Title: One Step Forward
Author: Tia Fielding
Genre: Contemporary
Length: Novel (236pgs)
ISBN: 978-1-63477-601-1
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (8th August 2016)
Heat Level: Low
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥ 4 Hearts
Reviewer: Pixie
Blurb: Sam Becker, a horse whisperer, agrees to take one last job before retiring to his Texas ranch. It’s clear as soon as he meets the Taylor family in Kentucky that he’s in for a challenge. What he doesn’t expect is the way his own wounds reopen. He’s never really dealt with the suicide of his mentally ill wife, and he won’t be able to ignore that hurt forever.
Joshua Taylor and his horse, Calla, were a force to be reckoned with on the eventing circuit until an accident ended their careers. Most of the pain is on the inside, however, and Sam knows those injuries are the slowest to mend. Sam’s unique methods help Calla and, surprisingly, Josh, but he’s still lost without riding. Their feelings for each other come hard and fast, and Josh starts his first steps of recovery, but Sam needs to return to Texas eventually. Even if Josh is able to move past the accident, they’ll still have a long and difficult journey to make before they can be together.
Purchase Link: https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/one-step-forward-by-tia-fielding-7342-b
Review: When Calla’s owners beg horse whisperer Sam for help their plight touches his heart, because the Taylor’s are hoping that Calla’s recovery will help their son, Joshua, who was injured in the same accident that ended Calla’s eventing career.
Sam loves working with horses; he helps to rehabilitate them from abuse, neglect or injury. When he’s called in to help Calla he knows before his plane has touched down that he’ll be helping Calla’s rider as well, a talented young event rider who has sunk into the pit of depression. His attraction to Joshua is unexpected and Sam isn’t sure if he’s ready to embark on a relationship after the loss of his wife.
Joshua has been ghosting through life for the last year; severely injured in a riding accident he can’t seem to pull himself out of the tar pit of depression. He hasn’t even been able to look at Calla since the accident, he rarely interacts with his family and it’s rare that he eats. But there’s something about the horse whisperer that draws him in and he begins to live again, slowly but surely he emerges from his closed off world.
This is a great story where two men begin to heal each other; Sam helps to heal Joshua’s feelings of helplessness and guilt and Joshua helps to heal the wounds that Sam’s wife’s death left on Sam. Their attraction to each other becomes apparently quickly and it’s a slow start but heats up quickly.
The story is paced quite well although it does seem to drag in some places, maybe just too much wandering around in Sam’s perspective. The story is also from Joshua’s perspective but we seem to stay a lot in Sam’s so although we do get to see things from Joshua’s side of things it does seem to linger on Sam’s side for a fair amount of the story.
The writing is excellent; it gives a superb view point of depression, the lingering clinging depression and the flashes and flare ups of recurring depression. Depression is a really hard subject to write about; it’s different for everyone who suffers from depression, for some it is brief flashes of cloud in a clear blue sky, for others it’s a tar pit that they struggle to pull themselves out of and for others it’s an oil slick where you go forward two paces and slide back three, where you seem to finally be free only to discover a small speck that clings on no matter how hard you try to scrub it, and it’s beautifully written about in this story.
The relationship with Sam and Joshua is a really good one; they both give themselves time to sort themselves out before making a solid commitment although I do think that they could have at least had phone conversations in their time apart rather than no contact at all.
I recommend this to those who love stories about recovering yourself, adore characters who have suffered but come out stronger, who love loving families, and relationships that are worked for.