Haunting , beautiful, touching and just a few of the words I would use to describe this book.
Just breathtaking ...I devoured it in one sitting. I can't wait for the next book by this writer.

I read the first 78 pages only. Normally I love memoirs that center on bereavement or major illness, but there’s so much going on in this book that rather drowns out the story of her mother falling off her horse when Stroud was 16 and suffering a TBI. For instance, there’s a lot about the blended family Stroud grew up in, an embarrassing amount of detail about her early sexual experiences, and an account of her postnatal depression that plunges her back into memories of her mother’s accident.

“Horses are the source of powerful magic that’s changed my life,” Stroud asserts, so she talks a lot about real horses and chalk figures, but that’s not the same as affirming the healing power of nature, which is how this book has been marketed. This is well written, yet I couldn’t warm to the story of a posh Home Counties upbringing, which means I never got as far as the more tantalizing contents set in Ireland and Texas.

At times I had to remind myself that this was a true story. It was different and a good change from what I usualIy read. I will recommend it to my friends who love horses and those that like animals.. It is written in the new popular format of jumping backwards and forwards, that has the bonus of keeping the reader focused. It is set in fairly recent times. I did feel an overwhelming sadness throughout the book but life is sometimes like that. An unusual biography about an ordinary person whose path in life is different. and yet it could be anyone.

This book is raw and hard-hitting. I think fans of Wild by Cheryl Strayed will love it. There is loss that is processed in a way that helped me come to terms with my own losses. I found the book comforting and I would recommend it to friends and followers interested in memoirs, coming of age books and empowering self-help books.