Review: Heat Wave - good summer read, or anytime of the year read!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 1, 2014
Heat Wave follow the typical romance formula - boy meets girl, they encounter difficulties, looks like the relationship ends, and then they pull it together.Maggie is looking for other ways to make her farm more profitable and decides to go into the racing business, with no prior experience, and not living especially close to any racetrack (Iowa is not well known for running big time Thoroughbred horse races). An old family friend tells her to try to track down Ed, a former racehorse trainer, who lost his license after some kind of wagering scandal. He'll be able to help her get a racing stable together, that is if he can stop hitting the bottle.Ed sobers up, comes to live on Maggie's farm with her 2 kids, and horse by horse they put together a stable with some horse racing with a trainer in Chicago, some broodmares, 2 year olds, and yearlings.The heat wave part of the title comes into play because there's no rain that summer and due to the drought most of the farmer's crops have died, including Maggie's. But not to worry - fortunately she bought crop insurance. Kind of makes you wonder why the other farmers didn't too. Ed disappears a couple of times, scared off by Maggie's seductress routine, and each time is the victim of foul play. Who is behind Ed getting beat up, the murder of a barn cat, and arson?No one's going to scare Maggie Magee off her farm.Or will they?The book is well written, good dialogue, good storylines, but I think it might be a little on the boring side for readers who don't already have a strong interest in horses and horseracing.