REMEMBER ME - Laura Moore
The Rosewood Trilogy, Book 1
Bantam Books
ISBN: 978-0-345-48276-1
February 2010
Contemporary Romance

Rosewood Farms, Warburg, Virginia, Present Day

The Rosewood horse farm has been in the Radcliffe family for generations. It was a happy place until the present owner's wife died. And then he married again.

Nicole, his new wife, soon had RJ Radcliffe under her sway, an unfelicitous arrangement for her stepdaughters, especially the younger one. Margot was the rebellious one and the favorite target of her stepmother's venom. Nicole managed to widen a gap between RJ and Margot, who wanted nothing more than to work with her father instead of going away to college to meet a suitable husband. Well, maybe there was one thing she wanted as much, and that was the farm's horse trainer, Travis Maher, whom she had idolized for years. Everything came to a head the day of the farm's annual party when Margot was eighteen. She was soundly rejected by both her father and Travis. Heartbroken, Margot left for New York with the party photographer, who had told her she could be a model. Charlie Ayer wasn't just handing Margot a line. Eight years later, they are good friends, and Margot is an internationally known model on her way to the very top.

Margot has just finished a successful fashion show in Milan when her older sister calls with the news that their father's plane has crashed, Nicole is dead, and RJ is hospitalized with grave injuries. RJ never responded to Margot's many attempts to contact him, but she doesn't hesitate to fly back to the States, only stopping in Boston to pick up her half-sister Jade from boarding school. All three sisters are at RJ's bedside at the end. Margot is surprised when RJ's will is read to find that the three of them are to share everything except what Nicole left in trust for Jade. Margot winds up as Jade's guardian in spite of the resentment fostered in Jade by Nicole. Margot tries to empathize with the young girl who just lost both parents. On top of that responsibility, it appears RJ's debts will soon bankrupt the estate. Margot is determined to save the house, the farm, and the breeding stock, even if it means working with the man who broke her heart.

Now one of the best horse trainers in the business, Travis Maher has come a long way from being the son of the town drunk. Travis managed Rosewood farm until a few weeks ago when RJ fired him over something for which he was innocent. When Margot asks him to come back to work, he hesitates. His feelings for her haven't changed; if anything they are intensified now that she's grown up and no longer his mentor's teen-age daughter. But his gratitude to RJ and his attraction to Margot—not to mention her buying a horse he wanted for himself—combine to make him relent.

The Rosewood heiresses keep their financial difficulties a secret, which cause of misunderstandings between Margot and Travis, as if they didn't have problems enough already. Supporting cast members add much: Jordan plus her husband Richard; Jade, with angst and grief aplenty; Ned, the former farm manager now semiretired; and Charlie and Margot's other modeling friends and connections.

Rich characterization, intriguing plotlines, plus the horse-world background make REMEMBER ME an absorbing read.

In one of those odd coincidences, I recently conversed with a friend about authors we like but haven't seen around lately, and I brought up Laura Moore and her great horse stories. Two days later, I received REMEMBER ME in the mail. What a welcome treat! And it's just the first of three. I highly recommend romance and horse lovers alike get in on the beginning of this trilogy.

Jane Bowers