For the chance to stay near her favorite of the King’s horses, Sonnia dares to become a stable hand at the racetrack.
Some coins will go to help her family on the poor side of town, some saved for her dream of buying Ricochet.
Another stable worker is a girl? Great! They’re actually junior jockeys in training? Wow! They get to exercise the messenger fleet horses by riding them through the woods and meadows every afternoon? Even better!
Her big brother’s teasing ways prepared her for working with boys, but not for their reckless night riding on the King’s fleet horses, with bets placed…
Sonnia’s first pay, reduced by room and board fees, is much less than she promised to her father, even keeping none back toward Ricochet – will he make her return home to the family pony ride business?
Ricochet is moved into the fleet stables and can now be ridden in the peril-filled Night Ride! Harm to a horse is punished severely by the King. Who at the racetrack can help her stop this before Ricochet is injured?
Will Sonnia’s love for Ricochet help keep all the fleet horses safe or will it hurt the young riders who care for them at the racetrack?
A girl and a horse and a chance to do what’s right…
By the author of R is for Rebel, recommended here, and The Wicked and the Just (more here).
When have you turned away from the crowd, for the right reasons?
**kmm
Book info: Night Ride / J. Anderson Coats. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2021 hardcover, 2022 paperback. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.
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