I loved these books as a horse-mad kid, but I definitely didn't read all 101 of them. This was available as a ebook via my local library and Libby, and since they only take me an hour or so to read now I figured I'd check it out.

Some thoughts:

- By book 97 in a series, I think you should be able to skip introducing your characters and setting every time. Surely at some point the reader has to take responsibility for not starting a series at book 97.

- There's very little riding in this book. Carol and Lisa babysit Max's daughter; Stevie goes to New York with her mother. Carol and Lisa are at the stables and they sit Maxine on a horse once, but that's it. Stevie is, at one point, fairly close to a mounted police officer.

- We meet a whole raft of characters in New York, but because the book is short one of them is described as basically like Stevie, and another is basically like Lisa. The one that is basically like Lisa is named... Liza.

- There's some weird pacing here. One chapter ends with a fire racing towards some flammable materials then the next chapter opens with the fire safely under control.

I wouldn't be surprised if Bryant was't actually writing these later books in the series. Regardless, this is Not Very Good. ( )