Racing Savannah by Miranda Kenneally (review)

Being uprooted from West Virginia to Tennessee isn’t Savannah’s idea, but she has to admit that her new life on a fine Thoroughbred farm isn’t all bad. Since her father’s the head groom, she has a shot at being first an exercise rider and then a jockey; more significantly, Jack Goodwin, the seventeen-year-old son of the owner, is seriously hot and clearly interested in Savannah. Skeptical Savannah is torn: she knows Jack’s reputation as a player, her vulnerability as his employee, and the class divide between them, but her heart (and loins) won’t allow her to give up hope. With Catching Jordan (BCCB 2/12) and Stealing Parker (BCCB 1/13), Kenneally has established herself as a writer of romances with some interesting complexity along with the swooning, and there’s certainly plenty of swooning and steamy pleasure here. Additionally, Savannah herself is genuinely brash and not just saucy, and the Tennessee milieu is vividly evoked. The richness of the other books is absent, though, leaving the story too often formulaic. The professional issues are brushed off more as Savannah’s defensiveness than a genuine problem, and Jack is actually a pretty flat character, much less interesting than Savannah’s platonic male friend Rory. Additionally, the book lacks the smooth familiarity with the racing world that Jordan had with football, with the details unrealistic and the behavior and terminology too often ringing false. Fans who are in it for the banter and the physical magnetism, though, may still find plenty of enjoyment in the no-question-they-will romance.