Wild Ones

by Leigh Goodison

Stark School is unlike anywhere else 16-year-old foster child Breeze Jordan has lived since her mother died. The people actually seem to care about you here. At first, Breeze is wary, Stark has prison-like qualities, but the benefits far outweigh any drawbacks. Breeze and her misfit roommates, who call themselves the Stark Raving Lunatics, manipulate the staff to make it their personal kingdom. But then disaster strikes: a new foster home is found for Breeze. Though she vows to find a way back to the school, ultimately Breeze must decide where her loyalties lie: with her new foster family and the cute but elusive, boy next door, or her old friends at Stark.

220 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2014

About the author

Leigh Goodison grew up in British Columbia, Canada. She is the author of Limboland and The Jigsaw Man (2015), the medical thriller series in the St. Augustus Chronicles, Wild Ones (2014), a young adult novel, the nonfiction handbook The Horse Trailer Owner's Manual (2012), and Goodies from the Great White North (2013), a recipe book/cooking memoir.

Leigh's short stories, essays and poetry have appeared in Bronte Street, ByLine, Lighthouse, The Oregonian, Lake Oswego Review, and many more. Her articles have appeared in Western Horseman, The Northwest Horse Source, Northwest Rider, Rider's Roundup, and NW Family Magazine, to name just a few.

Leigh has worked in the medical and legal professions. She has owned horses since she was eight-years-old and has two purebred Arabian horses, a palomino Quarab and an Anglo-Arab. She currently lives in Washington state.

Reviews

[Star · Rating 5 out of 5]

Breeze Jordan lost her mother and became a ward of the state, hopping from foster home to foster home, landing herself at the Stark School. The Stark School is a state-run home for “troubled” teenagers and in her three roommates, Breeze finally makes some friends. The Stark Raving Lunatics make up their own code of conduct, share some secrets, and cause mischief. Breeze is placed in yet another foster home, this time a cattle ranch owned by the Thompsons, Frank and Emily. She also now has a foster brother, Jonathan, who has special needs. With no cell signal or internet, Breeze is cut off from her friends and works on a plan to get herself shipped back to the Stark School. When the Thompsons are arrested on Federal charges, Breeze takes it upon herself to discover the truth with the help of Jared – the boy next door. WILD ONES is a beautifully written and insightful novel about a girl who thought there was no hope of truly belonging. WILD ONES is a great coming of age story. Breeze is alone in the world and when she’s brought into a new foster home, she’s desperate to escape. Yet there is something to this family which calls to Breeze and when the chips are down, she searches for a way to get past her fears and make a difference. I highly recommend WILD ONES – I think everyone will find something to relate to in this book!

Merged review:

Breeze Jordan lost her mother and became a ward of the state, hopping from foster home to foster home, landing herself at the Stark School. The Stark School is a state-run home for “troubled” teenagers and in her three roommates, Breeze finally makes some friends. The Stark Raving Lunatics make up their own code of conduct, share some secrets, and cause mischief. Breeze is placed in yet another foster home, this time a cattle ranch owned by the Thompsons, Frank and Emily. She also now has a foster brother, Jonathan, who has special needs. With no cell signal or internet, Breeze is cut off from her friends and works on a plan to get herself shipped back to the Stark School. When the Thompsons are arrested on Federal charges, Breeze takes it upon herself to discover the truth with the help of Jared – the boy next door. WILD ONES is a beautifully written and insightful novel about a girl who thought there was no hope of truly belonging. WILD ONES is a great coming of age story. Breeze is alone in the world and when she’s brought into a new foster home, she’s desperate to escape. Yet there is something to this family which calls to Breeze and when the chips are down, she searches for a way to get past her fears and make a difference. I highly recommend WILD ONES – I think everyone will find something to relate to in this book!

[Jacquelynn Fritz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Breeze Jordan is in the foster care system after her mother dies. She is sent to the Stark school where she befriends her roommates. They call themselves the Stark Raving Lunatics. Breeze is then sent to a ranch with no internet or cell phone so she can't keep in touch with her friends. She likes her new foster family when they are arrested for having to many cattle on federal land. Breeze is sent back to Stark where things have changed. Dealing with the suicide of her friend, Breeze works on helping her new family. This is a good coming of age story about learning to trust yourself and others.

[Lizzy Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most compelling stories I've read in a very long time. Beautifully written and crafted by Leigh Goodison, it will appeal to most ages. Set in Oregon, it's a must read. It has the lot: intrigue, romance, angst, joy... all following the dramatic coming-of-age of its teenage heroine, Breeze Jordan.

[Tammy Turnbull · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story line, loved the ending. A little hard to stay interested in it, could be because I have so much going on though

[Kate Lattey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book got off to a cracking start. I really liked the main character of Breeze and her friends in the SRL, and when she moved onto the ranch I was also taken with the new characters we met there. One of the book's strongest features was the lack of cardboard characters - every character was well-realised and described, and I enjoyed meeting all of them. (Well, perhaps not the 'bad guys' of the novel, they were pretty much out-and-out villains.)

There were two things that I didn't like about this book, which led to the 3-star review. Firstly the formatting was all over the place - first-line indents were uneven, with some being indented further than the ones above, and double line breaks in the middle of scenes, which made it confusing at times to tell whether the scene had ended or not. There were also a handful of minor typos (it's/its being misused a few times) but I can live with those. This would be a relatively easy fix and I hope the author takes the time to do so as it would make the book much more readable and appealing.

* * * SPOILERS AHEAD * * *

The other problem I had was that the book built up beautifully to the mid-point, then completely lost steam and started treading water for several chapters before an ending that was simultaneously lukewarm and overly dramatic. As soon as the overgrazing charges were issued, Breeze knew something was up, but she floundered powerlessly for quite some time and when the twists in the story were revealed (such as who reported the car as stolen, why there were so many branded cattle etc) the suspense was more or less gone. It was also pretty obvious who was behind the whole thing and how he'd orchestrated it, and it defied belief that nobody else worked it out first. A few strange moments also occurred later in the novel that seemed so unbelievable that I couldn't quite suspend my disbelief - Breeze suspects someone is in the house, reaches under the bed and someone grabs her and she gets knocked unconscious, but she is quite happy to shrug it off and sleep in the house alone that night? Not to mention several other fairly unbelievable parts to the story.

I did enjoy this book and I thought Breeze was a great feisty heroine, but I think the novel could do with a fair bit of editing. If the dramatic turn with the foster parents' arrest had been the real turning point at 2/3 of the way through the novel, with the last 1/3 following Breeze as she solved the mystery and cleared their names; or if the foster parents’ arrest wasn’t in the story and she enjoyed her life on the ranch but got herself kicked out and went back to the school only to find that what she’d gone back to wasn’t what she’d left behind, and decided to earn her way back into the foster parents’ home, I could’ve got behind the story. But the author tried to tell both of these stories, and as a result neither of them really worked.

That’s unfortunate because there were some great moments and the teenage girls were really well-drawn and realistic. Despite its faults, I was kept up past midnight for two nights reading this book because the writing style was good, but the storyline unfortunately left me a bit dissatisfied in the end. However the fact that I finished it at all is a commendation these days. I don't generally like to leave average or negative reviews but I think the issues with this book were mostly in its construction, and the writer shows a lot of promise. I hope the editing issues can be ironed out in the future.

[Tina Jacobsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wild Ones by Leigh Goodison
I was intrigued to read this book as I have been a foster parent and have a special place in my heart for foster kids. Wild Ones was easy to get into and really held my interest.
I did feel, at times, that it was unbelievable. ***Spoilers***For example Breeze, the 16 year old protagonist went out to help get the cattle into another pasture and when she sneezed it caused a stampede which made her foster mom, a skilled rider fall off her horse and break her ankle. Maybe that could happen, but as someone who has never herded cattle and hardly ridden a horse it seemed unlikely. I also had a hard time believing the way that the foster parents were arrested. To be arrested and cuffed in front of children for having more cattle than they were supposed to on government land? Seems like this would be more of a fine or something handled differently not just hauled off to jail. I know that police would not leave children (especially) foster children in a home where they removed the parents. As a fictional story though it was a feel good, quick read, and a heartwarming story. I would like to learn more about the characters- Emily and Frank as well as more back story on Breeze. Why did she move foster homes so much? If she was a good kid it would be more unlikely that she be sent to a school like Stark? I would definitely read more from Leigh Goodison!

[Jody Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book, the characters were well developed and Leigh (I felt) had some excellent suspense in the book, so much so that I could not put the book down one night until I was finished! I felt that Leigh captured the thoughts and feelings of a teenage girl very well and showed amazing insight how it might feel to be a child in the foster care system. My only wish for this story, I would have liked more horse talk, but that is just me and the book wasn't about horses.
This was definitely a book worth reading and is suitable for ages 10 and up.