ARA Review by Emily Garrett of Sydney's Passion

[Emily Garrett]

[Following is an OnlineBookClub.org ARA Review of the book, Sydney's Passion.]

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3 out of 5 stars

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This book was about a fourteen-year-old girl and her best friend and their passion for horse racing. The book takes place on a Kentucky horse ranch. The focus of the story is on several aspects in the girls’ lives that includes bullying, family relationships, interacting with younger siblings, death of a family member, forgiveness, relationships with school administration and other students at school. The audience is young adults.

The protagonist and her friend set out to break through community norms through a planned set of actions, requiring secrecy and the trust of just a few people. In another area of the story, the protagonist is bullied at school and proves herself to be able to defend herself adequately. However, school administrators blame her for getting the better of her tormentor, even though she tried her best to avoid each situation. Her father is a good guy, and does his best to stand up for her.

I like that the book is family based and includes several families who support each other. I also like the faith-based aspect of the book. The deceased grandfather’s teachings about things happening for a reason are mentioned several times in the book. There are also visits from heaven, which the characters really appreciated and had enough faith to embrace them. There are a number of positive messages that are demonstrated in the book, although I don’t think most people are so easily forgiving and willing to do for others as the book suggests with the story. It’s a nice idea, though.

It’s not the kind of book I normally read, but I like the young female protagonist, and the fact that she is a strong, positive character, not perfect, but willing to defend herself and stand up for other people.

I gave this book a rating of 3 out of 5. I loved the basis for the story as explained above, and the couple of twists in the story. However, the book needs some editing and that is a distraction for me when I am reading. It moves back and forth between third person and first person, which I found confusing. Sometimes it wasn’t clear who was speaking, plus there were typos and some other editing issues that could be remedied.

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