If you think by looking at the cover and title of this book that it is all about horses think again. Whilst the horses play an important role in the story it is the people who take centre stage. The story begins with the teenage Noah giving birth to a baby boy on One Tree farm with only pigs to keep her company. She quietly places the baby in a box, puts it in the river and watches as he disappears downstream. And whilst the baby is gone and Noah quickly returns to life on One Tree farm she is plagued by memories of the recently deceased Uncle Nipper the father of her child and haunted by the last look her baby gave her as she placed him in the box. But Noah gets on with life as best as she knows how and life starts to look up when she meets the talented rider Rowley at the local show and he gives her the foal’s bread, a piece of gristle sometimes found in a newborn foal's mouth, to give her luck. He is just as taken with her and her own riding abilities and they decide to forge a life together living on One Tree farm with Rowley’s mother and sisters. But even with the foal’s bread luck runs out for the couple and life on the farm becomes a daily struggle for Noah. Moving is not strong enough a word to describe the calibre of this novel. Mears manages to make this story so real and touching that you would have to have no heart at all to not be affected by this book. A clear winner for best book of 2011 I savoured every word and would happily read it again if I didn’t have 100’s of other novels awaiting my attention. And an absolutely gorgeous cover to boot!
