Ashley lives in London, and she is good at her job of organising exhibitions for a men’s fashion designer. Her job goes south at the start of this story, and she gradually picks up a case of POLO FEVER instead.

Katherine Reilly has previously written two other sports romances, about tennis and surfing. Polo as a professional game is expensive, does not pay for itself, and involves a lot of travel as well as finely tuned horses. If you like horses, it’s a great way to dip into a sport few people get to play. If you just want an unusual setting for a romance, with the drive and excessive emotions of major sports, you may enjoy learning about the game while you visit the locations of this adult romance.

When her new relationship with tennis star Chris Courtney is exposed online, and it turns out he’s been lying about getting a divorce (young women are still falling for that one), Ashley is called a home- wrecker. She wisely zips her lip and leaves the irate designer before he fires her. Ashley’s next smart move is to head for Sussex to stay with her brother Jasper in his historic inn, where it happens the local polo players and grooms meet for a drink. Ashley befriends a chestnut mare, Serafina, belonging to Lady Eliza Maycourt, as she explores the countryside, and, with young people at a loose end being rare here, she’s offered a stable job.

Some clichés follow. Ash rode ponies as a child, and her brother must have had some checked shirts she could borrow. But she turns up on her first day in a white shirt, the shirt gets wet during work, and for no reason I can think of, she is wearing a fluorescent orange bra, a handsome man sees her changing because she leaves the tackroom door open in a stable with seventy horses and assorted riders and grooms, etc. I recommend a dose of common sense. Still, on with the story.

Mateo is a pro polo player from Argentina. Lady Maycourt pays for the best riders on her team, and is keen to have him ride Serafina. This gives the two young people a reason to bond. Ash is very much on her guard after the last time, and she knows someone as handsome as Mateo must be a groupie magnet. As she develops her knowledge of polo and horses, works at a tournament in Paris, and fends off advances from rival team player Basilio, she starts wondering if what she’s feeling for Mateo could be real. POLO FEVER is good fun, in the spirit of Jilly Cooper, who wrote a polo romance and sadly passed away in 2025. Katherine Reilly may have been taking lessons from the great English modern romance author.