Post by Claire on Jun 22, 2012 17:27:00 GMT 1
GOING THE DISTANCE by CHRISTINA JONES
MAIN CHARACTERS:
MADDY - Our heroine
DREW – Good looking and wealthy horse trainer
PETER – Maddy’s ex
SUZY – Maddy’s younger sister, a jockey
FRAN – Maddy’s best friend
CAROLINE – Drew’s wife
DIANA – Philandering trainer
CHARLIE – Sex-mad jockey
SUMMARY:
Adult story set in the fictional racing community of Milton St. John. Maddy, slightly plump and more than slightly eccentric runs a cleaning business amongst the racing set. She is recovering from a break up with business-man Peter and learning to stand on her own two feet again when she meets Drew, the wealthy good-looking new owner of the stables next to where she lives. Despite a shaky start she and Drew get on well and Maddy finds herself falling for him. The only problem is that he is married, to the beautiful and slim Caroline.
In the meantime there are two dramas going on in the village. Firstly the village residents are in uproar about the proposed building of a golf course by Maddy’s ex-boyfriend Peter. Secondly the upcoming Derby is causing a fracas when Maddy’s friend Fran’s husband is jocked off the favourite for the race by the trainer Diana and replaced by a glamourous new jockey. Maddy is recruited to help in both cases and becomes entangled in a whirlwind of clandestine goings-on, blackmail and chaos, not to mention having to fight off the advances of sex mad jockey Charlie.
Will peace be restored to the village and will she get her man?
REVIEW:
Before we start I must mention a couple of things: 1) this is unashamedly ‘chick lit’ and 2) there is not really much horse content in the book. This does not sound promising and if I had known these two facts before I started I probably would not even have picked up the book. I don’t normally go in for chick-lit or romance. The masterful manly heroes and the simpering heroines who allow themselves to be dominated really set my feminist tendancies on edge. I don’t do designer clothes, I hate shopping and I just don’t understand that thing with women and shoes at all. However my copy of the book had a horse on the front and it mentioned in the blurb it was set in the racing world so I naturally gave it a go. And no, when I realised what sort of book it really was I didn’t throw it down in disgust.
Why? Because although following the usual romantic plot and having the usual ditzy heroine, this was not the same old written-by-numbers example of the genre. Most of all it was the humour in the book that made it such a good read. It really is very funny, from the start of the book with Maddy accidentally opening the door in her stockings and suspenders and causing the local postie to fall off his bike, to the hilarious village punch up when half the local bigwigs end up in the village stream. The humour comes from an excellent observation of the absurdities of life and runs the full gamut from ironic comment to downright farce.
Secondly although there are stereotyped characters such as the glamourous wife, the predatory older woman, the sex-mad lothario, many of these characters have an extra dimension or a quirk which makes them more believable and three dimensional. The hero Drew is no text book Mills ‘n’ Boon type, all smouldering mastery. Although on the surface he appears cut from the same cloth we soon learn he is kind and considerate, a far nicer more human character than those awful domineering males in many romances. The ‘other woman’ in the scenario, Caroline, is not portrayed as an evil uncaring bitch, in fact Maddy likes her and they even become friends.
The character of Maddy herself is another reason this book was a pleasure to read. She is a very engaging and sympathetic character. I like the fact that she is not amazingly beautiful or perfect but is still attractive and sexy. I like the fact that she is eccentric and wears Oxfam clothes instead of designer labels. She is completely human.
Also appealing is that, unlike many romances, this book is full of strong female characters, and women fulfilling typical ‘male’ roles. There are female trainers, female jockeys and businesswoman. But at the same time they haven’t been turned into masculine parodies of men.
Another departure from the norm is the fact that the world of the book is not impossibly glamourous and money-festooned. Yes, there are some glam characters and some rich ones, but these are balanced out by the far more down-to-earth people and scenarios. The rich and impeccably beautiful trainer Diana in her designer clothes is almost parodied by the extra-large no-nonsense trainer Kimberley who prefers gardening to shopping. And then there is the bossy busy-body shop-keeper Bronwyn, and the local Chavs, neither of whom you would expect to see in a book purporting to be set in the ‘rich and glamourous’ world of racing. Maddy’s tiny tumbledown cottage with its oddly shaped kitchen and boiler that doesn’t work is a far cry from the uber-glam mansions that appear in so many of these sorts of story. Even Maddy’s profession, as a cleaner, is not one you’d normally expect in a romantic heroine!
In short, although this book does not move far from the normal chick lit plot and does include girly things like shopping, clothes and romance, everything is slightly skewed, slightly different from the norm.
The only quibble I have is that there could have been more horsy content. Although the characters are almost all trainers or jockeys, actual horses don’t appear very much and the racing scene is more of a backdrop than part of the story. However, as it never purports to be particularly horsy, this is a minor flaw. I think you must, as horse-loving reader, enjoy the book for itself and take the equine parts as an added bonus.
This is the ideal book for a beach read or when you want something light and funny to cheer you up. At the risk of sounding sexist I am not sure if a male reader would appreciate the book to the same extent. However I think most female readers will enjoy it, even those who wouldn’t normally touch chick lit with a very long stick. This is chick lit for all, even scruffy, shopping-phobic feminists like myself will giggle at the antics of the characters of Milton St. John.
I would rate is as 4 Horseshoes (very good).
MAIN CHARACTERS:
MADDY - Our heroine
DREW – Good looking and wealthy horse trainer
PETER – Maddy’s ex
SUZY – Maddy’s younger sister, a jockey
FRAN – Maddy’s best friend
CAROLINE – Drew’s wife
DIANA – Philandering trainer
CHARLIE – Sex-mad jockey
SUMMARY:
Adult story set in the fictional racing community of Milton St. John. Maddy, slightly plump and more than slightly eccentric runs a cleaning business amongst the racing set. She is recovering from a break up with business-man Peter and learning to stand on her own two feet again when she meets Drew, the wealthy good-looking new owner of the stables next to where she lives. Despite a shaky start she and Drew get on well and Maddy finds herself falling for him. The only problem is that he is married, to the beautiful and slim Caroline.
In the meantime there are two dramas going on in the village. Firstly the village residents are in uproar about the proposed building of a golf course by Maddy’s ex-boyfriend Peter. Secondly the upcoming Derby is causing a fracas when Maddy’s friend Fran’s husband is jocked off the favourite for the race by the trainer Diana and replaced by a glamourous new jockey. Maddy is recruited to help in both cases and becomes entangled in a whirlwind of clandestine goings-on, blackmail and chaos, not to mention having to fight off the advances of sex mad jockey Charlie.
Will peace be restored to the village and will she get her man?
REVIEW:
Before we start I must mention a couple of things: 1) this is unashamedly ‘chick lit’ and 2) there is not really much horse content in the book. This does not sound promising and if I had known these two facts before I started I probably would not even have picked up the book. I don’t normally go in for chick-lit or romance. The masterful manly heroes and the simpering heroines who allow themselves to be dominated really set my feminist tendancies on edge. I don’t do designer clothes, I hate shopping and I just don’t understand that thing with women and shoes at all. However my copy of the book had a horse on the front and it mentioned in the blurb it was set in the racing world so I naturally gave it a go. And no, when I realised what sort of book it really was I didn’t throw it down in disgust.
Why? Because although following the usual romantic plot and having the usual ditzy heroine, this was not the same old written-by-numbers example of the genre. Most of all it was the humour in the book that made it such a good read. It really is very funny, from the start of the book with Maddy accidentally opening the door in her stockings and suspenders and causing the local postie to fall off his bike, to the hilarious village punch up when half the local bigwigs end up in the village stream. The humour comes from an excellent observation of the absurdities of life and runs the full gamut from ironic comment to downright farce.
Secondly although there are stereotyped characters such as the glamourous wife, the predatory older woman, the sex-mad lothario, many of these characters have an extra dimension or a quirk which makes them more believable and three dimensional. The hero Drew is no text book Mills ‘n’ Boon type, all smouldering mastery. Although on the surface he appears cut from the same cloth we soon learn he is kind and considerate, a far nicer more human character than those awful domineering males in many romances. The ‘other woman’ in the scenario, Caroline, is not portrayed as an evil uncaring bitch, in fact Maddy likes her and they even become friends.
The character of Maddy herself is another reason this book was a pleasure to read. She is a very engaging and sympathetic character. I like the fact that she is not amazingly beautiful or perfect but is still attractive and sexy. I like the fact that she is eccentric and wears Oxfam clothes instead of designer labels. She is completely human.
Also appealing is that, unlike many romances, this book is full of strong female characters, and women fulfilling typical ‘male’ roles. There are female trainers, female jockeys and businesswoman. But at the same time they haven’t been turned into masculine parodies of men.
Another departure from the norm is the fact that the world of the book is not impossibly glamourous and money-festooned. Yes, there are some glam characters and some rich ones, but these are balanced out by the far more down-to-earth people and scenarios. The rich and impeccably beautiful trainer Diana in her designer clothes is almost parodied by the extra-large no-nonsense trainer Kimberley who prefers gardening to shopping. And then there is the bossy busy-body shop-keeper Bronwyn, and the local Chavs, neither of whom you would expect to see in a book purporting to be set in the ‘rich and glamourous’ world of racing. Maddy’s tiny tumbledown cottage with its oddly shaped kitchen and boiler that doesn’t work is a far cry from the uber-glam mansions that appear in so many of these sorts of story. Even Maddy’s profession, as a cleaner, is not one you’d normally expect in a romantic heroine!
In short, although this book does not move far from the normal chick lit plot and does include girly things like shopping, clothes and romance, everything is slightly skewed, slightly different from the norm.
The only quibble I have is that there could have been more horsy content. Although the characters are almost all trainers or jockeys, actual horses don’t appear very much and the racing scene is more of a backdrop than part of the story. However, as it never purports to be particularly horsy, this is a minor flaw. I think you must, as horse-loving reader, enjoy the book for itself and take the equine parts as an added bonus.
This is the ideal book for a beach read or when you want something light and funny to cheer you up. At the risk of sounding sexist I am not sure if a male reader would appreciate the book to the same extent. However I think most female readers will enjoy it, even those who wouldn’t normally touch chick lit with a very long stick. This is chick lit for all, even scruffy, shopping-phobic feminists like myself will giggle at the antics of the characters of Milton St. John.
I would rate is as 4 Horseshoes (very good).
This one is above average and it's funnier than most. I really like the heroine too. It could have done with a little but more horsey bits. She could have gone out riding with Drew more or they could have set more scenes in the stables. Otherwise excellent and glad to see there are more in the series to read. 4 Horseshoes from me.
