Series: The Golden Filly by Lauraine Snelling

Summary:

16-year-old Trish loves horses. She, her father, and her brother work together breeding, raising, and training horses. But most of all Trish loves racing. Her father, Hal, taught her to be a jockey and what helps her out the most is her instinct to be able to read horses. Unfortunately, Trish's mother hates her riding and her relationship with her mother isn't as well as it should be. When Trish's father is diagnosed with a disease it rocks Trish's world. Hal is moved to a hospital and together Trish and her brother, David, are left to run the farm. Trish's grades drop and slowly the family starts to get into financial problems. With her father in the hospital can Trish keep up her faith in God and let Him be in control of her life? And when things get worse can she win the race for her father?

Word of Caution: (May Contain Spoiler Alerts)

This series is great until book four (Call for Courage) when a boy named Red befriends Trish. From this book on Red is Trish's boyfriend. It's a pretty clean relationship but does involve kissing. Another thing that may be of concern is that in book 8 (Second wind) Trish starts receiving threats to stay away from a race track. The threats are pretty scary. The mystery is solved in book 10 (Winner's Circle) when Trish is kidnapped by a man who intends to throw her off a bridge. Fortunately, Trish escapes and the man is put behind bars. The last thing is that in book seven (Out of the Mist) Trish is in deep depression and when her chemistry teacher offers her a handful of drugs Trish is very tempted to take them. Finally, after a long struggle, God wins and Trish dumps the pills down the drain.

Positive Notes:

This series is the best horse series I have ever read. It's also the best Christian fiction series. It goes through faith, trust, relationships, love, depression, temptation, fear, and anger. It's not like other silly horse series that go into all the girl drama. It's real, living, and depicts true Christian life and the struggles that many young Christians have.

Who:

This book is great for Christian teenagers aged 14-16.

Books:

Each book follows the one before it and I recommend reading this series in order. The books are as follows;

The Race (#1), Eagles Wings (#2), Go for the Glory (#3), Kentucky Dreamer (#4), Call for Courage (#5), Shadow Over San Mateo (#6), Out of the Mist (#7), Second Wind (#8), Close Call (#9), Winner's Circle (#10).