Book Review: That's Not Hay in My Hair

Book: That's Not Hay in My Hair by Juliette Turner

Source: Borrowed from Publisher/NetGalley for an honest review

Publication: Available now

Description:

New York City life had crammed sidewalks, gasoline-filled puddles, and angry taxi drivers, but Juliette enjoyed the towering sky-scrapers, the half-block walk to school, and the restaurant smells wafting into her bedroom. She had never cared for a horse, let alone a long-horn, when her mother announced their imminent move to a 300 acre ranch in Texas, where they would be caring for three horses, five dogs, twenty-five longhorns, and a cat … all by themselves.

Juliette couldn’t help feeling excited, even though she’d have to climb a hill to get a bar of cell-phone service. Soon she was running from bats and snakes, rescuing a calf from a twenty-foot ditch, medicating ponies, and having adventures so crazy it’s hard to believe they’re for real—but it all happened exactly how it’s written.

Get ready for side-splitting laughs, heart-wrenching tears, and surprising life lessons learned down on the farm and shared by fourteen-year-old Juliette Turner.



Rating: 3 stars

Review:

That's Not Hay in My Hair is a spiritual based middle grade book that opens with 12 years old Jules O'Conner and her mother Emily preparing to move to Texas over the summer. Her mother who is an author had been born and raised in Texas but went to New York City to pursue a writing career. After years of living in the bustling city, she was ready to head back to Texas to live on a ranch she bought years ago.

Jules loves living in NY and is so use to the busyness of the city that she's not sure how she will survive living on an active ranch out in the middle of nowhere. She was at least glad that the ranch hand will be there to help them with all the chores.

Their joy of arrival was short lived when they realized that the ranch hand was taking a new job. With him leaving it will now be up to Jules and her mother to handle all the chores. Running a ranch comes with a lot of responsibilities and Jules had to learn early on how to properly care for all the animals. It was interesting seeing Jules adjust to living in the country after growing up in the city.

Mishaps were bound to happen but some serious one occurred where I couldn't help wondering if someone was sabotaging them. But the author never answered those questions. 

As the summer began to wind down, Jules starts the sixth grade at a new school. She will have to get use to starting all over again and making new friends. On her first day, she didn't feel like she fit in. She felt awkward and out of place especially compared to the other new student Minnie who gave off the appearance of being perfect.

This was a cute enough story but it did have a bit of a pacing problem midway through the book where it slowed down with not much happening. The bulk of the story centers around Jules time on the ranch and dealing with the sudden illness of her mother's horse Maggie. I thought the author did a good job with Jules and her mother trying to take care of Maggie. There were a lot of emotions and drama in those scenes which I thought had some of the strongest writing out of the entire book.

That's Not Hay in My Hair is not a bad read, it's certainly a quick one. However, there is a problem with transitioning or the lack there of. There are moments in this story where time sort of skips ahead with no explanation or segue into them. I thought there were a lot of funny and interesting as well as dramatic moments on the ranch but the book in general didn't leave me invested in either the characters or the story. This story will probably be more interesting to perhaps younger readers but I guess I found it to be a little lacking.