GRR Reviews All The King's Horses by Lauren Gallagher

All the King's Horses has a great plot that basically has a widow rediscovering herself by working elsewhere, and in the meanwhile, fall in love.

Amy Dover always wanted to train horses, and she was a dressage and jump champion. But death of her husband had caused her to lose all feeling... that she just had to go away... so she drove out of town with just one bag, to the other side of the state, to take up a menial job basically as a farm hand at King's Ranch, and met Dustin King. Dustin King trained, boarded, and rescued horses all his life. His rescue horses are often so skittish due to prior abuse, he's had his hands full, esp. when one of their farmhands just quit. But Amy doesn't look like a farmhand, and her indifference to the horses sends the wrong kind of shivers up his spine. But Dustin soon found Amy's indifference is a facade hiding the hurt, and assigning her the two rescue horses seems to be thawing the ice. In caring for the two rescue horses, Amy found she had found something else she thought she had lost... the ability to love something... or perhaps, someone like Dustin... But Amy knew sooner or later she had to go back to her old life... and leave Dustin and the horses behind...

The novel is sad and poignant, yet full of hope on a road of self-discovery. The grief that Amy felt was not merely for the loss, but also mixed feelings toward her dead husband, who's NOT an abusive SOB, but... well, read the novel. I'm NOT spoiling it.

Category: Contemporary Western

Primary Plot: Newly widowed woman, numb from grief, fled her life to be a farm hand hundreds of miles away, can she learn to love again?

Tropes: widow, ranch, disguise, different worlds, grief,

Overall Rating:  5/5