I was so pumped that I found an early Saddle Club book that I never read. This was a bonus story that came exclusively with a body care/shampoo gift set in the early 1990s. The story takes place at the same time as books 13/14, but makes no mention of those events. It also ignores Lisa being in a different country on vacation, yet inexplicably she is in Virginia to help set up for New Years. Alright, time is rather nebulous in the series, I'll give it a break. I'll even excuse the excessive descriptions of bath products and the amount of baths/showers the girls feel the need to take during this story; it IS sold with a bubble bath set. I WON'T forgive the character breaks though - horse-crazy 12-year-old girls complaining about the smell of horses?!? What world is this?! Carole especially saying smelling like a barn is gross is a bit too far-fetched for me. I'm disappointed if Bryant wrote this, but I hope she didn't. There is no winner though, because the ladies who ghost wrote a lot of the series were actual horse people and wouldn't say those things either. I understand that the writers need to get paid, but selling their souls (and beloved characters) like this was a shame. There were so many times the girls mentioned how they had to get clean after riding I lost count, and the book is only like 60 pages long.

Don't bother tracking this book down if you want to complete your Saddle Club series. Just pretend this abomination doesn't exist. ( )