Fire Storm, by Lauren St John

(Warning! Contains minor spoilers from The One Dollar Horse and Race the Wind)

Fire Storm is the much-awaited third and final installment in Lauren St John’s One Dollar Horse trilogy. After taking home the trophies from Badminton and Kentucky, can Casey achieve what only one other person ever has: the eventing Grand Slam?

The Burghley Horse Trials are on the horizon, but things at The White Horse Equestrian Centre - the home of Casey, her horse Storm and her coach Mrs. Smith – are not terribly sunny. Casey is talking back to Mrs. Smith like a spoiled teenager, Mrs. Smith’s determination to ignore her illness is getting harder and harder, handsome ‘coach-of-the-moment’ Kyle West is circling like a shark, and while Storm takes a well-deserved holiday, Casey’s loan horse is proving more than a challenge.

When Casey decides to take Kyle on as a coach, little does she know what rocky territory she’s setting sail on: how honourable are Kyle’s intentions? Who is the creepy Ray? And what exactly is going on under the slick and shiney surface of Kyle’s training centre, Rycliffe Manor? Added to this is the return of the abhorrent Anna Sparks – has she turned over a new leaf? Or, given half a chance, will she revert back to her former, snotty ways? The only thing missing – thankfully! (because my little heart really couldn’t have taken any more anguish) – was some sort of disaster involving Casey’s dad, but it seems that he’s now on safe and solid ground. Phew.

Lauren St John brings to Fire Storm all the slick writing, tension and edge-of-the-seat moments she showed us in The One Dollar Horse and Race the Wind. The plot gets thicker and thornier with practically every turn of the page, and it’s full of those ‘Nooo!’ moments where misunderstandings and miscommunications collide. It’s essence is closer to the Race the Wind experience than The One Dollar Horse experience. Given all the things Casey has experienced in the last six months, this is understandable – she is no longer living by quite the same fairytale rules as she was when she first rescued Storm, she’s had to grow up pretty fast, and the whirlwind of her recent victories have had quite an impact on her.

Will Casey remember what really matters in time to piece together all the knots that are coming untied in her life? Will she make it to the Burghley finish line and will it be enough to take her to Grand Slam victory? St John keeps us guessing right up until the last page, so make sure you’ve got plenty of snacks to hand because you won’t want to be going anywhere once you start reading.

Race the Wind, by Lauren St John

Race the Wind is Lauren St John’s second book following the story of Casey Blue and her horse, Storm, and begins exactly where The One Dollar Horse left off. It is the morning after Casey’s dramatic Badminton Horse Trials, but all is not well in the house. If Casey thought life was going to be easy and full of roses after defeating all the odds stacked against her in One Dollar Horse, she was wrong. Just when it seems St John couldn’t throw anything else or anything new at Casey, guess what? She does.

Hands down to St John for writing a book in Race the Wind that does pretty much exactly the same thing as The One Dollar Horse does, and yet is as equally enjoyable and satisfying. This time, Casey’s father’s criminal past has come back to haunt her. Or not so much his criminal past, but the implication of a criminal present, and this time it’s even worse: he’s been arrested for murder. He’s adamant that he’s innocent, and Casey believes him, but will it get in the way of her friendships? And what can she do to prove his innocence? Nothing, it would seem. At first, anyway. Surely he has to have been set up. But why? And by whom?

To add to Casey’s worries, not only does a creepy guy seem to be following her, but Storm is acting up and seems to have reverted to his wild self, refusing to let her near him. And then things crystallise: blackmail is on the cards. Those responsible for her father’s detention want Casey to win the next big championship, the Kentucky Horse Trials. Can she do it? And even if she can, should she acquiesce to their demands?

Race the Wind is fast-paced and contains everything that made The One Dollar Horse a bestseller: tension, moral questions, friendships to be made and frayed, dreams to be fought for. Covering just a period of weeks, as opposed to the two years that passed in book one, it’s a shorter book that reaches its conclusions and finds its footing faster than its precursor. It’s no less satisfying, though, and I can’t wait to see what trials and tribulations will be thrown Casey’s way in the promised third book. Presumably St John will take us to The Burghley Horse Trials, the third event in the Eventing Grand Slam - although I wouldn’t put it past her to change the game...