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Lauren Towers has always had one dream: to be a professional equestrian, competing with the best of the best. Natch, she's applied for a highly coveted spot at Canterwood Crest Academy.
But while she waits to see if she gets in, Lauren is left contemplating her life in Union, Connecticut and the horrible accident that brought her there. Suddenly, Lauren is left wondering: even if she does get into Canterwood, will her past make her stronger or will it stand in the way of her future as an equestrian for good?
But while she waits to see if she gets in, Lauren is left contemplating her life in Union, Connecticut and the horrible accident that brought her there. Suddenly, Lauren is left wondering: even if she does get into Canterwood, will her past make her stronger or will it stand in the way of her future as an equestrian for good?
304 pages, Paperback
First published April 28, 2011
37 people are currently reading
608 people want to read
About the author
Jessica Burkhart
140 books629 followersJessica Burkhart is the author of the best-selling Canterwood Crest series which has sold over 1.6 million copies in multiple languages. She has also written the Unicorn Magic series, the YA novel Wild Hearts, and edited a YA anthology--Life Inside My Mind.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
February 22, 2016
Warning: This review will be extremely negative and very angry. If you're a fan of this series, this review is very likely to make you mad. I suggest you go do something else.
I read this book as a favor to my younger sister. She's been obsessed with this series ever since the first book came out, and I decided to read it to see what it was like. I knew that it was a middle grade horse book, and I knew that my sister was obsessed with it, so I assumed it would be pretty bad.
I had no fucking idea.
This book is terrible. This book is so terrible that I feel kind of silly thinking seriously about it, because Burkhart clearly doesn't give a shit about any of the criteria that I use to judge a book. This isn't quite the worst book I've ever read, but it's still fucking awful, to the extent that in writing this review, I'm afraid of forgetting something that annoyed me.
Here's the thing: this is a girl book. I'm frequently teased by my friends for reading girl books, because I'm into YA. But not once in reading those books did I ever feel a disconnect between the fact that I'm a boy and the fact that they're written by women about girls. This is the first time I've felt any sort of disconnect, and here's why: Burkhart isn't just writing for preteen girls, she's also intentionally excluding everybody else. That's a terrible idea, mostly because realism and honest, human experiences can be appreciated by everyone. When you write exclusively for a group of people, you have to take out those moments, to stop people outside of the target audience from relating to it. Which Burkhart does, to a painful extent. And really, it's impossible to target such a general group of people as 'preteen girls'. This isn't just written for girls; this is written for girls who love fashion and horses and makeup and all things girly. There's nothing wrong with liking girly things, but I can imagine more masculine girls feeling alienated by this. Burkhart's goal comes up all the time in passages like this:
Why the hell was that there? The extended description serves no purpose in the text, and it just serves to interrupt the flow of the scene. Moreover, there is no possible reason to care about any of that unless you love fashion, unless you know what (who?) Marc Jacobs is off-hand, unless you're a stereotypical girly-girl. Before you accuse me of stereotyping, I'm just identifying the audience that Burkhart has clearly been writing for. She's intentionally alienating everyone that's not like Lauren and her friends, and that's just not a good way to write.
Oh, and you know how I pointed out that the above passage served no purpose in the text? The book is absolutely filled with passages like that. Burkhart just doesn't seem to care if what she writes is important or not, or even if it's relevant. Just look:
Neither of those passages do anything to progress the plot, they don't reveal any new part of Lauren's personality, and they interrupt the flow of their scenes. It's not just those two; like I said, the book has tons of them. I have no idea how those made their way into the book. Every single writing class I've taken has told me to cut unnecessary words and paragraphs. Editors are supposed to tell authors when their writing gets extraneous or excessive. How did this make it in? For anyone who writes like this: for the love of god, please remember that less is more, and that if a passage isn't necessary, it should always be cut.
But it's hard to call anything unnecessary in this book, because nothing is necessary. There's no reason for this book to exist, looking at it as part of a series. This book doesn't even take place at Canterwood Crest; it's all about Lauren finding out if she got in or not. The conflict of the series doesn't begin in this book, and while it does introduce the main character, I can't imagine that it couldn't be done in a shorter amount of time than this. It doesn't help that this book has no overarching conflict. None whatsoever. There are a bunch of smaller stories, but no big one. The closest thing to a central conflict that the book has is the question of whether or not Lauren will get into Canterwood Crest Academy, but that sucks as a conflict for two reasons.
1.) It's resolved 180 pages into this 300 page book.
2.) Its outcome is really, really obvious.
I mean, the series is called Canterwood Crest. For not one second could anyone possible suspect that Lauren doesn't make it, and yet Burkhart still insists on making it a mystery, still making it the most important conflict of the story. WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?
But even if that wasn't the most important conflict in the story, it wouldn't matter, because every single attempt to create a smaller conflict falls completely flat. For example, there's one scene where Brielle and Ana (Lauren's OMGBFFs!) are discussing who they want to hang out with after Lauren leaves for Canterwood. Specifically, they want to hang out with Hannah, because it will keep them 'popular'. Lauren overhears their conversation, and freaks out. This conflict doesn't make sense for two reasons. First... it'll keep them popular? Really? Does Burkhart think that middle school is divided into popular kids and nerds, and that everyone does all they can to be the former? Because as someone whosurvived went through middle school, I can say that this simply isn't true. It's not realistic at all, and it annoys me more each time I see it. And second... why is Lauren freaking out? All they're saying is, "Maybe we should hang out with Hannah after Lauren leaves." Lauren has no reason to freak out about that. I'm not saying she's unlikable for freaking out, I'm saying that it isn't a recognizably human thing to do. I mean, what's her logic? "You guys can't hang out with other people after I leave! You're just supposed to be lonely!"
Or another stupid conflict: the people at Yates (Lauren's current school) being mad that Lauren was applying to Canterwood. I swear I'm not kidding: they were all mad at Lauren for applying to an enemy school. No, really. We were REALLY EXPECTED TO BELIEVE THAT. That is not the writing of somebody who has any idea what it's like to be in school, who knows what it's like to be twelve. Nobody cares about school that much. I mean, maybe a few people do, but not EVERYBODY, as Burkhart clearly wants us to believe. It's another unrealistic plot that relied on everybody overreacting to everything.
Oh, and remember my complaints about the writing earlier? Unnecessary passages weren't the worst part of the prose. I wish, badly that they were, but they weren't. No, the biggest problem was the slang. Dear lord, the slang. Look at this shit, I mean, just look at it (emphasis mine):
This is how the girls talk throughout the entire novel. All of it. It got incredibly grating and annoying, because, as it should be incredibly obvious, nobody talks like this. Nobody. Burkhart invents half the slang, and half of it is real slang that nobody actually uses anymore. It didn't help that Burkhart had a lot of trouble writing dialogue outside this ridiculous slang, particularly with adults. I will be damned if I can find an adult that talks like Lauren's dad:
He talks exactly like the preteen girls, just without the slang. No adult talks like that at all. I suppose Lauren's slang could've been justified if it supported her character, but it doesn't.
Which brings me to Lauren. Never a pleasant place to be.
In some of the reviews, people have said that Lauren is a more relatable protagonist than Sasha, the previous protagonist of this series. If that's the case, then I really don't want to see Sasha, because holy shit, Lauren. Lauren is such a Mary Sue, such a blatant wish-fulfillment character, that I couldn't stand her. You see, she's completely impossible to relate to because her life is so unbelievably fucking perfect. She lives in a five-story house with her own bathroom and a separate rack in her closet for each color dress, along with a freaking hot tub in her backyard, she goes to a fancy private school, she takes expensive horse-riding lessons where she's apparently the best rider ever, she has a great relationship with her sister and her parents, and she's applying for an even-fancier private school for horse riding. As if that wasn't bad enough, Burkhart manages to turn her into a Sympathetic Sue by constantly pretending that she has problems.
Like the accident. Before the start of the book, Lauren had an accident at a riding competition where her horse suddenly stopped and she flipped off the front. That sounds pretty bad, but it really wasn't; she didn't break anything, nothing was sprained, she wasn't even bleeding! She spent a night in the hospital, but it was basically just so that the doctors could confirm, "No, there's nothing wrong with you, get the fuck out of my sight." And yet, throughout the novel, Lauren constantly mentions how scary it was for her, how she never recovered. That is fucking ridiculous! She fell off a horse and got a boo-boo, and suddenly she can't do jumps again? THAT IS NOT THE REACTION OF A HUMAN BEING. It's so artificial, so that we can feel sympathy for Lauren. As a dancer, I've seen tons of actual injuries way worse than what Lauren went through, and never have I seen anyone as scared as her. Hell, I dislocated my kneecap once doing floorwork, but I wasn't afraid to do floorwork again - nobody would be!
In conclusion, this is a really, really bad book. It might resonate with its target audience, but if you're outside of it... Jesus, you'll probably regret reading it.
Edit: I didn't really acknowledge this very well the first time I wrote the review, so I'll acknowledge it here: I am not part of this book's target audience, and it was not at all written to fit the standards I have. I had a lot of fun judging it by my standards, but the fact that I gave it one star doesn't really mean it doesn't accomplish its goal - it seems to have a lot of success in its target audience at least. Basically, the review should be taken kind of like a pop music review from someone who hates pop music - hopefully, it's fun, but it's not exactly the opinion you want when you're seriously considering it.
Also, I apparently implied that the book's girliness was part of the problem, which is not the case. There's nothing wrong with girliness, and I don't think its presence has to exclude people outside its target audience if it's done well. What I meant to say in my review was that here, the girly aspects are written like an awkward in-joke. They cut off people that don't have a particular interest in - for example - fashion, needlessly alienating some readers. Girliness can and has been done well in books so that you feel included in the narrator's passion for shopping, makeup, or whatever the stereotypically girl thing in question is. (The biggest example I can think of offhand is Justine Larbalestier's How to Ditch Your Fairy.) This is not an example of that.
I read this book as a favor to my younger sister. She's been obsessed with this series ever since the first book came out, and I decided to read it to see what it was like. I knew that it was a middle grade horse book, and I knew that my sister was obsessed with it, so I assumed it would be pretty bad.
I had no fucking idea.
This book is terrible. This book is so terrible that I feel kind of silly thinking seriously about it, because Burkhart clearly doesn't give a shit about any of the criteria that I use to judge a book. This isn't quite the worst book I've ever read, but it's still fucking awful, to the extent that in writing this review, I'm afraid of forgetting something that annoyed me.
Here's the thing: this is a girl book. I'm frequently teased by my friends for reading girl books, because I'm into YA. But not once in reading those books did I ever feel a disconnect between the fact that I'm a boy and the fact that they're written by women about girls. This is the first time I've felt any sort of disconnect, and here's why: Burkhart isn't just writing for preteen girls, she's also intentionally excluding everybody else. That's a terrible idea, mostly because realism and honest, human experiences can be appreciated by everyone. When you write exclusively for a group of people, you have to take out those moments, to stop people outside of the target audience from relating to it. Which Burkhart does, to a painful extent. And really, it's impossible to target such a general group of people as 'preteen girls'. This isn't just written for girls; this is written for girls who love fashion and horses and makeup and all things girly. There's nothing wrong with liking girly things, but I can imagine more masculine girls feeling alienated by this. Burkhart's goal comes up all the time in passages like this:
Brielle's cool black hair was pulled up into a high, shiny ponytail. The gloss treatment we'd all gotten at the salon a couple weeks ago made her hair look extra gorge. Her fair, freckle-free, never-left-the-house-without-SPF-fifty complexion showed just enough makeup to not get her in trouble with her parents. She had a light coat of mascara, and pale pink-tinted gloss. Brielle was the epitome of a girly-girl.
She looked seasonably adorable today in a Marc Jacobs light pink dress with capped sleeves and a cream-colored cardigan. She had strappy, white-wedged to match that I noted (since we were the same shoe size) that I'd be asking to borrow next week.
Why the hell was that there? The extended description serves no purpose in the text, and it just serves to interrupt the flow of the scene. Moreover, there is no possible reason to care about any of that unless you love fashion, unless you know what (who?) Marc Jacobs is off-hand, unless you're a stereotypical girly-girl. Before you accuse me of stereotyping, I'm just identifying the audience that Burkhart has clearly been writing for. She's intentionally alienating everyone that's not like Lauren and her friends, and that's just not a good way to write.
Oh, and you know how I pointed out that the above passage served no purpose in the text? The book is absolutely filled with passages like that. Burkhart just doesn't seem to care if what she writes is important or not, or even if it's relevant. Just look:
I loved the quaint theater. Tay didn't like how small it was, but I preferred it. The cream-colored walls had framed photos of the theater in various stages of renovation over the years.
My favorite was the black-and-white photo, yellowing a little around the edges, that showed the theater when it first opened. A man, a young boy, and a woman stood together, all smiling at the camera. Everyone knew they were the family that had opened the theater and kept it as a family-run business all these years, refusing buy outs from the large chain theaters.
[I was at a restaurant, and the waiter was taking my order.] I noticed the absence of any pen or notepad. I couldn't imagine doing such hard work and not even needing to write an order down. I shuddered to think what would happen if I ever became a waitress at [this restaurant]. No one here had ever written down an order. Without pen or notepad, I'd never stay organized enough to do my job. I'd get fired after one night!
Neither of those passages do anything to progress the plot, they don't reveal any new part of Lauren's personality, and they interrupt the flow of their scenes. It's not just those two; like I said, the book has tons of them. I have no idea how those made their way into the book. Every single writing class I've taken has told me to cut unnecessary words and paragraphs. Editors are supposed to tell authors when their writing gets extraneous or excessive. How did this make it in? For anyone who writes like this: for the love of god, please remember that less is more, and that if a passage isn't necessary, it should always be cut.
But it's hard to call anything unnecessary in this book, because nothing is necessary. There's no reason for this book to exist, looking at it as part of a series. This book doesn't even take place at Canterwood Crest; it's all about Lauren finding out if she got in or not. The conflict of the series doesn't begin in this book, and while it does introduce the main character, I can't imagine that it couldn't be done in a shorter amount of time than this. It doesn't help that this book has no overarching conflict. None whatsoever. There are a bunch of smaller stories, but no big one. The closest thing to a central conflict that the book has is the question of whether or not Lauren will get into Canterwood Crest Academy, but that sucks as a conflict for two reasons.
1.) It's resolved 180 pages into this 300 page book.
2.) Its outcome is really, really obvious.
I mean, the series is called Canterwood Crest. For not one second could anyone possible suspect that Lauren doesn't make it, and yet Burkhart still insists on making it a mystery, still making it the most important conflict of the story. WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?
But even if that wasn't the most important conflict in the story, it wouldn't matter, because every single attempt to create a smaller conflict falls completely flat. For example, there's one scene where Brielle and Ana (Lauren's OMGBFFs!) are discussing who they want to hang out with after Lauren leaves for Canterwood. Specifically, they want to hang out with Hannah, because it will keep them 'popular'. Lauren overhears their conversation, and freaks out. This conflict doesn't make sense for two reasons. First... it'll keep them popular? Really? Does Burkhart think that middle school is divided into popular kids and nerds, and that everyone does all they can to be the former? Because as someone who
Or another stupid conflict: the people at Yates (Lauren's current school) being mad that Lauren was applying to Canterwood. I swear I'm not kidding: they were all mad at Lauren for applying to an enemy school. No, really. We were REALLY EXPECTED TO BELIEVE THAT. That is not the writing of somebody who has any idea what it's like to be in school, who knows what it's like to be twelve. Nobody cares about school that much. I mean, maybe a few people do, but not EVERYBODY, as Burkhart clearly wants us to believe. It's another unrealistic plot that relied on everybody overreacting to everything.
Oh, and remember my complaints about the writing earlier? Unnecessary passages weren't the worst part of the prose. I wish, badly that they were, but they weren't. No, the biggest problem was the slang. Dear lord, the slang. Look at this shit, I mean, just look at it (emphasis mine):
"I pick smart-slash-hot guys for a reason."
"...Bri might never get over it if we miss our last chance to go school dress shopping with our most fashionable bestie."
"Before I leave you to find your own dress, B, I want to asses your dress sitch.
This is how the girls talk throughout the entire novel. All of it. It got incredibly grating and annoying, because, as it should be incredibly obvious, nobody talks like this. Nobody. Burkhart invents half the slang, and half of it is real slang that nobody actually uses anymore. It didn't help that Burkhart had a lot of trouble writing dialogue outside this ridiculous slang, particularly with adults. I will be damned if I can find an adult that talks like Lauren's dad:
"You won't got to Canterwood without a horse of your own. Remember: getting in was the hardest part - and you already did that! Now all that's left is to do the fun part! Picking out a horse, shopping for your dorm room - all that stuff is the part you're supposed to enjoy! Have fun with this part. It'll be over before you know it. Now, let's go take a look at what Kim and Jeffrey chose for you to try today."
He talks exactly like the preteen girls, just without the slang. No adult talks like that at all. I suppose Lauren's slang could've been justified if it supported her character, but it doesn't.
Which brings me to Lauren. Never a pleasant place to be.
In some of the reviews, people have said that Lauren is a more relatable protagonist than Sasha, the previous protagonist of this series. If that's the case, then I really don't want to see Sasha, because holy shit, Lauren. Lauren is such a Mary Sue, such a blatant wish-fulfillment character, that I couldn't stand her. You see, she's completely impossible to relate to because her life is so unbelievably fucking perfect. She lives in a five-story house with her own bathroom and a separate rack in her closet for each color dress, along with a freaking hot tub in her backyard, she goes to a fancy private school, she takes expensive horse-riding lessons where she's apparently the best rider ever, she has a great relationship with her sister and her parents, and she's applying for an even-fancier private school for horse riding. As if that wasn't bad enough, Burkhart manages to turn her into a Sympathetic Sue by constantly pretending that she has problems.
Like the accident. Before the start of the book, Lauren had an accident at a riding competition where her horse suddenly stopped and she flipped off the front. That sounds pretty bad, but it really wasn't; she didn't break anything, nothing was sprained, she wasn't even bleeding! She spent a night in the hospital, but it was basically just so that the doctors could confirm, "No, there's nothing wrong with you, get the fuck out of my sight." And yet, throughout the novel, Lauren constantly mentions how scary it was for her, how she never recovered. That is fucking ridiculous! She fell off a horse and got a boo-boo, and suddenly she can't do jumps again? THAT IS NOT THE REACTION OF A HUMAN BEING. It's so artificial, so that we can feel sympathy for Lauren. As a dancer, I've seen tons of actual injuries way worse than what Lauren went through, and never have I seen anyone as scared as her. Hell, I dislocated my kneecap once doing floorwork, but I wasn't afraid to do floorwork again - nobody would be!
In conclusion, this is a really, really bad book. It might resonate with its target audience, but if you're outside of it... Jesus, you'll probably regret reading it.
Edit: I didn't really acknowledge this very well the first time I wrote the review, so I'll acknowledge it here: I am not part of this book's target audience, and it was not at all written to fit the standards I have. I had a lot of fun judging it by my standards, but the fact that I gave it one star doesn't really mean it doesn't accomplish its goal - it seems to have a lot of success in its target audience at least. Basically, the review should be taken kind of like a pop music review from someone who hates pop music - hopefully, it's fun, but it's not exactly the opinion you want when you're seriously considering it.
Also, I apparently implied that the book's girliness was part of the problem, which is not the case. There's nothing wrong with girliness, and I don't think its presence has to exclude people outside its target audience if it's done well. What I meant to say in my review was that here, the girly aspects are written like an awkward in-joke. They cut off people that don't have a particular interest in - for example - fashion, needlessly alienating some readers. Girliness can and has been done well in books so that you feel included in the narrator's passion for shopping, makeup, or whatever the stereotypically girl thing in question is. (The biggest example I can think of offhand is Justine Larbalestier's How to Ditch Your Fairy.) This is not an example of that.
January 1, 2013
*****CONTAINS SPOILERS: READ AT OWN RISK******
"Sasha Silver and Co. have moved onward and upward from Canterwood Crest, and it's time for a new crew to take the reins at the elite riding academy.
Enter Lauren, an old friend of Sasha's, who leaves behind everything she knows to try to make hr mark at Canterwood. New experiences, new friends, and new drama are waiting for her through he gates- and life as she knows it will never be the same."
So begins the "super special" edition of the Canterwood Crest series. This book overall brought in the new cast of characters. If you thought the old cast had drama, well let's just say you haven't met these guys yet.
First, I'll tell you that I was a die-hard Canterwood Crest fan when the series started. Well up until about book 6. As a current 15 year old who shows on the hunter/jumper circuit...these books were right up my alley, when I was like, 12. Which is the same age as Lauren Towers, the new protagonist. But not only is Lauren obsessed with horses, but oh yeah, she was a "national ranked junior dressage champion", and as you'll learn from the first chapter, that was eighteen months ago, because she experienced an accident which has kept her from competing since. Which puts her in about 5th grade, aka age 10 or 11. Now wait, for anybody who is in the horse world, how many 10 or 11 year olds are competing seriously let alone a "dressage champion"? Not many. Why? Because it doesn't work like that. I don't know about the dressage circuit, but in hunter/jumpers, "junior" generally refers to someone between the ages of 13-18. And so, we reach my first problem with this series.
For those of you that read books 1-12 with Sasha, you know that the author doesn't always get her equestrian facts straight. Which is understandable, unless you're reading a book written by an equestrian (like the A-Circuit books by Georgina Bloomberg) you're going to get some mistakes. But seriously? At the end of the book, Lauren tries two four-year-old horses that she's looking to buy. The owner tells her that they've both competed and are only "a little" green. Um hello? Horses don't start showing until age 6, maybe 5. You know where my horse was when he was four? In Ireland, being trained, by a P-R-O-F-E-S-S-I-O-N-A-L. Not being offered for sale to some 12 year old with confidence issues when it comes to riding. Yet as horribly overlooked as these details are, they aren't my biggest problem with this book. And for readers who don't read this book because of the equestrian element, it don't really effect the overall quality of the book.
But. We come to the main problem of the story, and it's one that occurred in the first set of the Canterwood series too, starting at about book 7. Jessica Burkhart's concept of wealthy, dramatic equestrian girls at a boarding school is sellable to say the least. The problem is the way she writes the characters doesn't fit with their age. Lauren's friends wear Marc Jacob's clothing. Lauren has the perfect boyfriend. Brielle "was always on dates with different guys". Lauren's dad tells her to make a list of anything and everything she wants from PBTeen so he can get it for her new dorm. Brielle, Lauren, and Ana spend hours at the mall finding perfect dresses to match their perfect dates to the end-of-the-year dance. Lauren wears clothes from VS (Victoria's Secret). Lauren uses tons of makeup from Sephora. The list goes on. Um, reality check anyone? These girls are in SIXTH GRADE. Since when do sixth grade girls fit into Marc Jacobs or J. Crew. I'm fifteen and barely fit into J.Crew. These girls date, dress, and create drama like they're in high school. The fact that girls in the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade are carrying on the way they do in this series is entirely and completely unrealistic. And unrelatable to those girls reading it. Yeah, we learn straight from the beginning that these girls come from money. And Canterwood Crest is an East Coast boarding school so what do you expect? But this is way too over the top. These girls aren't even teenagers.
The overall writing and the plot of the book is for sure nothing to rave about. This book is an easy read for sure. Jessica can be relied on to use words like "fave", "perf", "tres", and "ohmigod" throughout. The dialogue is pretty weak, with the characters mostly having extremely superficial conversations about their absurdly superficial lives. Whoop whoop. The plot is weak also. The main purpose of the book is to introduce Lauren, and give us some background into her life before Canterwood Crest, which we didn't get with Sasha. I guess the central plot line in the book is Lauren waiting in agony (ahem, sarcasm) to see if she got into Canterwood. Um? Like she's not going to...sorry to spoil it for you, but there isn't any suspense considering it tells you on the back that she gets in.
I read other reviews and found that many readers said they found Lauren more relatable than Sasha. I can't even begin to comprehend how this is possible. Lauren has everything; money, popularity, romance (I cringe at saying that), perfect grades, perfect family, dream horse blah blah blah. She says it herself, she's Lauren Towers. Her biggest challenges in life include her best friends conspiring to replace her when she's gone to keep their current social status, and overcoming a ridiculous fear of jumping that disappears and reappears so many times it will make you dizzy. Oh yeah, and lets not forget the horrible breakup that happens because Lauren and Taylor don't want a long distance relationship. It's heartbreaking. Yeah freaking right.
I guess maybe I've outgrown this series. After book 12, I passed them on to my little sister and swore I wouldn't spend any more money on them. She continues to get them, and so I read them when I'm in between other books. I only continue to read them because I get some amusement out of their ridiculousness. Jessica Burkhart clearly means for this to be a guilty pleasure series, much like the show Gossip Girl. But the mis-aging of characters and weak writing in general really ruins it. Creating cliche drama and dropping brand names doesn't make it a pleasure at all. I don't know. I guess maybe I just can't enjoy the shallowness of it all anymore. I don't know if there are girls really like these ones, but I highly doubt it. This series needs a major reality check and a serious overhaul for it to get any better.
"Sasha Silver and Co. have moved onward and upward from Canterwood Crest, and it's time for a new crew to take the reins at the elite riding academy.
Enter Lauren, an old friend of Sasha's, who leaves behind everything she knows to try to make hr mark at Canterwood. New experiences, new friends, and new drama are waiting for her through he gates- and life as she knows it will never be the same."
So begins the "super special" edition of the Canterwood Crest series. This book overall brought in the new cast of characters. If you thought the old cast had drama, well let's just say you haven't met these guys yet.
First, I'll tell you that I was a die-hard Canterwood Crest fan when the series started. Well up until about book 6. As a current 15 year old who shows on the hunter/jumper circuit...these books were right up my alley, when I was like, 12. Which is the same age as Lauren Towers, the new protagonist. But not only is Lauren obsessed with horses, but oh yeah, she was a "national ranked junior dressage champion", and as you'll learn from the first chapter, that was eighteen months ago, because she experienced an accident which has kept her from competing since. Which puts her in about 5th grade, aka age 10 or 11. Now wait, for anybody who is in the horse world, how many 10 or 11 year olds are competing seriously let alone a "dressage champion"? Not many. Why? Because it doesn't work like that. I don't know about the dressage circuit, but in hunter/jumpers, "junior" generally refers to someone between the ages of 13-18. And so, we reach my first problem with this series.
For those of you that read books 1-12 with Sasha, you know that the author doesn't always get her equestrian facts straight. Which is understandable, unless you're reading a book written by an equestrian (like the A-Circuit books by Georgina Bloomberg) you're going to get some mistakes. But seriously? At the end of the book, Lauren tries two four-year-old horses that she's looking to buy. The owner tells her that they've both competed and are only "a little" green. Um hello? Horses don't start showing until age 6, maybe 5. You know where my horse was when he was four? In Ireland, being trained, by a P-R-O-F-E-S-S-I-O-N-A-L. Not being offered for sale to some 12 year old with confidence issues when it comes to riding. Yet as horribly overlooked as these details are, they aren't my biggest problem with this book. And for readers who don't read this book because of the equestrian element, it don't really effect the overall quality of the book.
But. We come to the main problem of the story, and it's one that occurred in the first set of the Canterwood series too, starting at about book 7. Jessica Burkhart's concept of wealthy, dramatic equestrian girls at a boarding school is sellable to say the least. The problem is the way she writes the characters doesn't fit with their age. Lauren's friends wear Marc Jacob's clothing. Lauren has the perfect boyfriend. Brielle "was always on dates with different guys". Lauren's dad tells her to make a list of anything and everything she wants from PBTeen so he can get it for her new dorm. Brielle, Lauren, and Ana spend hours at the mall finding perfect dresses to match their perfect dates to the end-of-the-year dance. Lauren wears clothes from VS (Victoria's Secret). Lauren uses tons of makeup from Sephora. The list goes on. Um, reality check anyone? These girls are in SIXTH GRADE. Since when do sixth grade girls fit into Marc Jacobs or J. Crew. I'm fifteen and barely fit into J.Crew. These girls date, dress, and create drama like they're in high school. The fact that girls in the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade are carrying on the way they do in this series is entirely and completely unrealistic. And unrelatable to those girls reading it. Yeah, we learn straight from the beginning that these girls come from money. And Canterwood Crest is an East Coast boarding school so what do you expect? But this is way too over the top. These girls aren't even teenagers.
The overall writing and the plot of the book is for sure nothing to rave about. This book is an easy read for sure. Jessica can be relied on to use words like "fave", "perf", "tres", and "ohmigod" throughout. The dialogue is pretty weak, with the characters mostly having extremely superficial conversations about their absurdly superficial lives. Whoop whoop. The plot is weak also. The main purpose of the book is to introduce Lauren, and give us some background into her life before Canterwood Crest, which we didn't get with Sasha. I guess the central plot line in the book is Lauren waiting in agony (ahem, sarcasm) to see if she got into Canterwood. Um? Like she's not going to...sorry to spoil it for you, but there isn't any suspense considering it tells you on the back that she gets in.
I read other reviews and found that many readers said they found Lauren more relatable than Sasha. I can't even begin to comprehend how this is possible. Lauren has everything; money, popularity, romance (I cringe at saying that), perfect grades, perfect family, dream horse blah blah blah. She says it herself, she's Lauren Towers. Her biggest challenges in life include her best friends conspiring to replace her when she's gone to keep their current social status, and overcoming a ridiculous fear of jumping that disappears and reappears so many times it will make you dizzy. Oh yeah, and lets not forget the horrible breakup that happens because Lauren and Taylor don't want a long distance relationship. It's heartbreaking. Yeah freaking right.
I guess maybe I've outgrown this series. After book 12, I passed them on to my little sister and swore I wouldn't spend any more money on them. She continues to get them, and so I read them when I'm in between other books. I only continue to read them because I get some amusement out of their ridiculousness. Jessica Burkhart clearly means for this to be a guilty pleasure series, much like the show Gossip Girl. But the mis-aging of characters and weak writing in general really ruins it. Creating cliche drama and dropping brand names doesn't make it a pleasure at all. I don't know. I guess maybe I just can't enjoy the shallowness of it all anymore. I don't know if there are girls really like these ones, but I highly doubt it. This series needs a major reality check and a serious overhaul for it to get any better.
May 27, 2012
I loved this book! It was very good! But I will miss Sasha and the crew. I can't wait to see what happens for her in the other books!
November 7, 2012
Love LT and her relationship w/ Becca...it's so cool that they can get along like that. This book is so good!!!
October 2, 2011
I didn't like this book as much as I liked the other one's because I liked it when they revovled thebook around sasha and her friends.
July 30, 2024
“I hope you get what you want,” I told them. “But if what you want is nothing but popularity, I feel deeply sorry for you.”
I ended up halting halfway through the book, picking it up a couple months later, and was instantly hooked again! It was hard for me to let go of Sasha, but I’m ready for Lauren’s new adventure!
I ended up halting halfway through the book, picking it up a couple months later, and was instantly hooked again! It was hard for me to let go of Sasha, but I’m ready for Lauren’s new adventure!
March 20, 2018
Personal response:
I really liked this book because it dealt with horses. I liked how their riding instructor always changed things up instead of keeping it the same all the time. I liked how Lauren’s parents saw how hard she was working at riding to get her a horse.
Plot:
In the beginning of this book, Lauren was at a horse show. She participated in cross country and dressage. When she was competing on the cross country course, her horse threw her off at the final jump. She ended up going to the emergency room.
The next chapter talked about how Lauren was in school and about how hard her school was. Yates was a really hard school because Yates had to compete with Canterwood who also had hard classes. After school, Lauren had riding lessons. When she got there, she grabbed Cricket, a school horse. Once she tacked up Cricket, she started to warm up. She walked, jogged, and cantered Cricket. She then took her in a couple of circles. The riding instructor, Kim, asked Lauren to run the jumping course. Lauren took Cricket and started jumping but right before she got to the last jump Lauren refused to jump. After the lesson, Kim had asked Lauren if she would talk with her. Once Lauren untacked Cricket, she went into Kim’s office. Kim talked about how she was a great rider and how she had a lot of potential. She also talked about Canterwood. Lauren had applied to Canterwood and was waiting to hear back from them. Lauren had convinced herself that she would not get into Canterwood because of her accident.
Once she got home, she went in her room to start on homework. When she was done with her homework, she went to talk with her sister Becca. Becca told her that she was talented and smart enough to get into Canterwood. They decided to not talk about Canterwood so they decided to go swimming.
After a couple of chapters, the book talked about how Lauren worked on getting ready for a lesson when she heard her friends talking about letting Hannah into their group. Lauren walked into the room and started to fight with her friends. She grabbed Crickets tack and walked out of the room furious. She tacked up Cricket and walked to the indoor arena and started to warm up. Kim walked in and told the kids that they were doing Dressage. Lauren was always good at dressage but it made her nervous training infront of her teammates.
As the school year went by, her classmates started to figure out that Lauren applied at Canterwood. They all started to ignore her and make her feel bad about herself. The last day of school Lauren got her acceptance letter from Canterwood. She was really happy but also really sad. Yates had a dance at the end of the school year. Lauren went and talked with her boyfriend. The next day Lauren’s parents told her that she was getting a horse. Lauren had tried a couple of horses but they didn’t work. After a while, she ended up going on a date with her boyfriend and breaking up with him because she didn’t want to deal with a long distance relationship. At the very end of the book she rode a gray mare that she fell in love with and named her Whisper.
Characterization:
The main character in this book was Lauren Towers. Lauren was in sixth grade. Lauren had fair skin and dark brown hair. She rode horses at a barn called Briar Creek. Lauren’s best friends were Ana and Brielle. She had a really bad accident and had just started to get back into riding. She had two sisters. She went to Yates but now she planned on going to Canterwood.
Setting:
This book took place in Union, Connecticut. This book took place in Connecticut because that's where Lauren went to school. It also took place there because that was where Briar Creek was located. Chosen took place mainly in late May and early June when school started to get out. Chosen took place in July, because school had just gotten out and now the kids had more time to spend time with friends and also go to the barn more often. This book took place in May because Lauren still had to go to school but it was her last month at school. This book would have taken place in the present because they use cell phones quite often to talk to their friends.
Recommendation:
I would recommend this book to middle schoolers and up who had a passion for horses. I would also recommend this book to kids who are in middle school or higher who like drama. I would recommend this book more to girls, because girls tend to like horses and drama more than guys do.
I really liked this book because it dealt with horses. I liked how their riding instructor always changed things up instead of keeping it the same all the time. I liked how Lauren’s parents saw how hard she was working at riding to get her a horse.
Plot:
In the beginning of this book, Lauren was at a horse show. She participated in cross country and dressage. When she was competing on the cross country course, her horse threw her off at the final jump. She ended up going to the emergency room.
The next chapter talked about how Lauren was in school and about how hard her school was. Yates was a really hard school because Yates had to compete with Canterwood who also had hard classes. After school, Lauren had riding lessons. When she got there, she grabbed Cricket, a school horse. Once she tacked up Cricket, she started to warm up. She walked, jogged, and cantered Cricket. She then took her in a couple of circles. The riding instructor, Kim, asked Lauren to run the jumping course. Lauren took Cricket and started jumping but right before she got to the last jump Lauren refused to jump. After the lesson, Kim had asked Lauren if she would talk with her. Once Lauren untacked Cricket, she went into Kim’s office. Kim talked about how she was a great rider and how she had a lot of potential. She also talked about Canterwood. Lauren had applied to Canterwood and was waiting to hear back from them. Lauren had convinced herself that she would not get into Canterwood because of her accident.
Once she got home, she went in her room to start on homework. When she was done with her homework, she went to talk with her sister Becca. Becca told her that she was talented and smart enough to get into Canterwood. They decided to not talk about Canterwood so they decided to go swimming.
After a couple of chapters, the book talked about how Lauren worked on getting ready for a lesson when she heard her friends talking about letting Hannah into their group. Lauren walked into the room and started to fight with her friends. She grabbed Crickets tack and walked out of the room furious. She tacked up Cricket and walked to the indoor arena and started to warm up. Kim walked in and told the kids that they were doing Dressage. Lauren was always good at dressage but it made her nervous training infront of her teammates.
As the school year went by, her classmates started to figure out that Lauren applied at Canterwood. They all started to ignore her and make her feel bad about herself. The last day of school Lauren got her acceptance letter from Canterwood. She was really happy but also really sad. Yates had a dance at the end of the school year. Lauren went and talked with her boyfriend. The next day Lauren’s parents told her that she was getting a horse. Lauren had tried a couple of horses but they didn’t work. After a while, she ended up going on a date with her boyfriend and breaking up with him because she didn’t want to deal with a long distance relationship. At the very end of the book she rode a gray mare that she fell in love with and named her Whisper.
Characterization:
The main character in this book was Lauren Towers. Lauren was in sixth grade. Lauren had fair skin and dark brown hair. She rode horses at a barn called Briar Creek. Lauren’s best friends were Ana and Brielle. She had a really bad accident and had just started to get back into riding. She had two sisters. She went to Yates but now she planned on going to Canterwood.
Setting:
This book took place in Union, Connecticut. This book took place in Connecticut because that's where Lauren went to school. It also took place there because that was where Briar Creek was located. Chosen took place mainly in late May and early June when school started to get out. Chosen took place in July, because school had just gotten out and now the kids had more time to spend time with friends and also go to the barn more often. This book took place in May because Lauren still had to go to school but it was her last month at school. This book would have taken place in the present because they use cell phones quite often to talk to their friends.
Recommendation:
I would recommend this book to middle schoolers and up who had a passion for horses. I would also recommend this book to kids who are in middle school or higher who like drama. I would recommend this book more to girls, because girls tend to like horses and drama more than guys do.
July 4, 2023
It’s Lauren’s time to shine. The girl who moved to Briar Creek after Sasha left, the one Sasha saw as taking her place. Lauren was once at the top of the riding circuit, but after a horrific fall she needed to fall back in love with riding. Now, nearly two years later she’s waiting to hear back from Canterwood Crest Academy, to see if they have a spot for her in the fall. But the closer it gets for her letter to arrive, the less sure she is that applying in the first place was the right choice.
I really enjoyed this introduction to Lauren. I think I like her better than Sasha. She just seems more down to earth, especially with her insecurities, nerves, and fears. In some ways she acts older than her age, but it makes more sense with her experience riding on the circuit in the past. Now is this book extremely realistic? No. How often do you have a 10-11 year old dressage champion? But that’s kind of the fun about middle grade books. They’re not always going to be realistic, they’re meant to make you dream. Or that’s how I’ve always looked at them, even when I was 10 years old. Either way, I can’t wait to read more about Lauren.
I really enjoyed this introduction to Lauren. I think I like her better than Sasha. She just seems more down to earth, especially with her insecurities, nerves, and fears. In some ways she acts older than her age, but it makes more sense with her experience riding on the circuit in the past. Now is this book extremely realistic? No. How often do you have a 10-11 year old dressage champion? But that’s kind of the fun about middle grade books. They’re not always going to be realistic, they’re meant to make you dream. Or that’s how I’ve always looked at them, even when I was 10 years old. Either way, I can’t wait to read more about Lauren.
January 19, 2012
This was a great book and an adventreous read, and I would definatly recommed this book to everyone!It is about a girl named Lauren who was a amazing rider until her jumping accident with skye blue. She decided to start all over and apply for a top knoch boarding school named Canterwood Crest acadmey. When she gets accpted she is as excited as ever.As a going to a new school present from her parents Lauren finally gets her own horse Whisper, so she will be able to be on the equestrian team at Canterwood,and the two have all summer to get to know each other. When Lauren finally realizes she will be leaving her family and all her friends at her old school Lauren keeps wondering if
she made the right choice. Also what will the kids think of her if they find out about her riding accident? That is where the book leaves off. It is an amazing story and you should read it soon!
she made the right choice. Also what will the kids think of her if they find out about her riding accident? That is where the book leaves off. It is an amazing story and you should read it soon!
February 7, 2012
This book was as good as the rest of the series. It was full of stuff about horses and it had drama and romance in it as well. The series is sort of a package deal :D All of the books have quite a few different book genres in them :D
The main focus is horses, obviously :D The characters are all unique and have different personalities.
I loved all the descriptions of the characters and the setting. It was a very detailed book in which I could see the main character's emotions and feelings as different things happened.
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes horses and anyone who likes reading drama novels. Preferably aged 13-17 yrs.
The main focus is horses, obviously :D The characters are all unique and have different personalities.
I loved all the descriptions of the characters and the setting. It was a very detailed book in which I could see the main character's emotions and feelings as different things happened.
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes horses and anyone who likes reading drama novels. Preferably aged 13-17 yrs.
November 30, 2015
This book was very good. This book is about a girl who applies to one of the best boarding schools in the area. She rides horses and after she applies to the school the rest of the book is about her life after and how she gets ready for a reply. It kept me interested every time I sat down and read it. I liked how it was written because it was really easy to read. The thing I didn't like about the book is that is it was kinda of a separate series from the actually series. I do recommend this book to someone who likes reading about horses and likes easier books.
October 20, 2011
For this authors next series, I'm liking how it looks.Lauren is the next one to face canterwood and go to the next step of friendships, riding and life. It was good, but I loved the classic "Sashas story". I found thier series better, but this is only the first book . So, I'll have to see on which one I like more.
May 19, 2011
I just got it yesterday and am in love with it. GREAT new cast and story!
August 20, 2011
I absolutely love the new cast. I liked the Sasha but I Love Laurin. She's Basically me. Great book cause it's real. Like people can relate to it. Also it well written w/ a good cast of characters.
August 17, 2011
I wasn't quite sure how I would feel not reading about Sasha Silver and moving on to Lauren Towers, But, Truthfully, I love it the same. It's a great book to continue on to one of the best series.
May 6, 2012
Great book by Jessica Burkhart!
July 27, 2022
I don't get the point of this book. It's highly predictable that Lauren Towers makes it into Canterwood Crest as there are six other books about her and it litrally says on the blurb. It's just about a bunch of girls going shopping and stupid descriptions. Expensive brands are constantly being dropped into the book, and JB describes Lauren to be a smalltown girl. Is a smalltown girl someone who has a mansion, a dad who runs around after Lauren and buys her whatever she wants, and a girl who makes a big deal over nothing? She wears a full face of makeup and cares about clothes and hair too much. In the book, they buy dresses for Canterwood. Honey, you don't even know if you got accepted yet. Also, Lauren's secret is so pathetic. At around the age of 9/10, she apparently was on TV, fell off her horse, and didn't even get hurt. No broken bones. No scrape. No blood. NOTHING. She makes a huge deal about it and I don't get why. I fell off my horse and broke my arm and I didn't cry about it! She also states she will never jump again. SHE WASN'T HURT!!! GET OVER IT!!! I jumped again and competed, so stop wailing to your daddy and ride. Gurl is so annoying ammiright.
June 29, 2020
This really felt like a filler book that I don't fully think was necessary. It was really repetitive reading Lauren's thought process as she flip flops between wanting to go to Canterwood for a fresh start and thinking she's better off and safer if she stays at home. I also thin she makes such a big deal about her accident. I get that she was young and I'm sure it was scary but she didn't even get hurt at all and I really don't understand why she thinks everyone will dismiss her as a rider based off her falling off when she was still very young and is still currently taking lessons.
August 13, 2017
I've read this series many times. Chosen is one of my favorite books in the series. It shows what it's like waiting for an acceptance letter to the school of your dreams. I got accepted into my dream school and I thought for sure I wasn't getting in, but I did. Chosen was a great book and I am going to continue to read and re-read this wonderful series!
October 2, 2017
I loved Chosen by Jessica Burkhart. It was a really good book and I love the character Lauren Towers. I would recommend this book to people who have been reading the Canterwood Crest series and people who like gossip and horses!
January 21, 2018
Although the heartbreaking main character swap left me in tears, Lauren Towers was a perfect edition to the series and the author introduced her beautifully. It was extremely difficult to find out what book in the series this was, but so you guys know, its #12.5
June 16, 2023
this start the new set of characters for this series - love the descriptions she puts in of everything, she sets up the world of a middle school girl very well. There’s a reason I was obsessed with these as a preteen🤣
April 22, 2018
A lot different from the other books. This just seemed better written and a different feel and writing style than the other books.
January 15, 2020
I loved this. Book
It reminded me of my youth, school, family,friends, boy friends, and horses, every thing I did including showing! I hope we have a follow-up!
It reminded me of my youth, school, family,friends, boy friends, and horses, every thing I did including showing! I hope we have a follow-up!
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February 26, 2022I loved it, I think it was a nice transition from Sasha to Lauren.
August 25, 2023
WHO is letting twelve year olds into restaurants for dates without adults. also you did NOT end it like that...
August 3, 2025
This was really good!! I stayed up till 1 am reading it!!
February 14, 2016
I wish I had known about this book before I had read the Lauren books. Yes, you can read this after you read the Lauren books, it does give some insight in the character and you can understand her better, but for some reason I think I would have loved this book some more if I had gotten in it fresh, without knowledge of Lauren in Canterwood Crest Academy.
Why? Because I knew what would happen to Lauren, I knew what would happen between her friends and her ex. And I think I went into this with all that knowledge. At times I just wanted to warn her, tell her to watch for signs, tell her to not miss whatever is going on between her friends/ex.
But all that aside, I am also delighted to have read this book. As I said, it gave me some insight on the Lauren before CCA, and it was really interesting. Though at times it was a bit fast. For instance what happens to Taylor? It happens near the end, and it was over in a flash. It just felt a bit off, since it is a major event, a very important event in the life of CCA Lauren.
I also liked that we could see her pick a horse, it made me like the combo of Whisper and Lauren even more, now we know that it wasn't instant horse love, but instant a search, a search that was accompanied by tears and worries.
The book starts off with the one event that CCA Lauren was afraid to tell to her friends (and enemies), and while I knew about it, it is still a bit of a shock to read about it from this point of view. It is now not the distant eyes of the onlooker, no, we are now with the girl who had the accident.
Lauren was a bit annoying at times. I didn't like how much trust/confidence she lacked in this one. I could handle the: Oh I am not going to be accepted, boohoho thing once, or even twice, but sorry, 10? 10+ times? No, no thank you. I can imagine she is insecure, worries, but does it really need to be this overly there. No.
Then we have the friends of Lauren, and I have to say I liked them more than I normally did, but considering I knew what would happen, I couldn't like them too much. I also didn't really liked how they thought at times. Thinking about popularity and all that, it just didn't match.
Also, I knew Lauren was rich, but seriously, this rich? Three garage spaces, a gardener, a cleaner, a swimming pool? Wow.... I can imagine that she can buy anything apparently (which we have seen her doing in the Lauren books). Even though she was all like she works for the money, I haven't seen her do anything like that in the Lauren books themselves.
Taylor was really cute in this book and I liked seeing him and Lauren together. They made a really cute couple!
I know, I know, I have said this a few times in the other books, but sorry, I don't see these girls/guys as 11/12. They go out on date nights, they have a full make-up schedule that would even put a 20-year old girl to shame, and several other things. So like I said, I will just see them as 14 to 16, which feels more natural considering the stuff they do.
All in all, this is one book that I really liked, and that I would recommend to everyone. I would recommend that people read this one first, before reading the Lauren books.
Review first posted at http://twirlingbookprincess.com/
Why? Because I knew what would happen to Lauren, I knew what would happen between her friends and her ex. And I think I went into this with all that knowledge. At times I just wanted to warn her, tell her to watch for signs, tell her to not miss whatever is going on between her friends/ex.
But all that aside, I am also delighted to have read this book. As I said, it gave me some insight on the Lauren before CCA, and it was really interesting. Though at times it was a bit fast. For instance what happens to Taylor? It happens near the end, and it was over in a flash. It just felt a bit off, since it is a major event, a very important event in the life of CCA Lauren.
I also liked that we could see her pick a horse, it made me like the combo of Whisper and Lauren even more, now we know that it wasn't instant horse love, but instant a search, a search that was accompanied by tears and worries.
The book starts off with the one event that CCA Lauren was afraid to tell to her friends (and enemies), and while I knew about it, it is still a bit of a shock to read about it from this point of view. It is now not the distant eyes of the onlooker, no, we are now with the girl who had the accident.
Lauren was a bit annoying at times. I didn't like how much trust/confidence she lacked in this one. I could handle the: Oh I am not going to be accepted, boohoho thing once, or even twice, but sorry, 10? 10+ times? No, no thank you. I can imagine she is insecure, worries, but does it really need to be this overly there. No.
Then we have the friends of Lauren, and I have to say I liked them more than I normally did, but considering I knew what would happen, I couldn't like them too much. I also didn't really liked how they thought at times. Thinking about popularity and all that, it just didn't match.
Also, I knew Lauren was rich, but seriously, this rich? Three garage spaces, a gardener, a cleaner, a swimming pool? Wow.... I can imagine that she can buy anything apparently (which we have seen her doing in the Lauren books). Even though she was all like she works for the money, I haven't seen her do anything like that in the Lauren books themselves.
Taylor was really cute in this book and I liked seeing him and Lauren together. They made a really cute couple!
I know, I know, I have said this a few times in the other books, but sorry, I don't see these girls/guys as 11/12. They go out on date nights, they have a full make-up schedule that would even put a 20-year old girl to shame, and several other things. So like I said, I will just see them as 14 to 16, which feels more natural considering the stuff they do.
All in all, this is one book that I really liked, and that I would recommend to everyone. I would recommend that people read this one first, before reading the Lauren books.
Review first posted at http://twirlingbookprincess.com/
December 11, 2012
Chosen By Jessica Burkhart
Realistic Fiction
295 pages
Lauren Towers is the new Sasha Silver. She is going to Briarwood, the same school Sasha went to, and has the hot boyfriend, and the awesome friends. She has applied for Canterwood Crest and is waiting for that yes. Or does she want them to say no? She was popular at Briarwood until she applied at Canterwood, the “enemy school.” While Lauren waits for her answer she rides, practices, hangs out with friends, goes on dates, and practices more. She is afraid her incident from her earlier career in life will play a big effect on whether she gets in or not. In the end she gets into Canterwood Crest. Her family is kind and nice enough to congratulate her with the best present a horse rider could get. She got her very own horse!!! She looked and looked until she found the perfect horse! Whisper! I gave this book a 4 star rating because I like the idea of a new student, and life moving on. But I do miss Sasha and I think Burkhart did a better job explaining Sasha’s story but, Lauren’s story should become better and better.
Realistic Fiction
295 pages
Lauren Towers is the new Sasha Silver. She is going to Briarwood, the same school Sasha went to, and has the hot boyfriend, and the awesome friends. She has applied for Canterwood Crest and is waiting for that yes. Or does she want them to say no? She was popular at Briarwood until she applied at Canterwood, the “enemy school.” While Lauren waits for her answer she rides, practices, hangs out with friends, goes on dates, and practices more. She is afraid her incident from her earlier career in life will play a big effect on whether she gets in or not. In the end she gets into Canterwood Crest. Her family is kind and nice enough to congratulate her with the best present a horse rider could get. She got her very own horse!!! She looked and looked until she found the perfect horse! Whisper! I gave this book a 4 star rating because I like the idea of a new student, and life moving on. But I do miss Sasha and I think Burkhart did a better job explaining Sasha’s story but, Lauren’s story should become better and better.
June 11, 2013
Unrealistic.
Yes, it was a good book.
But the main character, Lauren, lives a "privileged" life. Privileged? You mean wearing MAC makeup, living in a house where she gets her own bathroom, a house with a sauna, inground swimming pool, going to a fancy prep school? I don't think a 12 year old should have her own makeup counter with designer brands, a closet in which she never repeats outfits, I just found it really unrealistic for a small town girl in Connecticut to have all of this. Maybe in a rich town, but a small town with a few hundred people? I'm pretty sure they don't have houses like this in small towns.
Overall, a great book. I just wish Lauren wasn't so spoiled. She's a 12 year old.
Yes, it was a good book.
But the main character, Lauren, lives a "privileged" life. Privileged? You mean wearing MAC makeup, living in a house where she gets her own bathroom, a house with a sauna, inground swimming pool, going to a fancy prep school? I don't think a 12 year old should have her own makeup counter with designer brands, a closet in which she never repeats outfits, I just found it really unrealistic for a small town girl in Connecticut to have all of this. Maybe in a rich town, but a small town with a few hundred people? I'm pretty sure they don't have houses like this in small towns.
Overall, a great book. I just wish Lauren wasn't so spoiled. She's a 12 year old.
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