when a corpse turns up at the summer show, and both mother and daughters must wrestle with what's truly important…a fabulous ride!" —Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Diamond Eye
"At turns hilarious and heartbreaking, Girls and Their Horses has Brazier's razor sharp insight and blistering social commentary, combined with a plot so subtly tense you'll hold your breath for whole chapters." —Kiersten White, New York Times bestselling author of Hide
"Does for horse girls what Megan Abbott's Dare Me did for cheerleaders…A powerful, searing novel of hierarchy, desire, and desperation, told by a brilliant storyteller unafraid to take risks." —Ashley Winstead, author of The Last Housewife
This information about Girls and Their Horses was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Eliza Jane Brazier is an author, screenwriter, and journalist. Eliza entered the horse world at the age of 5 and has worked as a rider, horse trainer and riding instructor. She currently lives in California with her horse and dogs, where she is developing her books for television.
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