Evie Brocklebank leaves Toronto for her hometown of Bridlewood Creek in this gentle romance, which is a short novel. Tudor Robins includes horses in her fiction, and this is a relaxed tale of retraining, grooming and grazing during a sporty summer. COMING HOME TO BRIDLEWOOD CREEK sees wedding planner Evie leave a chaotic scene for her work partner Derek to cope with. She’s had enough of badly behaving wedding participants. To Derek, it’s all money.

The skilled carpenter Jack Rowe and his family, tween girl Molly, are looking after a horse called Rooster for Jack’s mom who breeds racehorses. What isn’t clear initially is that smart, athletic Molly is Jack’s younger sister who lives with him. We don’t get an explanation, except we can put it together that Molly likes going to school in a town rather than be second in her busy mom’s priorities elsewhere. Lots of people, including Evie, assume Molly is Jack’s daughter, and nobody introduces themselves properly, so Evie thinks Jack isn’t single, or whatever.

I kept enjoying the scenes with horses and a donkey, which Evie adopts to keep the mare Juniper company. Juniper is one of those too-big commitments that should not have been bought for a child, but she’s a kind mare and suits Evie nicely as a temporary measure. Now that Evie’s taking a break from the city, her Aunt Jo broaches the subject of renovating, selling, or leasing out her tack and feed store. This would be a lot of work, and if Evie took up the reins, she’d have to live here full time.  

I would have liked a scene or two set in Toronto just to show us what Evie would really be losing. All we see is her apartment. I am sure Toronto has museums, bookstores, theatres and other friendly venues. Not to mention, the airport is used to make a lot of science fiction films. Evie just keeps grousing that she can’t get decent coffee in a small town. This seems like a clear cue for some enterprising person to launch a coffee shop in the town centre, but maybe that’ll be in the next book of the new Bridlewood Creek series.

Tudor Robins started with YA horse stories and young love blossoming, in books like Appaloosa Summer. Now, her original readers have grown up, and she’s writing to suit a new age group. Personally, I can never get enough horse books, for any age. COMING HOME TO BRIDLEWOOD CREEK does rather give away the conclusion in the title, so there isn’t much suspense, just a sweet romance.