Customer Reviews

Night Ride Home

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I met a romance writer at a writer's conference a few years ago. She told me that I was missing out on some wondering writing because I assumed that all romances belonged on the shelf labeled "trash." I decided to be more open-minded and take a field trip to the book store's Romance section. Sorry to say, what I saw there didn't change my mind: cliches for character, wooden writing and predictable plots. Consequently, when I hear the word "romance" used to describe a book, I run the other way. But now there's a reason not to run. Because we graduated from the same Writing Program and have stayed in touch, I had the good fortune to receive an advance copy of Barbara Esstman's Night Ride Home. I cringed when I read Harcourt Brace's blurb about a "man and a woman who wage the fight of their lives for a second chance at love." Sounds like the stuff of melodramatic romance, doesn't it? But it's not. Night Ride Home is an intelligent, perceptive look at how people must redefine themselves in the aftermath of tradegy. The writing is lyrical. The characters feel like flesh-and-blood and the story is both complex and compelling. Read it.

At times this book was so good and so sad I could hardly bear it. Her writing is fresh and interesting. Male bashers will love this book. Those who aren't will still find many truths in it about the male half of the universe. The horses and family and women were wonderful. I don't think men would like this book. She took some hard topics, the death of a child, the death of a loved animal and dealt with them straight up in very lovely language.

I loved this book and was very disappointed in the Hallmark presentation. They took a book about a verbally abused woman who, after a tragedy, gets a second chance to fulfill herself and changed it into a movie about a man finally becoming the head of his household. They totally turned it around and made the husband into the good guy and the wife a selfish, self-centered person. The husband doesn't shoot the horse but the wife almost does!! This was not the book I read. I wish they had just used some other book and not ruined one with a totally different message and story.

I read this one several years ago and read it again recently. It's very good. Not all choppy or slurply. Simply a pleasure to read.

I felt that this book was beautifully written, and says a lot about human nature. I think that this book would appeal more to a female audience because of the focus on a woman who has to deal with the death of a child and the realization of the fact that her marriage is falling apart. I like that fact that each chapter is told from a different character's point-of-view giving you insight into each of them. I also liked the fact that it was a romance novel but not a sappy one. This was true to life and easy to relate to making the novel more appealing to an audience. I personally would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys romance and happy endings.

I've always read the classics---Bronte sisters, Austen, because I couldn't find a modern day writer that wrote romances without all the sappy, Fabio-like prose. I am a horse nut, which probably helped, but friends that have read it who are not horse nuts also loved it. It is touching and makes you think. There are times when I felt angry at the main character but in the end, those tears keep rolling.....

I found this book very romantic, in a non-trashy way. The author wrote of so many individual family/friends emotions that people go through with the lose of a loved-one, even worse a child. Then took you through the many difficult days thereafter which lead to a wonderful, long abandoned love affair - so strong that it would surely last the length of time. Though I am not a horse fancier I did find this title very easy to read, though occasionally slow at times, but very delightful. The end brought tears to my eyes.

The story of grief and the rediscovery of hope and genuine love takes place on a horse ranch in the Missouri flood plains. You can see the winds, smell the barn and feel the horses' manes during four seasons. You see the story from each of the major characters' viewpoint while their lives are completely transformed. The book is passionant, honest and beautifully written. If you want to understand what women want, this will explain it all.

This page-turning story is filled with heart-warming romance and the pain of reality. I found myself giving Nora advice and hating Neal for his selfishness. You tend to see a lot of yourself in Nora when she has these major decisions to make about her life and the life of her daughter in coping with the death of her son. This story makes you look at your life and wonder if you could have the same strength as Nora. This book was written elequently.

There aren't all that many novels that are decently written and have realistically portrayed horses in the background. This thoughtful, well-written novel kept me reading avidly.