Sick of her husband’s philandering ways and tired of her stuck-in-a-rut bland life, Judy Van Brunt decides it’s time to make a change. Inspired by a casual remark made by the instructor at her weekly riding lesson, she quits her job, packs up all her worldly goods that fit in a car, takes her inheritance and runs off to join Olympic trainer Katarina Rheinboldt’s Sankt Mai horse farm in North Carolina.
As a working student, Judy splits her days between grueling training and doing back-breaking chores around the farm. But her three fellow boarders help make life more bearable by not only giving her the benefit of their own life and farm experiences but also helping her understand the horses and their eccentricities, as well as those of their wealthy owners and riders. They each have their own private dramas, battles, stories and fears and, amid great hilarity, with amusing anecdotes and witticisms, laughter and tears, they all bond together. Judy also meets and immediately falls for sexy Speed, a most eligible bachelor who is also the son of a prosperous neighboring horse-farm owner. Dare Judy give love a second chance or should she stick to her beloved horses knowing that unlike men, horses never lie?.
With her tongue firmly in tucked inside her cheek, author Judy Reene Singer sets about crafting a novel chockful of entertainment and successfully manages to cover even the ugliness of reality with rich doses irony and humor. Having a central character like her namesake Judy, who is outspoken, somewhat caustic, totally sincere and an absolute hoot to boot, only adds to the charm of this book. Singer provides entertainment from the first page to the last, whether describing the physical comedy that ensues whenever Judy is up or near a horse, the numerous side characters who add to the plentiful mirth, or the horses themselves with their individual characters and idiosyncrasies. The author also pokes fun at the lives, loves and escapades of the wealthy horse set who have no concept of the harshness of real life. Singer’s debut effort Horseplay is a novel that’s simply not to be missed.