Customer Reviews

Phantom Stallion #19: Secret Star

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

 

 

Mrs. Farley has out done herself on this book. this is the first one i have liked since book 12. if you love the phantom stallion series this book will make you smile and as for me it kinda made me cry in one part but heres a little bit of it.
Secret Star starts off Sam getting ready to meet a famous trainer and bayfire. she meets her and thinks that Inez(The trainers name) was nice Sam goes riding Ace afterwads and she meets Jake by the river and they talk some about her and about jake going to college. they here someone calling for help and they race toward the voice....... i ain't tell you who they find because that will be going to far i just mention you'll hear her name before you meet her. Oops i have said to much! one more hint Ace will be a movie star afterwards. well at least three people know that he is a movie star. If you don't get it sorry. but hope it helps you figure out if you want to by it I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I really enjoyed Secret Star. I thought it was better well-paced than book 17 which went a little too fast. It was really different from the other books though, but not in a bad way. Alot of action, and you won't be able to stop reading it until the end! Then you'll want to read it over again! I know I did. Jake was in this one alot as well, though Jen and alot of the other characters weren't.

My teenage daughter can't get enough of the Phantom Stallion series. and now my younger daughters are reading them. They are very well written and my daughters can't stop reading them and anticipate the next book being printed. They make a great gift to any horse lover.

Okay, for the most part I love this series. I own all the books and I love the author's writing style. But this book is a pretty far step down from the standard! Please don't read further if you don't want spoilers because I am giving some!

So, out of nowhere, a stunt rider (not an actress, a stunt rider who stands in for the actors) shows up with her prized stunt stallion. Now that allow is utterly silly. A five-year-old stallion is a stunt horse with years of experience? For one thing, stallions are almost never used as stunt horses, occasionally the main horse is a stallion, but most of his doubles are geldings or mares, not stallions.

Anyway, she shows up to stay at River Bend Ranch basically to hide the fact that her stallion has "lost his sparkle" to quote the back of the book. Basically, the horse is depressed and unhappy. That is all there is to it. He responds out of habit and hates being brought into work to the point of being aggressive. However, because he has a scene (and no, not a huge dangerous scene like the back of the book says) in two days, they are going to try and "fix" him before then. Again, not realistic. Problems like this take a lot of time to fix.

So, here is Sam, Jake, and Bayfire's (the stunt stallion) owner, Inez all trying to figure out what is wrong with him. It is pretty easy to figure out that the horse is just tired of his job, of being controlled constantly, of being watched constantly, of having demands made constantly. Jake mentions that he needs time to "just be a horse", which is probably right. But they don't do that, instead they ride and mess with him, which is not letting him just be a horse. Realistically, they probably should have turned him out for a few weeks and just let him relax and think things over, but can't do that in the book because of the pressure of the movie. Apparently, Bayfire is the last stunt animal Inez has so everything is riding on him. So, they put money and her business before the horse if we want to be honest. Now, Inez does love Bayfire, but she seems pretty darn worried about fixing him fast so they don't loose their job anyway.

At one point, they go out riding and happen around the Phantom. Predictably as a stallion, Bayfire gets very worked up being around him since stallions very commonly do that around each other. But everyone acts like it is great and that he has his "sparkle" back! What? The horse is screaming, rearing, and nearly uncontrollable! That is not enjoying his job and showing off again, that is him acting like a stallion and ignoring his rider!

They try a few other things, but in the end the day comes when it is time for the stunt and Bayfire is still not "sparkling". So, Inez drags Sam and Ace along to "inspire" Bayfire; apparently, they are not smart enough to make the connection that Bayfire was acting like a stallion around a stallion, and it had nothing to do with the Phantom being a mustang. So, they get ready for the stunt and unrealistically the Phantom is there, apparently just hanging around. Huh? Since when to wild stallions leave their herds to stand around 10 feet from a bunch of strange humans lugging around tons of equipment? Bayfire freaks out completely and runs away, and Sam ends up doing the stunt. She did not really intend to; she was trying to encourage Bayfire to do it. The "dangerous" stunt is really just jumping across a tiny waterfall, not diving off a cliff or anything like they make it sound on the back of the book.

Now, they are all worried, but the film crew caught Sam doing the stunt and the director thought it was Inez and Bayfire and liked it so they kept it to cover up that Bayfire could not do the job. Not exactly promoting honesty, though for a nice reason I guess. But what really annoys me is that we are supposed to believe they could not tell the difference between a 13-year-old in sweats riding a 14 hand mustang bareback and an adult woman wearing a peasant outfit on a 16.2 stallion wearing a saddle? Come on, even if it was at a distance you could tell! Even silhouetted, you could tell because of the outline of the saddle and clothes! But apparently not the people in the book so they get away with it.

Oh, and even more unrealistic to me, is that they still think mustangs have something to do with Bayfire acting up! Oh, and they don't call it acting badly, which is what rearing, bolting, and all that is; they act like it is good because he is "exciting" again. So, Sam tells Inez that she will keep the secret if Inez adopts a mustang to be "Bayfire's inspiration". What?! You have got to be kidding! So, what she is going to adopt a mustang stallion for someone to hold off screen so that anytime Bayfire has to act fiery he can see/smell the other stallion and completely go wild again? Sorry, but rearing, screaming, and not listening to his handler is not being "fiery", it is just plain dangerous! That really annoyed me. They did nothing to really help Bayfire, they just have apparently decided to use his natural instincts to rile him up, regardless of if they can actually keep him controlled and from hurting himself or others.

The "solution" for Bayfire's problem really irritated me. There was much more in the book, but a lack of older characters. They briefly introduced a young actress who was shallow and pointless as far as I can understand. She is nice to men, nasty to Sam, and polite to adults. She is all about animals and I guess I was supposed to feel touched and sorry for her since she "had a bad childhood" or something, but really I just found her annoying and saw no reason for her in the book.

The writing style is still nice, but this story was really pretty awful. The way Bayfire was handled was totally unrealistic and sets a bad example, at least to me.

I LOVE THIS BOOK IT MADE ME SCREAM WHEN I GOT IT. YOU WILL LOVE THIS SO STOP WATCHING TV AND PICK UP A BOOK. YOU WON'T REGREAT IT.Phantom Stallion #19: Secret Star (Phantom Stallion) YOU CAN GET IT AT AMAZON.COM. I LOVE THIS BOOK. I HOPE YOU'LL WILL TO.

I loved this book! It was good,but it wasnt my favorite.I cant wait to read the rest of the series!! I cant believe theres only like six more books!!:( but im really excited about reading phantom stallion wild horse island!!

If your looking for another great series and you love horses like i do!! Then you definitely need to read the Heartland series by Lauren Brooke.
Its about a girl named Amy Fleming. Her and her mother help abused and neglected horses that need to learn to trust humans, but after Amys mother dies in a horrible accident. Amy has to keep the business going. Can she do it or will the business fall under the pressure?!

This is a great book, but sometimes it got a little boring. It seemed like the author just wrote some words down for some of it. It's about a movie star horse coming to River Bend Ranch. The horse seemed to have lost its spark. And Sam needs to help him.

FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK-I DIDN'T WRITE THIS!!!!
**********************
A movie star horse and his trainer are coming to Riverbend Ranch, and Samantha can't wait. But when Bayfire shows up, something is obviously wrong. The famous stallion has lost his sparkle.

Bayfire has to get ready for his biggest, most dangerous scene of his new movie. If Sam can't help bring back the stallion's firey spirit, his career could be over-and someone could get hurt.
*************************
I thought Secret Star was alright, but I seriously think the Phantom Stallion books are on a downgrade. In this book a weird actress just pops up out of nowhere in an airplane, and I can't help but wonder where all the other characters have gone. Callie, the HARP girls, Mrs. Allen- even Jen wasn't in this book! If you read this book randomly without having read any of the other phantom Stallion books, you may like it. But it may be a bit of a dissapointment to those who have been reading the series all along.

In all, it was a pretty good book, but I know Terri can do better.