Susan Mihalic

I didn’t know that this disturbing book would be my horror reading for this season. The publisher says intense, but I almost didn’t want to finish a book that seemingly normalized incest. Roan Montgomery’s father has been having sexual relations with her since she was about six years old. She is now fifteen, and she blames herself for accepting this as her lifestyle. Her mother knew, saw Roan as a competitor, and kept the secret. As those who have studied sexual abuse will tell you, show more it’s all about the secrecy and what the victim fears losing if she tells. In this story, Roan is worried that she will lose access to her beloved horses if she discloses what her father does to her.

Monty Montgomery is an Olympic medal-winning equestrian who runs Rosemont, a well-known horse farm. He controls his horses and staff with great skill and precision. He is training his daughter Roan, who is obviously named after a horse, to be an equestrian in much the same way that he trains his horses and manages his staff. He is the ultimate control freak, seeing Roan as a commodity. He doesn’t allow her to have a cell phone or social media accounts, but he has online accounts in her name. He posts information about her equestrian events and has formulated a public image that he can control. He demands that she have a persona in public. Every time he called her "Darlin,” I almost shrieked aloud.

The dictionary says that if you describe someone as a dark horse, you mean that people know very little about them. Well, Gertrude, the family’s cook, and Eddie, the hired groom for the horses, practically live under the same roof and know very little about what Roan endures regularly. They’ve known Monty, Roan’s father, for much longer and don’t seem to know what he is capable of doing to his daughter. Mihalic and her editors have certainly chosen a title with profound significance. The literal horses in the story are characters—Jasper, Diva, and Vigo and vital to the story; Roan has relationships with each of them, a markedly better relationship with Jasper than with any human. On the first pages of the book, Roan’s classmates refer to her as a horse girl. This is another expression that has taken on layers of meaning in the modern world.

Although her father claims that boys would be a distraction to her training and the reader knows that the father doesn’t want another competitor for her body, Roan becomes attracted to Will Howard, a boy from school. He asks her out on a date, which her father doesn’t allow. It is through Will, her first male friend, that Roan finally learns the difference between compliant and complicit and eventually victimhood. It becomes apparent that this book's storyline about breeding and riding horses is only surface level. The book is really about the darkness in life.

Susan Mihalic is quite the writer. She angered me with the story's content and the graphic sex scenes, yet kept me gripped to the last page. I thank her and Simon and Schuster for allowing me a glimpse of this new author by providing an ARC.

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This was an advanced reader’s copy that I was unsure about asking for, as I’m not a teenage-girl-and-her-horse kind of a reader. Be assured that I never had a single thought of Black Beauty, as I was quickly drawn into this very unique story about a fifteen-year-old champion rider, her relationships with the horses she loved, and the father that she climaxed with. Yep, there’s a lot going on here.

The father in the story is a former Olympian champion and a greatly admired equestrian show more coach. He’s very demanding and domineering of his students, especially when it comes to his young daughter, Roan. Her mother is a marginal figure in her life, as she is addled on drink and drugs most all the time, except for when she took her daughter shopping.

Being a champion and coaching has rewarded the family with a large ranch, plenty of servants, and a stable of quality horses. Roan is as driven as her Daddy. Her training schedule leaves hardly any free time, and that’s mostly just fine with Roan, as she only looks with her mental blinders on to the next competition.

Eventually the mother’s affairs catch up with her. She disappears from Roan’s life when her parents divorce and Mama leaves with the millions prescribed in the prenup. Oh joy, just father and daughter alone in that huge home after the servants leave each night.

The most disturbing scenes are when she is repeatedly taken by Daddy, and she even climaxes with him, as he’s the only lover she’s known since she was sexually assaulted at age five. Eventually, Will, a classmate of hers, becomes her friend. Their relationship gets intimate, and there’s more creepiness when she thinks of their sexual acts in comparison to the only other lover she has ever had, Daddy.

The book was intense and well written, as well as disturbing and distressing. You are quickly drawn into the story of this abused girl, and learn about these extremely driven and competitive people who simply are incapable to imagine a different way to see people and the world. Certainly, the abuse is central to the story, but Roan is still growing up and realizing what she wants out of life, and the book is all about power. Her love for Will leads to some extreme situations that help to change her life entirely. There’s a fascinating and shocking ending that will stay in any reader’s mind for some time. This book leaves a stark stamp on any reader. show less

This is an extremely well-written page-turner with a story that has no hesitation for digging into scenes I was not ready for. Be warned ~ this book has many graphic, hard to read scenes of Roan's father's ongoing sexual abuse of her. He began his disgusting behavior when she was a mere child of six years old and continued his evil obsession with her throughout her childhood. He dominated her, constantly demanding, threatening, and basically making her little more than his desire for her to show more become an Olympic star and his personal sex slave. Don't let all that scare you away from the entire story, just be aware that this is NOT a simple story of a girl who is an ambitious, talented girl working to become an Olympic star like her father and grandfather achieved. It's also not a story of mild abuse, perhaps having a too strict father whose actions borderlines abuse. The story is so graphic and disturbing that I considered putting it down rather than hear her too detailed story. I did finish it and am glad I did. The last few chapters made me glad to have read the entire story. The ending of the story was much better than what I had even hoped to read. Sometimes karma can deal some just results Karma could not be bought or terrified by Monty Montgomery. show less

I am conflicted about this book. It is difficult to read about the sexual abuse of a child, particularly if the monster perpetrating the crime is in the guise of "Daddy," which is further compounded by the tacit acceptance of an alcoholic mother. 15-year old Roan Montgomery is committed to becoming an Olympian equestrian under the guidance and tutelage of her Olympian champion father. The abuse scenes described are graphic and heartbreaking, but she sees no way to stop them without incurring show more further punishment. Roan's dilemma is further compounded when her mother leaves them for the headmaster of the school she attends. Unbeknownst to her father, she falls in love with a classmate, who becomes her safe place until her father discovers their relationship.

I have served on juvenile court panels that deal with the abuse, abandonment and neglect of children in foster care. Many children are irrevocably damaged, while others survive with the help of intensive therapy. I doubt that Roan can withstand a decade of sexual abuse without this therapy. show less