RACING DESIRE

by Pamela H Bender

BOOK DESCRIPTION: 

A heart-pounding adventure from the first page to the last, Racing Desire is the perfect book to begin Bender’s new series, Living Passionately. Jo is an orphan and although only 5 feet, she owns, breeds, grooms, trains and races horses on the farm she inherited. Jo learned the hard way that the next race can be her next accident, but she’s bound and determined to save her reputation and achieve her father’s last dream by going for the win. Sam, a mean drunk who already drove her off the track and into the hospital, is willing to do anything to keep that from happening. With only old Ruben at her side, Jo ignores the warnings of the entire horse community and clings to her dream of vindication and victory. When Brad, a southern vet filling in for old Doc, strides into her barn, Jo is reminded that life has more to offer than just winning races. Their love seems doomed from the start until a little goat named Nanny shows up on the farm and reminds them of the power of love. Racing Desire is a story of bravery, loss, determination, jealousy, hard work, lust and fortitude. Bender delivers a suspense-filled, page-turner, which will take you into the real world of harness racing.

MY REVIEW

 The story takes place in Hanover, PA, the harness horse racing world.  I loved the setting.  I’m a farm girl at heart, lived on one for seven years before it got washed away.

Pamela Bender added some minor characters which helped the story, and they weren’t human.  I loved her dog Rowdy and the goat Nanny.  Jo Martin is the primary character with Brad Kirby as the secondary.  I liked the way the author introduced Brad Kirby to Jo Martin.  I cried where I was supposed to and smiled at other times.

What I had a problem with was the POV.  The first few chapters and the latter chapters were fine.  But in the middle, she switched the POV so many times between Jo and Brad that they started sounding alike.  The characters lost their individuality.  And I felt she got lost in her plot.  Didn’t really have the middle of the story fleshed out.  In her bio, she stated she dusted this manuscript off after sitting for over 20 years and changed the character traits for Jo.  Maybe that was the problem.

There also wasn’t a lot of conflict.  She had a tendency to Tell the story instead of Showing it.  That could’ve been the issue.  I did lose my interest in the middle, but kept with it and the ending was much better.  Didn’t quite end the way I thought it should.  A typical romance ending, but still not what I expected.  Felt like the ending was rushed.

I did find a few editing issues, but nothing to detract from the reading of the story.  Overall I enjoyed the story and would recommend it.  I give it 4 feathers.