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Roman Pony Adventures #2
No Turning Back
Passion, courage and determination burn brightly in Minna's second adventure, from a classic author. When Minna's true love Theo leaves the lonely fort of Othona for the big city, Minna cannot bear to be left behind and steals away on her beloved pony, Silva, to follow him. But she has no idea that her actions will condemn Theo to fight a deadly duel - with her life as the prize. Set in a beautifully atmospheric Roman world, this classic story will enchant girls looking for action, adventure and romance.
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
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64 people want to read
About the author
K.M. Peyton
109 books149 followersKathleen Wendy Herald Peyton MBE, who wrote primarily as K. M. Peyton, was a British author of fiction for children and young adults
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
October 14, 2023
Minna had listened to her heart and a friend from the district 'Stuf' who lived off the land. 'Follow Theo to Camulodunum, don't marry the oaf at Othona your mother wants you to marry. Go now, your beautiful horse Siva will take you.' Leaving her home and family and the secure world at the fort was hard. Theo didn't turn her away but offered her a job as a housemaid to Julia. She was the tribune's daughter and betrothed to Theo.
Her journey to the fort was complicated by her being a girl riding a striking horse. She was attacked and barely managed to fight the determined boy off. She left him injured to walk back to his camp. Minna was glad to reach the fort and put behind her the look of hatred the rough Brigard gave her as she rode away.
Could Minna bear Theo marrying Julia? Could she control her desire to steal the beautiful horse the boy had ridden, and present it to Theo? She was as wild as Silva and her mind tempted her. The events that followed were her own doing. Would Theo survive the fight to keep the horse and Minna under Roman protection?
I love this series. I thought the end of the first book was heartstopping but this one is even more so.
Her journey to the fort was complicated by her being a girl riding a striking horse. She was attacked and barely managed to fight the determined boy off. She left him injured to walk back to his camp. Minna was glad to reach the fort and put behind her the look of hatred the rough Brigard gave her as she rode away.
Could Minna bear Theo marrying Julia? Could she control her desire to steal the beautiful horse the boy had ridden, and present it to Theo? She was as wild as Silva and her mind tempted her. The events that followed were her own doing. Would Theo survive the fight to keep the horse and Minna under Roman protection?
I love this series. I thought the end of the first book was heartstopping but this one is even more so.
January 28, 2012
Love these books. Can't wait to read the last :)
January 26, 2020
In the next in the series, the theme of romance comes to the forefront of the book as Minna tries to avoid marriage to the local butcher and follows Theo to the nearby city. Personally, I have never really loved the romantic elements of Peyton’s books and I think the animal and human relationships she creates are much stronger.
The storyline in this book is not as strong as Minna’s Quest and is not very realistic. I find it very hard to believe that a large, strong Roman cohort would leave a small tribe of brigands who have caused misery for locals and stolen from the army for years just alone, especially as they are hardly difficult to find! There are other incidents such as the way Julia acts that would be very unlikely in the Roman world.
I am interested enough in the story to want to find how the story ends and so I do plan to read the last in the series, however this book was a slight disappointment.
The storyline in this book is not as strong as Minna’s Quest and is not very realistic. I find it very hard to believe that a large, strong Roman cohort would leave a small tribe of brigands who have caused misery for locals and stolen from the army for years just alone, especially as they are hardly difficult to find! There are other incidents such as the way Julia acts that would be very unlikely in the Roman world.
I am interested enough in the story to want to find how the story ends and so I do plan to read the last in the series, however this book was a slight disappointment.
November 1, 2014
Another disappointing book about Minna and her horse Silva, this time the romantic subtext is more to the fore, but it's still not resolved. How many of these damn things does K.M.Peyton intend to write.
This time Theo is promoted to Colchester Garrison but not - as he thinks - to a life of active service - hacking and chopping (which he's good at), but rather to the life of a glorified pen-pusher; an administrative job. He's supposed to be betrothed to the lovely Julia - daughter of the commander - but neither Theo nor Julia seem enthusiastic.
Minna determines to run away from the village (and a marriage to the butcher's son) and follow Theo - so she steals her own horse, Silva, to do it (Silva officially belongs to the Roman army and the new ham-fisted commander wants to claim him for his own.)
So Minna throws herself on Theo's mercy and the best he can do is to get her a job as maid to his intended. In the meantime Minna has seen a fancy stallion owned (apparently) by a set of thieves living outside of Colchester. To get on Theo's good side she tells him about the horse and encourages him to go and steal it back from them, but it all goes wrong and Theo is injured - but not before capturing the son of the brigand leader. By being stupid for the sake of the plot Minna gets captured by the brigands and an exchange of prisoners is set up. This time there's a showdown and the brigand leader is killed and his son swallowed into the Roman army - no doubt to re-emerge in the next book.
When Theo finally realises he and Julia are not going to make a go of it and the betrothal is cancelled, he's given command of a legion (including Minna's brother) and sent north to fight. Without any indication that she'll be welcome, Minna takes Silva and becomes a camp-follower.
Will she never learn?
This time Theo is promoted to Colchester Garrison but not - as he thinks - to a life of active service - hacking and chopping (which he's good at), but rather to the life of a glorified pen-pusher; an administrative job. He's supposed to be betrothed to the lovely Julia - daughter of the commander - but neither Theo nor Julia seem enthusiastic.
Minna determines to run away from the village (and a marriage to the butcher's son) and follow Theo - so she steals her own horse, Silva, to do it (Silva officially belongs to the Roman army and the new ham-fisted commander wants to claim him for his own.)
So Minna throws herself on Theo's mercy and the best he can do is to get her a job as maid to his intended. In the meantime Minna has seen a fancy stallion owned (apparently) by a set of thieves living outside of Colchester. To get on Theo's good side she tells him about the horse and encourages him to go and steal it back from them, but it all goes wrong and Theo is injured - but not before capturing the son of the brigand leader. By being stupid for the sake of the plot Minna gets captured by the brigands and an exchange of prisoners is set up. This time there's a showdown and the brigand leader is killed and his son swallowed into the Roman army - no doubt to re-emerge in the next book.
When Theo finally realises he and Julia are not going to make a go of it and the betrothal is cancelled, he's given command of a legion (including Minna's brother) and sent north to fight. Without any indication that she'll be welcome, Minna takes Silva and becomes a camp-follower.
Will she never learn?
July 11, 2016
First of all - who names a character Draco in a post-HP world??
Secondly, this was disappointing. I could not stand Minna in this installment - where she was spunky and resourceful in the first book, she came off as insufferably self-absorbed, rash and downright brainless in this second one. She never stopped for a second to think about the consequences of her actions for other people, she was shallow and judgemental, and all her wailing and crying with self-pity made me want to slap her. And the endless obsessing over Theo (who I think is kind of an idiot himself) was incredibly tiresome. I was way more interested in side characters like Benoc and Draco (omg, someone give that boy a middle name!) but they weren't given much development at all. I'll finish the trilogy because they're quick reads but at this point my biggest hope for book three is that Minna dies on page one and that all the damn Romans get slaughtered at the Wall :p
Secondly, this was disappointing. I could not stand Minna in this installment - where she was spunky and resourceful in the first book, she came off as insufferably self-absorbed, rash and downright brainless in this second one. She never stopped for a second to think about the consequences of her actions for other people, she was shallow and judgemental, and all her wailing and crying with self-pity made me want to slap her. And the endless obsessing over Theo (who I think is kind of an idiot himself) was incredibly tiresome. I was way more interested in side characters like Benoc and Draco (omg, someone give that boy a middle name!) but they weren't given much development at all. I'll finish the trilogy because they're quick reads but at this point my biggest hope for book three is that Minna dies on page one and that all the damn Romans get slaughtered at the Wall :p
November 21, 2012
Second of the Minna books and I still detest her. Selfish and thoughtless, pretty much everything about her revolves around her love for Theo and Silva. I know that Minna thinks Theo is "Oh, so wonderful," but just about everyone else does too? Now to get through the final book. Thank goodness they're short.
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January 27, 2009What an unfortunate title. Looking for this one to put in my list, I counted 22 books by different authors on Goodreads alone with books whose title is ALSO No Turning Back... not to mention its variations Never Turn Back, Turning Back, Don't Turn Back, etc.
August 15, 2011
I loved the premise of the book but the writing was just plain ghastly and I couldn't get into it. The characters were just annoyingly goody-two-shoes and when they tried to be more, they just ended up annoying me. Not going to be making people read this, ever, if possible.
March 7, 2015
I think I might have already read this before; still a quick and easy read. Exciting plot, keeps you hooked. I read the first book in the trilogy a few years ago, so I'm interested in reading the whole set.
August 26, 2016
More romance than I was interested in but plenty of adventure too. Although I suspect the material culture is reasonably authentic for Roman Britain, the thought patterns are pretty twenty-first century. Young readers won't mind.
December 21, 2015
A nice enough book, but needs a lot more detail. It's not very well written, but a bit better than the first.
December 12, 2011
A nice enough book, but needs a lot more detail. It's not very well written, but a bit better than the first.
January 29, 2014
I thought it was a quick good read, with Minna's love story moving along. My 9 yr old didn't like the first book. But I wanted to find out what would happen to Minna and Silva.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews