Fire Horse

Nikki Tate-Stratton writes novels for preteens. Her most recent books
are Jo’s Triumph, Raven’s Revenge, and Tarragon Island.

The second and third books in Sharon Siamon’s Mustang Mountain series
feature three girls, cousins Becky and Alison and their friend Meg.
Becky lives on a ranch in the Rocky Mountains in Alberta but doesn’t
like horses, while Alison and Meg, both riders, hail from New York. In
Fire Horse, Book 2, Alison is as elegant and boy crazy as Meg is short
and awkward. By Book 3, Night Horse, Meg, too, has matured into a
striking girl who attracts her share of male attention. The plots in
both books revolve around a number of dangerous situations the girls
manage to survive with the help of various handsome cowboys and brave,
intelligent horses.

Though these fast-paced adventure stories will likely keep the
horse-obsessed turning pages, there is little substance to offer either
serious readers or knowledgeable riders. The many contrived
coincidences, and implausible plot developments, the stilted dialogue,
and the underdeveloped characters provide little in the way of literary
satisfaction. In these two books, the three girls survive a forest fire,
a shooting, and an attack by a cougar; horses behave in completely
unnatural ways; and characters respond to disasters more like
superheroes than like flesh-and-blood teenagers.

Also unfortunate is Siamon’s decision to split the narrative voice
three ways. The result is a choppy text where the reader never really
gets to know any of the main characters and the relationship between
reader and character remains superficial. Serious horse-lovers will find
the numerous equestrian-related errors more than a little annoying. A
bay horse generally has black points (not white socks); a wild stallion
would not charge into a raging forest fire to rescue horses and riders,
no matter how cute the young mare; and even if everyone managed to stay
mounted and keep the horses under control after a cougar killed a horse
during a trail ride, it would be physically impossible to fit a
full-grown man and a teenager into the same saddle for the ride back to
the ranch.

Though there is nothing wrong with the series concept, there is enough
excitement in these books for a dozen titles. If Siamon had slowed down
a little and spent more time creating fully rounded and believable
characters who face and overcome more-plausible challenges, these books
could have been excellent. Unfortunately, they feel rushed, as if
getting several titles out quickly was more important than solid
research and quality writing. Not recommended