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Silver Dreams

Sondra Rice Newman
Robert D. Reed Publishers (2006)
ISBN 9781931741569
Reviewed by Audrey Larson for Rebeccas Reads (3/08)

Leigh Meredith was dumped by her boyfriend on Christmas Eve.  Her prestigious and highly-paid job at an advertising agency became stressful and unfulfilling.  The glamour of living in New York City had faded, and she felt living there was increasingly dangerous.

Leigh was ready for a change.  She quit her job, liquidated everything, climbed into her little Miata and headed south, with no real destination or plan in mind.  And so she began the journey into her new life. Landing in a small Virginia horse-country community, Leigh discovers that a simpler life, a modest walk-up apartment, with a new job that pays not much more than minimum wage, and a totally different life from the big city are just what she needs.

Love comes gradually into Leigh’s new life when she discovers a skinny, mistreated and injured dapple gray horse named Silver Dreams and buys him for $500.  Silver Dreams needs her, and Leigh needs him.  They develop an unbreakable bond of love as she nurses him into a beautiful new life.

Mucking out stalls and caring for animals on an older widow’s horse farm is a far cry from New York City living, but Leigh feels happier and freer than ever.  The friendships she forms are with very different types of people, often country-rough, but true.  Bibs McBride, the horse boarding farm owner who introduces Leigh to Silver Dreams, becomes a dear friend and confidant. 

Discovering that Silver Dreams has racing blood, as well as great beauty, Leigh finds Whit, a pro who can train him.  Both Whit and Leigh have been hurt in the past, are leery of relationships and love, and have their ups-and-downs while training Silver Dreams for racing.  Leigh discovers that Whit has a drinking problem and tries to understand what is behind his sometimes distant attitude.  For quite some time, she does not understand him at all.  But Whit is a pro horse trainer, and she trusts his knowledge and expertise.  With great love, care and training, Silver Dreams becomes the true champion he was meant to be.

Leigh has found new friends in her new life, faces different kinds of challenges than she was used to, and learns what real love and happiness are, at last.  Sondra Rice Newman based “Silver Dreams” on a dapple gray horse she spotted at a fairground in Arizona.  She loves horses, knows them, and her imagination produced “Silver Dreams.”  It is a nice, warm love story, and pleasant reading.

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