Neues Jahr, neues Glück

Chestnut Hill #10

by Lauren Brooke, Miriam Margraf (Translator)

À Chestnut Hill, être la meilleure ne suffit pas.


Les leçons d'amour s'apprennent à la dure à Chestnut Hill... Entre les intrigues de ses amies, qui cherchent une nouvelle fiancée pour son père, et les compétitions acharnées, Laurie ne sait plus où donner de la tête. À l'école comme à la maison, la pression monte...

Genres: Horses, Boarding School, Fiction, Young Adult, Childrens, Middle Grade, German Literature

194 pages, Hardcover

First published May 4, 2009

About the author

Lauren Brooke grew up in a ranch in Virginia and now lives in Leicestershire, England. Her husband is a veterinarian who specializes in horses. Her books have been published by Scholastic since Mid-2000, starting with the first book of the Heartland book series. The first book of her popular Chestnut Hill series was published in 2005.

According to an interview on scholastics' website, Lauren Brooke has been riding since before she could walk. She also said she competes in a few local-level horse shows and events.

There may be some other people in books and movies named Lauren Brooke:
Amazon lists the author of "Book of spiritual regeneration" (1995) as Lauren Brooke.
IMDB.com has a record for an Actress named Lauren Brooke. Her only movie is "Wiseguys vs. Zombies" (2003) as Goat Man's Wife.

Reviews

[Clare O'Beara · Rating 3 out of 5]

The blurb is misleading - the lessons in love come down to not interfering in your widowed father's life. There is one boy in this book, met briefly at a horse show, and it's hi, how's your horse going? and we never see him again.
This is okay as a read for girls who like horses and would like to be at an expensive boarding school. The American setting means there don't seem to be many rules, and the girls can phone home every evening and go off shopping on weekends.

I like the numerous horses we meet; I don't like that the horses are worked on the flat and then, especially at shows, expected to just jump large fences without practice jumps. That won't work folks. The girls take on a lot of responsibility and work, and are encouraged to focus without anyone being angry if they knock a fence. This sets a good example. The girls seemed to have similar voices and I could not tell them apart most of the time. Maybe a reader who has followed the series knows them so well this does not matter.
This is an unbiased review.

[Mehsi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only 2 more books to go and then this series is ending. :( I will miss it a lot, I just wish it went on longer than 12 books.

Most of this book was amazing, fun, and great. A real change from the previous book. However, around the middle part I just got highly annoyed with Malory. Yes, I could imagine why she acted the way she did in there, however I found her selfish and annoying. She can have a life, she can make friends and do her things, but her dad can't? Sure, he should have been honest with her, then again, I can also understand why he didn't tell her. Does she want her dad to let her know every time he tries something new? Finds someone new? I found Malory's reaction to be overdone and over the top. And I just wanted to shake her. Just because your dad finds someone new doesn't mean you aren't the favourite, it doesn't mean he doesn't love you any more. It doesn't mean you are dead to him. It is just a shame that she thought all that.
She is normally a strong-willed character, and I had expected her to be a bit more respecting, kind, and understanding about the whole thing.
Of course she learns a lesson, but it took too long and I was already beyond annoyed with her.

And of course, her majesty Lynsey is also back in action, luckily, we also see a whole different Lynsey, one that I wouldn't mind seeing more often.
I felt sorry for her though, I just wish we could have found out what happened to her horse. Was it her mistake? Was it the horse's mistake? Was it someone else? It is a bit confusing, and I wish it was clear. Now it just felt too open-ended.

We also have new horse things happening in this story, ones that I really liked, and it was just so much fun to see the characters try out the new things, and to see how the horses reacted to it.
I just love it when books add new things to the mix, it is always so interesting, and I learn something new about horses and competitions.
I can't wait to see if we learn something new in the next book, or if we will be back to combining the new thing from this book with all the other stuff they already did.

We also have another competition, and it was a lot of fun to read about it, I was just cheering for all my favourite characters, and of course for Chestnut Hill as well. They deserved what they got in this one, it was about time for them too!

I know that this one isn't from Dylan's POV any more, but it just felt sad that Casey and the other characters from the previous book were barely mentioned, and apparently didn't have any lessons any more. :(

But all in all, this was a vast improvement over the previous book, and I was delighted. Malory grew so much, and you can see why she was chosen to be the captain of the team more and more. She is still unsure, but she sets aside those insecurities when someone needs her.

Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com

[Rosie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book really enjoyable... it was better then the last "Malory" book (all or nothing) as there was much more suspense, and there wasn't so much moping around after lads. The emotions in this book were really intense and I found myself crying at one point!
Definitely one for the Christmas list- it has more focus on horses tan some of the previous novels. read it!!! =]

[Bec · Rating 3 out of 5]

Racing Hearts has been the best Chestnut Hill book I've read in a while. It was more enjoyable to read and there was a good amount of horses in this one compared to some of the earlier ones.