The Horse Dancer by Jojo Moyes

This was a wonderful story to read that perhaps is very much close to the title and yet is a unique story that strays from the title as well.. It is somewhat predictive in places though, for example you recognize where the characters are likely to become close and connected to one another, but there still remains mystery within the pages in that there are still things for you to read and to not expect. I feel that the author has taken great care in making the book feel as realistic as possible, in that the characters did truly seem to come alive, and it did feel as if it were something that could actually happen within the reality of the world, outside of the book.

What made me chuckle though was the locality of the book, in that it was areas that I could very much relate and connect to, my home town being included in the writing. This for me was an added bonus because that meant that I could truly close my eyes and image everything that was going on. I could image a girl riding a horse down the A2, through gillingham and Dartford. That for me really made me connect to the book even more, made me want to read right through to the end so that I could see what fate had in store for young sarah. One thing that did get me frustrated though was the fact that sarah was left with two people that were not in anyway connected to her.

I suppose this is mainly because of my social work studies. In that I know that a child would not just be left with two people without all the proper arrangments being made, files being filled out and history being looked through. It seems that she gained the easy path there, but of course this is just a book, and we know, or we at least hope, that this is not what the social workers are doing today, that they are checking the historical backgrounds of foster parents and the family connection, if any. In some ways the book made me think of black beauty, but only because of its connection to the horse, but the way the author describes the horse with such detail and description, in that she makes the horse sound beautiful, really draws you in and you can't help but imagine a picture of it in your mind.

All in all, I would say this was one of the better reads. It was a book that I enjoyed and is one that I would recommend to others if they were looking for a book to read on the spare moment.