Breaking Free: A Novel

Lauraine Snelling
FaithWords (2007)
ISBN 9780446582087
Reviewed by Debra Gaynor for Reader Views (7/07)


Maggie Roberts was serving ten years in prison for a heartrending accident.  When she began to serve her time, an old woman gave her advice, “just get through.”  Those were the words Maggie learned to live by for the next seven years.  Four months from her parole hearing, she was offered a chance to work with a new program.  The “Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation” had contracted with the prison for women to work with racehorses that could no longer race.  Maggie was the perfect candidate, she had experience with horses, and she had stayed out of trouble.  The women participating in the program would take stable management classes.  Maggie loved horses and saw this as a chance for safety, and fresh air.  The inmates began their labor by building fences for the horses. 

Trenton James, the instructor, recognized the potential in Maggie.  He assigned one or two horses to each of ten inmates.  Dancer’s Delight was her first horse.  The horse recognized the kindness and compassion in Maggie and was soon following her around.  When Breaking Free arrived at the Rescue Stables, he screamed.  The sound was unlike any Maggie had heard before.  He was wild and full of anger.  James and Maggie worked together to establish the animal’s trust.  Through working with Breaking Free, Maggie began to face her past and look to the future with hope.

Eddie, an 11-year-old boy bound to a wheel chair by spina-bifida, wants a horse.  His divorced father, Gil, comes to realize that his son needs more of him than he has been giving.  Gil is a businessperson that worries about his son and works too hard.  He and Eddie go to the prison rehabilitation program searching for a horse.  Maggie begins working with Eddie, training him.  Her emotions begin to open in ways she has not allowed in years. 

Lauraine Snelling is a well-known author in the Christian romance genre.  Fans will not be disappointed in “Breaking Free.”  The plot draws in the readers and shows them a side of life they may have never experienced.  The characters became part of me.  Maggie Roberts is such a real character that I found myself cheering her on.  I know little to nothing about horses and yet found that I cared about what happened to the thoroughbreds.  The supporting characters are all very human and come to care about each other.  Ms Snelling is extremely talented.  It is refreshing to find a Christian romance so well written.  I highly recommend “Breaking Free” to fans of Christian romance.

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