A short stand-alone romantic suspense novel. Picked it up at the library book sale because it had horses on the cover, and it's set on a ranch in New Mexico. I've never read Carolyn Hart before but I see she's really prolific. I think I would have really liked it at 12 or 13 years old. It's got a little PG romance, the plucky orphan girl, horses... for my adult self it's a little too simplistic. The villain is obvious, the other suspects' true intents are also obvious, and Serena is too naive for me to believe in her (c'mon...unknown persons create giant Xs on the ground on your remote ranch...what's the first thing you think? It isn't aliens). But the atmosphere was a lot different in 1983 when this was written, so I'm probably being too picky. I liked the setting and the riding scenes were believable.

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