Red Rock Ranch

Sixteen-year-old Lucy Rose has an exciting new job as a ranch hand for the summer on Red Rock Ranch.  It’s challenging, since she’s inexperienced with cattle, but she loves the horses. She meets fellow coworker Casey in an embarrassing collision with a runaway calf.  Casey is a friendly and good-looking young man with phenomenal cowboy skills.  Lucy has feelings for Casey, but he might be dating Taylor Johnson, a monied rodeo queen. When they encounter an abandoned horse, Casey ropes it and takes it back to the ranch, but Lucy bonds with him.  Slowly but surely, the horse she names Chance becomes her best friend, and Lucy has to win an exclusive race to save the horse from going back to his cruel owner. 

“Red Rock Ranch” is a beautiful love story between a girl and a horse.  The scenes of Lucy bonding with Chance are deeply affecting; at times, poignant enough to induce tears in the reader.  Chance might be a horse, but he is a pivotal character in this novel that the reader grows to love just as much as Lucy.  Brittney Joy captures the day to day workings on a ranch, and the intricacies of equine rodeo sports in a realistic manner that makes the reader part of the story. Although the romance between Lucy and Casey takes a back seat, “Red Rock Ranch” is recommended to horse lovers and readers who have experienced the profound bond between an animal and a human being.  

Danielle Hill