But I’d say that overall, this is Gruen’s weakest book and I can only recommend it if you REALLY care about the characters in the first novel. Mainly because personally, I enjoyed catching up with them to see how things turned out. If you enjoyed Riding Lessons and are interested in seeing what happens to the characters, then I do think the book is worth your time. I would not recommend this book as a stand-alone novel.

Too many coincidences, too many things that went exactly perfectly, and everything ended up being tied up in WAY too neat a bow for my tastes. Everything that happened just seemed so… I don’t know… not possible. While the characters still had the same believable personalities and relationships between one another, the plot was the total opposite of believable. Let me just start by making that very clear. If she sends her to the school, Eva will have all kinds of new opportunities and experiences, and if she doesn’t, she’ll simply be a kid without a high school to attend and plenty of trouble just waiting for her to find… even though the answer is obvious, even to Annemarie, she still can’t help her fears – and these fears even start to threaten her relationship with her daughter.įlying Changes wasn’t NEARLY as good as Riding Lessons. When Eva is caught doing questionable activities at school, expelled, and subsequently offered a position in a prestigious riding school, Annemarie knows it’s the best possible thing for Eva, but can’t imagine letting her go.

Eva has fallen completely in love with riding, and Annemarie really doesn’t know how to handle it – she wants her daughter to be happy but is terrified that she’ll suffer the same fate Annemarie dealt with after she was thrown from her horse so many years ago. Annemarie and Dan are still together, living in peace and harmony – except that Annemarie wants to get married, and Dan doesn’t seem to have any interest in that, and also Dan spends the majority of his time driving around the country, rescuing horses from auctions, so they don’t see each other too often. Ok, so Flying Changes begins about a year after Riding Lessons ends. Flying Changes is the sequel to Riding Lessons ( here’s my review) so be forewarned that this review will contain plot spoilers for the first book.

Riding lessons by sara gruen