Product Description

The first in a trilogy involving the next generation of Colemans (of "Texas") and Thorntons (of "Vegas") in a story that has a Kentucky horse farm as its base. Nealy Coleman, aged 17, flees from her abusive father and finds a new home on Blue Diamond Farm.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #196833 in Books
• Published on: 2002-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780821772348
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Continuing the saga of the Colemans and the Thorntons as recounted in Texas and Vegas, this latest novel puts the next generation center stage and is the first in a projected new trilogy. Thirty years after escaping her father's repressive Virginia home with her illegitimate daughter, Nealy Coleman Diamond returns to his deathbed, scrabbling to find answers to why Josh Coleman was so hateful and abusive. In the intervening period, she's become a woman of means, succeeding in the man's world of thoroughbred racing in Kentucky. Once all the secrets have been revealed and she's taken revenge on the scoundrel who impregnated her, will Nealy be free to find true love at last? As usual with Michaels's sagas, the characters range from the kindhearted to the blackhearted, with scarcely any halftones between. The plot verges on the melodramatic, but it moves too quickly to pall. It helps for readers to be interested in racing, since Michaels knows her Secretariat from her Man O'War. The audience for her previous works is probably waiting at the starting gate for this one. Doubleday and Rhapsody Book Clubs featured alternate; Literary Guild alternate; author tour; Brilliance Audio.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Following her popular "Texas" and "Vegas" trilogies (e.g., Vegas Heat), Michaels draws the same families into a new series, bringing readers another family saga. Moving from oil and casinos to the world of thoroughbred racing, she introduces Nealy Coleman Diamond, daughter of another branch of the Colemans. Once again, a downtrodden but feisty young woman finds her way to riches through a combination of incredibly lucky circumstances and hard work. Nealy's life improves, but her troubles are set up to continue into the next volume. The plot is straightforward until the end, when the rapid introduction of multiple characters from Texas and Las Vegas creates confusion, especially for readers unfamiliar with the previous novels. Michaels tends to skimp on character development and skim over long passages of time, but her plucky heroines in the world of the rich and famous obviously entertain many. Public libraries will need to buy where there is demand. [Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club, and Rhapsody Book Club alternate selection.] Barbara E. Kemp, Univ. of Houston Libs.
- Barbara E. Kemp, Univ. of Houston Libs.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Michaels adds to her popular Texas and Vegas series with a new branch of the Coleman family. Nealy Coleman is forced to leave her home in Virginia by her cruel father. Sick with fever, she and her daughter, Emmie, travel until she collapses at the Diamond horse farm in Kentucky. The owner, Maud, recognizes Nealy's rare gift with horses, ends up adopting her, and believes that Nealy can pick another Kentucky Derby winner for the prestigious farm. For Nealy, working on the Diamond farm is a dream come true, and when Maud dies, she leaves Nealy the farm and all her wealth. But Nealy is still haunted by her past. When Nealy hears that her father is dying thirty years after he drove her away, she goes back to confront him but finds that even more secrets and battles lay ahead. Michaels' Danielle Steel-like fun read has more plot twists than a soap opera, and will keep readers on tenterhooks for the next in the series. Patty Engelmann
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Kentucky Rich
As a professional in the thoroughbred racing and breeding industry, I was horrified at the inaccuracies and absurdities portrayed in this book. Ms. Michaels has the ability to tell a tale, but displays a serious lack of knowledge about racing and breeding. The story line is totally implausible from a racing perspective, and in fact violates the rules of racing in more than one aspect. True, this is a work of fiction, but more sophisticated readers expect real research on the part of the author, not Disneyesque fairy tales. More than once, scenes describing interactions between horses and humans were absurd and dangerous, particularly one where the heroine mounts a loose filly (a horse unknown to the rider) that is not wearing tack, and then proceeds to place a 2 year old child on the horse in front of her. Anyone in the horse business, racing or not, would have to cringe while reading this scene. There are numerous other scenes that display the author's lack of knowledge about the business. I have never read this author's work before,and was drawn to it because of its connections to the racing industry. I won't read any more of her work, because she obviously doesn't research her subjects.

Started off good...
I got this book, Kentucky Rich, along with its sequel, Kentucky Heat, a few days ago and just finished the first book. It took awhile to get through and I ended up skimming a lot of it.

The book starts off interesting, with a prologue about Nealy Coleman coming back to the home she was driven off of 30 years earlier to "dance" on her dying father's grave and to make him pay for mistreating her.

The novel then goes to "part 1," which goes back 30 years to talk about how 17 year old Nealy and her 2 year old daughter ran away from home (at the urgings of her two brothers, Pyne and Rhy) and ended up at Blue Diamond Farms, where the owners, Maud and Jess, take them in. It follows Nealy's growing up and eventually taking over the farm.

Part 2 is 30 years later, and starts with the prologue and Nealy's reunion with her brothers and dying father. This is where the book really starts to fall on its face. The plot here gets mind numbingly boring, even confusing at times when the author brings back dozens of characters from two of her other trilogies (which I have not read, so I am not familiar with them).

Nealy as a herione is rather unlikeable. She's immature, even at the end as a 50-something year old woman. She's often cold and heartless. I couldn't garner any sympathy for her and her actions often made me say "What the heck??"

The romance in this book is practically unmentioned. Nealy meets the hero in the first part of the book, barely interacts with him during the entire "part 1" and the two are married at the end. Part 2 opens with basically "Oh yeah, Hunt died and actually his and Nealy's relationship wasn't really love, he was having affairs and didn't deserve her." Uhh... what??!

It's also obvious that Fern Michaels knows practically nothing about horses. Being a horsewoman myself, I laughed out loud at some of the ridiculous scenes in this book. Some other reviewers have mentioned them as well - one of my favorite idiotic scenes is when Nealy wants the stallion to witness the birth of his colt and have the three of them (stallion, mare and colt) become a "family." Sorry, but horses are not people. While I believe they feel affection, they don't form "families" in the way that people do.

Also, the author seemed to have a lot of trouble putting the plot together. It jumped around so much it was jarring to read. One example is when Nealy meets a guy that some of her friends are trying to set her up with. He starts off by telling her that a woman's place is in the kitchen and not on a horse (which of course makes her mad). Eventually he apologizes and they make up. Cut, next chapter begins. It's several months later and Nealy hates his guts because they were supposed to have a date and he stood her up. What the heck??

She also makes a big deal out of certain events.. like a hundred pages leading up to a big race - a race so important because it was her promise to the dying Maud that the horse win - then spends one short paragraph on the race itself.

Overall, I wasn't very impressed with this book. The main character is unsympathetic, poorly written and unlikeable. There is practically no romance in the book - and what romance IS there is completely unrealistic. Research is important, and its obvious the author either didn't do her research on horses and racing, or just decided to disregard the facts. So I give it 2 stars.

An okay story, but...
...not for those who have not read the previous series -- the Texas and Vegas series. I haven't read those books, and I suddenly felt that there were all these unknown characters thrown in the mix more than half-way through. It was very confusing!

The other problem I had with this book was the multiple plots and climaxes. Nealy's young, the Kentucky Derby is a big deal, that whole story line climaxes and is resolved in a few pages. On to the next, and the next, and the next. All the characters end up being underdeveloped and shallow, sometimes doing things you wouldn't expect (would her daughter REALLY have hidden out for a week after the problem on the cruise? It just doesn't fit the character!).

The story was interesting, but there were just too many flaws. I won't be returning for the rest of this trilogy.