Racing Savannah
Author: Miranda Kenneally
Series: Hundred Oaks #4
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Release Date: December 3, 2013
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Summary:
He lives in the estate house, and she spends most of her time in the stables helping her father train horses. In fact, Savannah has always been much more comfortable around horses than boys. Especially boys like Jack Goodwin – cocky, popular and completely out of her league. She knows the rules: no mixing between the staff and the Goodwin family. But Jack has no such boundaries.
With her dream of becoming a horse jockey, Savannah isn’t exactly one to follow the rules either. She’s not going to let someone tell her a girl isn’t tough enough to race. Sure, it’s dangerous. Then again, so is dating Jack…
First Sentence: Welcome to Hell would be a more appropriate sign, considering Dad just uprooted me from West Virginia and hauled me to Tennessee two days before senior year.
My Review:
I absolutely loved Miranda Kenneally’s Catching Jordan. I breezed through that book in a day and couldn’t stop thinking about it for at least a week. From that moment on, I automatically knew that Miranda Kenneally’s books would be on my auto to-buy list and that I will read anything written by her. However, the two sequels to Catching Jordan, Stealing Parker and Things I Can’t Forget disappointed me greatly – they lacked the chemistry, the fun, and the rush that Catching Jordan had. When I heard that Miranda Kenneally was writing another book, Racing Savannah, I hoped and hoped that this will finally be the book that will remind me why I loved Miranda Kenneally’s books the first place, but sadly, it didn’t.
My number one problem with Racing Savannah is that a boy or more specifically, the romance, takes over the plot. When I started Racing Savannah, I was expecting to see some romance, but I was also expecting the book to focus on Savannah being a jockey too and facing some discrimination since she’s a girl jockey. You sadly can’t really blame me to expect those two things since it does say that in the summary. What I actually got was the romance taking over the entire plot: I’ll say about 93% of the book (I’ll normally say 90%, but I personally feel that there was way more romance than that in Racing Savannah) focused on the romance and only the romance while 7% of the book focused on Savannah’s family situation and her job as a jockey. I still can’t believe what I read – Catching Jordan, Stealing Parker and Things I Can’t Forget didn’t mainly focus on the romance unlike Racing Savannah; they paid equal attention to the main character’s personal problem(s) and their romance.
I whip around to find Jack standing there in a white T-shirt and faded jeans, barefoot. His hair is still slicked back with gel. I swallow, wishing I could touch his biceps and run my hands across his shirt. He looks yummier than a ranch dressing fountain. (142)
There’s also the factor that I wasn’t sold on Savannah’s and Jack’s romance. In fact, I don’t understand or see why Savannah likes Jack so much that she loses all her common sense when it comes to him. I felt like they had absolutely no chemistry together and most of the time was spent on Savannah thinking of how bouncy good-looking Jack’s curls in his hair was and how well he fit into those pair of jeans…sorry guys, but that does not equal to chemistry for me. Just, no. I need something more than that for me to be sold on the characters’ romance. The other side characters in Racing Savannah had way more chemistry together than Savannah and Jack did. In fact, I rather the book focus on the side characters rather than Savannah and Jack.
As I’ve mentioned above, unlike Catching Jordan which bought up gender discrimination when it comes to job careers and explored that topic, Racing Savannah did none of that. Sure, it mentioned that once or twice, but the book barely brushed the surface of the situation. All Racing Savannah focused on was how rare girl jockeys were and gave us two examples of excellent girl jockeys. They didn’t talk about any of the things the summary hinted at: “She’s not going to let someone tell her a girl isn’t tough enough to race” – that because Savannah is a girl, she isn’t allowed to race because she isn’t “tough enough.” No, Savannah isn’t allowed to race in the book because she doesn’t have enough experience, not because “a girl isn’t tough enough to race.”
Savannah also made me want to bang my head against the wall or my table – either one works. You do not want to know how many times I just had to put down the book in frustration because Savannah was losing all her brain cells over a boy. I got so furious at Savannah’s lack of brain cells that I ranted about her silly actions in my note-taking notebook. (I literally have three pages of rants and I write tiny.) I can’t talk about what Savannah did exactly that annoyed me so much because it is kind of a huge spoiler, but I’ll put it in a spoiler tag below because I really have to rant more about this.
[HUGE] SPOILER: So Savannah likes Jack a lot (I still don’t understand why – I get that he’s hot and nice, but so what?) and Jack apparently likes Savannah back too. (I say “apparently” because I’m still not convinced that Jack truly likes Savannah.) Since Jack is a rich guy and Savannah’s family is poor, their families don’t want them to be with one another, especially since Jack has to “date” this rich girl to settle a business deal that his family wanted to make with the rich girl’s family. So while Jack “likes” Savannah (again, the word “likes” is in quotation marks because I’m not sold on their romance), he doesn’t want anyone to know that they are in a relationship and constantly pushes Savannah away after intimate moments like kissing. However, Savannah still stupidly likes Jack even though he doesn’t want to be seen with her in public and doesn’t stand up for her in front of his parents and Savannah ends up having sex with him. (This is the part where I literally freak out and started a two and a half page rant on how dumb Savannah is and how she is so going to regret doing that because any girl with a brain cell will figure out what Jack is trying to do. Just in case you’re wondering, the other half a page of rant is about me questioning why Savannah is attracted to him the first place.) Savannah finds out the hard way that she’s a fool when Jack said, and yes this is his exact words: “I thought you wanted to be together…like, in secret. As friends with benefits” after Savannah had sex with him and gave her virginity to him (218).
The only bright side to Racing Savannah was that we had the chance to see the old Hundred Oaks characters we knew and loved from Catching Jordan, Stealing Parker and Things I Can’t Forget, except that they are all grown up! We get to see a wedding (-wink wink-, I won’t tell you whose wedding because you’ll have to see for yourself), some banter (I won’t tell you between who because again, you’ll have to see for yourself), and some sweet moments. Sadly, I didn’t enjoy reading those scenes as much as I would have like to because I was still fuming mad over Savannah’s choices earlier in the book.
I haven’t been mad over a book for the longest time, but Racing Savannah made me absolutely, boiling mad. Even though Racing Savannah turned me into a raving lunatic, I still have to give it credit for making me feel so much. I’m pretty sure making me so mad that I was thinking of banging my head against the wall isn’t Miranda Kenneally’s goal when she wrote this book though. I’ll admit, I did tear up when I read a part of the book (why did I even tear up for Savannah when it’s her fault for making such awful decisions and having to face the consequences for it?), but I’m a fairly emotional person since I’m a Scorpio and all. How I wish I wasn’t born in November.
Why is it, when something bad happens to you, you can never forget about it no matter how much you want to? (124)
Overall, I’m sad to say that I’m taking Miranda Kenneally off my auto to-buy list. I don’t think I’m too harsh for doing that – while I absolutely loved her debut novel, Catching Jordan, both Stealing Parker and Things I Can’t Forget, and this time, Racing Savannah, disappointed me greatly. Like, every time I think of Racing Savannah, I literally cringe and die a little inside, thinking of what could have been.
Will I recommend this book? No, unless you want to read a book that’s 93% romance and 7% plot, if you can even call it that.
I started reading Racing Savannah about a month ago, and I was really looking forward to it — I had previously read Catching Jordan and really enjoyed it, but none of Miranda Kenneally’s other books. However, I too was really off put by the romance and ended up stopping reading about halfway through the book out of pure frustration with the annoyingness and stupidity of Savannah. Her decisions made me so mad and I didn’t see her romance and relationship with Jack as genuine, either. While I know there are still class barriers, I thought a lot of the situation was problematic in that I saw it as pretty unrealistic, too. I feel like I would have been pretty mad by the end of the book if I continued reading it. I was thinking about trying it again and picking it back up the other day but after reading your review I think I’ll just let it lie.
You’re so lucky you stopped reading there Kaitlyn; believe it or not, Savannah’s actions are even MORE foolish as you read on. I just wanted to hit something when I read all the things that she did.
Exactly! There is NO WAY Savannah’s relationship with Jack is genuine. Like, NO WAY.
I highly recommend you just DNF Racing Savannah or something like that Kaitlyn. Things get worse when you read on and things also get more and more unbelievable. -shakes my head sadly-
Kelly recently posted…Follower Appreciation Giveaway + Mini Cover Guessing Game
Great review! I haven’t read this one yet, but nothing tops Catching Jordan so far. <3
Thanks Cali! :D
Yeah, sadly nothing tops Catching Jordan so far. I want another book that can make me fangirl as much as Catching Jordan did. ):
Kelly recently posted…Follower Appreciation Giveaway + Mini Cover Guessing Game
Interesting to get a different perspective! I actually enjoyed Racing Savannah — but not having read anything else by this author, I had nothing to compare it to. I’d still like to go back and read Catching Jordan at some point.
Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies recently posted…Wishing & Waiting on Wednesday
Ha ha, yeah, basically Catching Jordan ruined everything else for me that’s written by this author. I will always compare her other books to Catching Jordan because I just loved Catching Jordan SO much.
Kelly recently posted…Follower Appreciation Giveaway + Mini Cover Guessing Game
I’ve read the spoiler, since I don’t really care about reading these books and that’s a nasty business. It’s a shame that this book lost it’s focus on the more important stuff and got overwhelmed by a chemistry-lacking romance. I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy this book as much as the others in this series.
Mel@thedailyprophecy recently posted…Top 10 Tuesday 30.
Yeah, basically everything in the spoiler ruined the book for me. ):
If Racing Savannah didn’t focus on a chemistry lacking romance and only the chemistry lacking romance and if the main character didn’t act like a brainless person around the guy she likes, I would actually enjoy reading the book. :l
Kelly recently posted…Follower Appreciation Giveaway + Mini Cover Guessing Game
I can’t agree more with this review! Catching Jordan’s one of my favorite books. Things I Can’t Forget and Stealing Parker were less interesting, but they still gave me feels at some point. Racing Savannah just kind of felt flat for me. And yeah, it’s really sad that the main focus was the romance (which wasn’t even that well done).
Aimee recently posted…Discussions & Confessions: Memes, Features & the Blogosphere
Exactly! I really miss the awesomeness that was Catching Jordan – Stealing Parker, Things I Can’t Forget, and Racing Savannah just doesn’t do it for me. ):
Kelly recently posted…Stacking the Shelves [67]
The first sentence is catchy – I think might have to go on my summer reading list
Missie recently posted…Waiting On Wednesday – The Fever
I hope you’ll like this one better than I did. o:
Kelly recently posted…Stacking the Shelves [67]
“He looks yummier than a ranch dressing fountain.”
wtf hahaha that’s so ridiculous!
Man, the romance in this book sounds really bad. Which is unfortunate, because I actually have a copy of this book. Oh well, I’ll probably still read it because I do find that our opinions differ a lot on some books haha. (like, I actually disliked Catching Jordan the most out of the three Hundred Oaks books I’ve read lol)
p.s. I am so tempted to read that spoilery rant right now. BUT I MUST RESIST. I’ll bookmark the review and come back to it after I’ve read the book haha
Nara recently posted…ARC Review: Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge
YES. EXACTLY.
And who likes this “ranch dressing fountain”? It sounds disgusting and just ew.
Yep, the romance in Racing Savannah is HORRIBLE. -shudders-
I can see why you dislike Catching Jordan. I dislike parts of Catching Jordan too, especially Jordan’s relationship with Ty.
P.S. You will totally agree with me after reading Racing Savannah and reading my rant. I guarantee it.
Kelly recently posted…Stacking the Shelves [67]
Such a shame! It was in my wish list, but I gess I’ll pass :/
Frannie Panglossa recently posted…RECENSIONE: “Onyx” di Jennifer L. Armentrout
Yeah, I highly recommend you skip this one Frannie. ):
Kelly recently posted…Stacking the Shelves [67]
This almost doesn’t surprise me. I wasn’t a huge fan of the first in the series. I’m honestly unsure if I’ll continue the series. From the sounds of it, I wouldn’t enjoy the rest.
If you didn’t enjoy reading the first book in the series, honestly, I don’t think you’ll enjoy reading the rest. The books get worse onwards from Catching Jordan in my opinion. :l
Kelly recently posted…Stacking the Shelves [67]
I loved Catching Jordan, but I never read any of the books that followed. Mainly because there were always other books to get to first, but I’ve also heard mixed reviews on them from friends. I’m sorry you didn’t like this one. :( I’m probably going to stay away from this book for a while; 93% romance is NOT good. And “ranch dressing fountain”? Please, that’s just gross. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was more appealing than that though LOL. Great review, Kelly! :D This is just one less book for me to read. :)
Racing Savanah is VERY disappointing, especially when it’s compared to Catching Jordan. It’s sad really, especially since I know you were really looking forward to reading this one. :P
Ha ha I have no clue if Jack is hot. His attitude is SO not hot and that’s what really counts in my opinion.
Thanks Angela! (:
Kelly recently posted…Life Of A Blogger: Celebrity Crushes
I wasn’t too sure about this book but thanks to your awesome review I now know I’m going to call it a pass. Thanks, its very much appreciated.