A Year of Horse Books: The Horse Dancer and Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes - reviewed by Katherine Roberts

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This month we have adult fiction with two novels featuring horses by best-selling 'Me Before You' author Jojo Moyes.

The Horse Dancer

Part romance, part adventure, The Horse Dancer takes its characters on a journey of heart and hoof from the back streets of London to a chateau deep in the French countryside. The story revolves around a beautiful horse called “Boo”, one of the Selle Francais breed used in an exclusive French riding school called the Cadre Noir (rather like the Spanish riding school of Vienna, except the horses are not the more famous white Lipizzaners). The horse belongs to Sarah, granddaughter of dedicated horseman Henri Lachapelle, who used to ride for the Cadre Noir but left France to marry an English girl and move to London. There, his life collapsed. His beloved wife died, and their daughter vanished from their lives shortly after giving birth, leaving Henri in charge of the baby girl. At the start of the book they share a tiny flat in the East End, where Sarah keeps Boo under a railway arch at a yard run by a kindly urban cowboy. Not keen on school, she finds happiness in training her horse to perform the “airs above the ground” and riding him around the parks and back streets of London.

Then disaster strikes. Henri has a stroke and is taken into hospital, leaving Sarah to fend for herself, while the yard where she keeps her horse is sold to a shady character who tries to take advantage of her vulnerability. Enter Natasha MacAuley, a lawyer who catches Sarah shoplifting food and tries to help, little knowing that the girl and her horse are about to change her life forever. When Sarah sets off with Boo on a daring ride from London to the Cadre Noir in France with only Natasha’s stolen credit card and the clothes on her back, Natasha has little choice but to follow her across the Channel with an old flame. So begins a chase that forces all the characters to re-evaluate their lives and decide what really matters to them.

Jojo Moyes' writing is detailed and emotional, so you really feel for all of her characters and not just the heroine or hero of the tale. Whether you love horses or not, this is a satisfying read that should appeal to anyone from teen to adult. 

Another novel featuring horses by the same author is Giver of Stars, which features horseback librarians in 1930s Kentucky, and which I've already reviewed on this blog as Quite Possibly My Dream Job. This book has the same richness and emotional content as The Horse Dancer, so again you don't really need to be a horse lover to appreciate it... although if you are, then it's quite possibly your perfect read!

The Giver of Stars


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Katherine Roberts writes fantasy and historical fiction for young readers, often involving horses or their magical cousins such as unicorns.

Jojo Moyes is the stepdaughter of Brian Sanders, who illustrated the "Bucephalas' Hoofprints" map at the front of the original Scholastic/Chicken House edition of Katherine's I am the Great Horse.


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