The story centers on a young girl, about 12-years-old, attempting to understand her world. Alice Winston lives in Colorado, on a horse farm with her parents. Alice's mother remains hidden in the bedroom and very seldom ventures out of this cocoon. Alice's older sister has eloped with a rodeo cowboy, and Alice spends every day helping her father run their shabby horse farm. Aryn Kyle presents a vivid story of the trials and joys of horsemanship, but the story turns to despair at every turn. I felt trapped in the odyssey of The Grapes of Wrath, minus the eloquent language. Alice develops her first crush for a totally inappropriate male. The book ends tragically and the ending permeates the book with despair and hopelessness. ( )

I've had this book for ages on my shelf. While it was well written and covered some interesting aspects of love, the multiple levels of sadness present in it ultimately overwhelmed everything else for me. ( )

Very well written. ( )

Very well written. ( )

Audiobook performed by Lily Rabe
3.5***

From the dust jacket - When her older sister runs away to marry a rodeo cowboy, Alice Winston is left to bear the brunt of her family’s troubles – a depressed, bedridden mother; a reticent, overworked father; and a run-down horse ranch. As the hottest summer in fifteen years unfolds and bills pile up, Alice is torn between dreams of escaping the loneliness of her duty-filled life and a longing to help her father mend their family and the ranch. … Ultimately, Alice and her family must weather a devastating betrayal and a shocking, violent series of events that will test their love and prove the power of forgiveness.

My reaction
There were times when the writing and the storyline simply took my breath away and I was left gasping. But there were times when I was left wondering “Where is this going?” Absolutely nothing goes right for this kid. Her sister has taken off, leaving 12-year-old Alice with responsibilities no child her age should have to carry. Her mother has sequestered herself in her bedroom for Alice’s entire life; lying in the darkened room with only the flicker of the television. Her father works hard, but not necessarily smart, and he just cannot catch a break. Alice is clearly intelligent, but she is an unreliable narrator given her penchant for lies, both small and large. She goes through her school day talking to no one, eating lunch alone, and then doing chores alongside her father. To hide her shame, she invents a more exciting life and tells different versions of it to different people – her mother has cancer, her mother is a high-powered businesswoman, her father is a professor, her sister is married to a doctor, etc. Alice has perfected the art of turning people away before they can reject her; she is so good at this, that she also keeps the reader at bay. I kept waiting for something bad to happen (and frequently it did), but it was so unrelentingly bleak that I had to keep my distance. As a result, I never really empathized with the family.

Lily Rabe does a fine job performing the audio version. She was able to clearly differentiate the characters; even the various pre-teen girls sounded unique.
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