Breaking the Reins Book Review

I was excited to read Breaking the Reins by Juliana Haygert because I am a HUGE YA Horse Book Fan. As a child I read every Saddle Club book I could. So, when I read the description of Breaking the Reins I was hooked.

Description from Goodreads:

Breaking the Reins
Juliana Haygert

Horses, mansions, tea parties, and lies are twenty-year-old Hannah Taylor’s life. To others, her family and her relationship with Eric is perfect. But she knows the truth. She lives it.

After a fire takes her grandma's life and kills her horse, Hannah's immaculate life spirals out of control. Her father disapproves of her decision to run her grandma’s ranch instead of focusing solely on learning the family business; Animal Control brings her Argus, a mistreated horse that she can't turn away even though she's not ready for another horse; and her boyfriend, Eric Bennett, a world famous polo player, becomes possessive and authoritarian. Despite her best efforts to disguise it, Hannah grows wary of him.

Then, Leonardo Fernandes struts onto the polo scene. A cocky rookie with a messy life of his own, he’s drawn to Hannah and isn’t afraid of showing it, even when Eric makes it clear she is his and he’ll do whatever it takes to keep it that way. Hannah suffers for Eric’s jealousy. The abuse only gets worse when Leo steals the title of best polo player in the world from Eric.But the title isn’t enough for Leo. He wants Hannah too, and she can’t deny her attraction to him either. Somehow, she must find a way to break free from abusive Eric before he breaks every bone in her body.

My Review

Hannah's life revolves around horses, her grandmother's ranch and Eric. She is trying to please everyone else, rather than listen to her heart and do what she wants: what her grandmother did - run the ranch and rescue horses.

Hannah and Eric's relationship is "perfect" from the outside, but on the inside Eric tries to over power Hannah in every aspect of her life - school, the ranch, her future, even what she eats and drinks!

I was the kind of person who tried to see the best in everyone, and that included Eric.

It also included Argus, the broken horse she was trying to fix. In the end she learned a lot from Argus and he became her savior.

Leonardo seems like he is TOO perfect, so I had a feeling there was more to his story.

I'm not a good guy, Hannah. In fact, I'm a bad guy trying to act like a good one for once. However, my good side is losing right now.

The connection between Leo and Hannah is amazing. It was written beautifully. I think we all want someone to feel that passionately about us one day.

I knew Eric was a bad guy - but OMG he was much worse than I first thought.

I'm glad that even though so many terrible things happened, this story had a happy ending.

Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars! I felt the story was a little slow at first, but once things picked up and heated up between Hannah and Leo I was hooked! I can't wait to read the next book - Breaking Fences.