Title: Sunny Gale
Author: Jamie Lisa Forbes
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Pronghorn Press
Source: iRead Book Tours
Format: Ebook
Release Date: May 15, 2024
Rating: ★★★★
Goodreads Synopsis:
It’s 1895 and fourteen year old Hannah Brandt is struggling with the hard life on a new Nebraska homestead. When her imagination is captured by a wild filly she becomes obsessed with horses, which opens the door to her destiny. Just three years later she enters the first Cheyenne Frontier Day rodeo where she wins the relay race, the following year she wins the bronc riding and her fate is sealed. She gives herself a new name, Sunny Gale, and pursues a rodeo career, much to the disgust of her young husband and her very proper mother. Sunny defies convention with every move as the drive to compete takes over her life, leaving everything else behind, including husbands and children. It is a rough life she has chosen, but she craves the glory of the spotlight and refuses to bow to the expectations for a woman in her time.
Award winning author Jamie Lisa Forbes has once again days when rodeo was wide open for them to become stars. It is a
story of the social mores of the times and of a woman determined to defy them no matter how high the personal cost or where that choice might take her.
Review:
1895: Hannah Brandt was struggling with her family’s new life in Nebraska, until she decided to try riding a horse. She entered the world of rodeos and horse competitions, and changed her name to Sunny Gale when she started winning. However, her husband and mother weren’t happy with her new career. To have a successful career as a woman in the early 1900s means she must give up a lot, including her family.
This was a fascinating story. It was inspired by real women who competed in rodeos in the early 1900s, but they disappeared from history after they weren’t allowed to compete anymore. There was a lot of heartbreak in this story. There were numerous animal deaths, and Sunny tragically leaves her family to pursue her dreams. She was also treated horribly by most of the men in her life. Though many things that Sunny experienced are better for women today, things aren’t perfect, and women often have to give up other parts of their lives for success in their career.
Sunny Gale is a fascinating story about a woman who became a trailblazer in a male-dominated industry.
Thank you iRead Book Tours for providing a copy of this book as part of a paid campaign!
Content warnings: death, death of animals, rape, child abuse
Have you read Sunny Gale? What did you think of it?
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