Reviewer: Amy Lignor
Title: If Wishes Were Horses
Author: Robert Barclay
Publisher: Wm Morrow
ISBN-13: 978-0-06-196688-0
Release Date: February 2011
Genre/Sub-genre: General Fiction
Year/Setting: Present day/Florida
Overall Rating: 4.5
Sexual Content Rating: None/Subtle
Language (Profanity/Slang) Content Rating: None/Mild
Violent Content Rating: Minimal/Moderate
Robert's Website/Blog: www.harpercollins.com/author/microsite/?authorid=36642
Dear Readers:
For anyone who has ever cried when reading a Nicholas Sparks' novel, we here at Once Upon a Romance wish to tell you that Robert Barclay far exceeds expectations and, to be honest, the works of Mr. Sparks.
This is truly an unbelievably inspirational story of hope, friendship, pain, love, and trying to find a life after the Lord in his infinite wisdom has taken away your own. Our main character, Wyatt Blaine, has just been through the absolute worst that a man can go through. In one split second of time a drunk driver took the lives of his wife and son leaving him to question everything, and without the ability to forgive.
We meet Gabrielle (Gabby) Powers as he races down the hospital corridor dragging her son Trevor behind her. She needs to get to the ICU before her husband disappears from their lives for good. The reader can almost feel the silence and hear the prayers and people catch their breath as Gabrielle stands outside the glass windows and listens to the horrific beeping sound of machinery shouting at her that her husband is gone. With her crying son by her side, she stares at a doctor who looks at a clock on the wall, pronouncing the time of death - a picture that will forever be caught in her mind.
Five years later, Gabrielle is going to church and stares over at the man in the last pew. She watches him, as always, rise from his seat and leave the chapel before the end of the service as if he simply can't listen or believe that God is even there. This man is Wyatt and his family were the ones taken by Gabrielle's husband that horrible night.
Wyatt decides to re-open the New Beginnings Program which was his wife's dream. He wanted the program to live again in her absence and this time all children would be allowed to go there for free. This is an equine therapy program where the care and companionship of horses help troubled teens through their issues and problems, offering them a way to deal with a harsh life. One of the very troubled is Gabby's son, Trevor. He can barely deal with his days after his father died, and he needs help more than anyone. Wyatt, meeting with Trevor and Gabby at the request of his Reverend, accepts the teen but finds it exceedingly difficult to deal with the fact that the family members related to the man who took his wife and son away, are surrounding him on his ranch. What follows is the most poignant, beautiful - at times, frightening - story that many will ever read.
This author has done a magnificent job addressing so many human emotions that watching these two characters literally rise from the ashes together and seek peace in each other is a heart-stopping read. This is one of those few and far between that should have the word Pulitzer appearing under the title. Enjoy!
Until next time,
Amy
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