Book Review: Finding Daylight

Disclaimer: I was given a free copy of this eBook to read and review. All thoughts are 100% my own and are given without restraint.

Finding Daylight by Mara Dabrishus

Synopsis

“Georgie Quinn and the filly Sweet Bells are an unbeatable team. When they win the Breeders’ Cup Classic against colts, the world can’t seem to get enough. Overnight, Georgie becomes the face of horse racing, and Sweet Bells becomes its queen.

Although they’re the morning line favorites, Georgie feels like she’s barely keeping her head above water. Her parents’ farm is a crumbling has-been, her jockey career consumes her time, and Harris Armstrong, heir to Tupelo Stud and grandson of Sweet Bells’ owner, won’t forgive her for telling a lie that kept her family together as the truth ripped his apart.

Georgie refuses to apologize, so she’s stunned when Harris asks her to ride his new colt. The most tenuous partnership in racing has begun. One that threatens to swallow Georgie whole.”

-from Amazon.com

Review

This is the first of two novels I’m reviewing for you by Mara Dabrishus. Look for the second review, Stay the Distance, sometime next week.

I want to start this review off by saying just how much I loved the main character, Georgie Quinn. She is a real girl and has real problems. Sometimes she handles them with grace and maturity, and sometimes she handles them like the seventeen year old girl she is.

While the synopsis seems like the story is going to focus on both Sweet Bells and Harris’ colt, Roman, the real focus is Georgie’s journey. Things start off on a real high for Georgie as she has just won the Breeders’ Cup Classic with her parent’s homebred, Sweet Bells. Things should be smooth sailing. But things are never that easy, as Georgie has to come to terms with when her riding starts to suffer and she’s taken off her beloved Bells.

And that’s not the only thing that Georgie is struggling with. Her home is up for sale, her father is struggling with a drinking problem, and, if that’s not enough, Georgie is struggling with her feelings for Harris.

While I loved the main character, Georgie, the story was a bit hard to follow with it’s back and forth nature and no clear switch from present to past. In my opinion, the narrative also made the reveal a bit anti-climatic and when we found out the big scandal I sort of went, huh, that’s it?

Despite that, the ending was perfect. Not everything is resolved with a happy ending but I did feel like everything was resolved perfectly. And while Dabrishus does leave you on a bit of a cliff hanger, it really was the only way to end Georgie’s whirlwind of a story.

Final Thoughts

I had so much fun reading this novel and it brought up a lot of nostalgia. I felt sort of like I was reading a Thoroughbred novel only set in the more modern era. This is one author I will be keeping an eye on for future work!