Anyone who grew up – as I did – devouring any and all horse-related books, from Marguerite Henry’s
Misty of Chincoteague and Bonnie Bryant’s
The Saddle Club to Walter Farley’s
The Black Stallion series and Mary O’Hara’s
My Friend Flicka, will recognize themselves in the opening passage of Susan Juby's
Another Kind of Cowboy:
In the beginning…
There was Del Magnifico le Noir. If you didn’t know better, you might have mistaken him for a dark-blue Norco bike, but to six-year-old Alex Ford, Magnifico was a three-year-old Thoroughbred, reminiscent of the Black Stallion. Like the Black Stallion, Magnifico was given to bursts of thrilling speed, which is why Alex kept a red dog leash tied to his handlebars.
Continue Reading…
Of all the literary sisters of Bridget Jones, Hester Browne’s Melissa Romney-Jones (a.k.a. Honey Blennerhesket) is one of the most charming.
Not that Melissa would really find Bridget a kindred spirit. Melissa is a more old-fashioned girl who would never let her standards down far enough to drink and smoke and slack off at work as much as Bridget and her friends, and she wouldn’t be at home with their sarcastic humor. (Melissa never gets double entendres.) Though of course she would make perfectly cheerful conversation with any of them at a party—nice girls do, after all.
But her spunky optimism and determination to find true love make Melissa Bridget’s sister under the skin.
We first met Melissa in The Little Lady Agency, when Melissa decided to put her unusual talents to use by opening a business under that name. All of her old-fashioned domestic accomplishments (not to mention her busty figure that fits 1950s-era clothes better than modern fashions) and her firm belief in the social niceties made her the perfect advisor for London’s clueless bachelors.
Continue Reading…
Bust out the bunnies, chicks, and ducklings for their annual celebration of the return of spring! We have a wonderful collection of hippity-hoppity stories that remind us that Easter is on its way!
Continue Reading…
