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GIVEAWAY & REVIEW: My Favorite Mistake by Georgina Bloomberg & Catherine Hapka @BloomsburyBooks

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Book Description

Publication Date: February 28, 2012 | Series: Circuit Novels
Tommi, Zara, and Kate are all elite riders on the A Circuit. Tommi, the billionaire heiress, is training a young horse to prove she can make horses a real career. But when her new beau, Alex, convinces her to skip a horse show to party in the Hamptons, the results could be disastrous. Zara, the celebutante wild child, is finally taking her riding seriously. Until the new “nanny” her dad hires threatens to upstage Zara’s party girl status. Then there’s Kate. She doesn’t have money to burn like the others, but she does have Fitz, the barn’s resident hot guy. But when the pressure of being a working student builds, Kate’s perfectionist tendencies threaten to get in the way of her relationship and her riding.

Readers who are growing out of the Canterwood Crest series or searching for an A-list fix have found just what they’re looking for in the A Circuit series.


AAbout the Author

Georgina Bloomberg is the younger daughter of New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. An accomplished equestrian, Georgina travels the circuit with her horses and lends her time to many equine charities. A portion of her proceeds from this book will be donated to the Equestrian Aid Foundation.Catherine Hapka has published many books for children and young adults. She keeps three horses at her small farm in Pennsylvania.

Details

  • Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens; 1 edition (February 28, 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1599906422
  • ISBN-13: 978-1599906423
SOURCE: PUBLISHER

MY THOUGHTS
LOVED IT

After hearing about horse shows from my niece and wondering why there aren’t more horse themed books for teens, well, I was thrilled to be offered this one from Bloomsbury.  Take a group of girls, some with more money than sense, throw in world class athletic ability and stir in some mean girls and you have a story that is hard to put down.  Tommi, an heiress, tries to overcome the fact that she can have anything she wants by training a horse by herself to prove her worth.  Unfortunately, she gets sidetracked by a guy Alex, who is pretty selfish. Zara, another girl with money and celebrity parents, is trying to put her party girl image behind her and become a responsible rider except she too gets sidetracked by family issues.  Kate, the poor girl, (relatively speaking), must work for everything except that she has secrets and her perfectionism starts to take over her life and possibly ruin her health as well.

The story focuses on the competiveness that occurs in world class riding known as the A Circuit.  Horses are expensive, the care and maintenance is hard work, well, unless you are rich like Zara and Tommi.  Kate must work for everything she gets, but she does have Fitz, a barn worker to help her out and he does sound really hot.  Kate is the character I was drawn to most.  She has an almost OCD like perfectionism about her and when that evolves into an eating disorder, it is handled expertly by the authors.  You can tell they poured their knowledge and expertise into each chapter. Even though I am not a horse person, my best friend was a competitive rider and reading this brought back a lot of memories of watching her care for her horses and her rides.

Overall, I enjoyed the characters and the competitive horse riding gives a new twist to the current crop of teen angst novels.  I did feel like I wanted to yell at all of them at times to wake up and stop feeling sorry for themselves.  Tommi and Zara have a completely set of issues with mostly absent parents while Kate has control issues.  There are mentions of alcohol, sexual situations, and some langues, but nothing too harsh.  I would recommend this for those teens older than 13.  



WANT TO WIN THIS BOOK?

 Contest is open to anyone over 13 years old with a US  mailing address (sorry, no PO Boxes!)
This ends 3.11.12 midnight Pacific Time and the winner will be chosen by Random.org on 3.12.12.
Winner will have 48 hours to respond to email or a new winner will be chosen
This giveaway is sponsored byBloomsbury and  me  ONE WINNER.

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Comments

  1. I love horse stories! Sadly, they are seriously lacking in teen books. I’d love to see horses make a comeback, like zombies or vampires or whatever. Not as a love interest – ew – but you know. Just horsey stories. One of my favorites is Blind Beauty by K.M. Peyton, if you want to check it out.:] I can’t wait to give this one a try – Thanks for the giveaway!

    teddycavygal at yahoo dot com

  4. This book sounds great! I love horse stories. But, I like cowboys too!
    thanks for the giveaway!
    delivery.RN at gmail dot com

  5. GABI

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