Kindle Edition Amazon Lisa Loomis Books Amazon Smashwords Category:  Relationships Publisher: Lisa Loomis Books Type: Fiction Pages: 223 Copyright: July 22, 2013 Price: $2.99 (eBook) A adventurous, amazingly entertaining, Chick lit novel set on the small island of Green Turtle Cay, Abacos, Bahamas. Roni Dugan, a wealthy investment banker from Wall Street, life continues to unravel two years after the financial meltdown of 2008. An intriguing story, which follows her to a small island in the Bahamas, Green Turtle Cay. Can the island, a horse named Joe, and a shy Bahamian dock master, help her to see life differently? A road of self-discovery with entertaining events.   Excerpt Roni shifted again in her seat. She had never been able to sleep easily on a plane. She envied the people who could board, sleep, and wake upon landing. She had chosen an aisle seat, which she liked best when traveling alone. An elderly couple occupied the center and window seat; he sat in the middle. He fell asleep the minute the plane took off, and his wife quietly read a book. He would launch into a snore once in a while, wake himself briefly, and then fall back to sleep. Every time he woke, he would pat his wife’s leg, and she would in turn smile at Roni. It was far better than having some chatty passenger sitting next to her who she really did not want to talk to. She reached into her travel bag, pulled out a bottle of water, and took a sip. She looked at her Movado watch and thought about Mack, wondered if they would ever be like them. She might have pushed too far this time. Diamonds daintily circled the mother-of-pearl face. Still over an hour to go before Miami she figured, then a layover, and another hour to Treasure Cay Island. After that, a cab and ferry ride to get her to her final destination: Green Turtle Cay. The watch, Roni thought, as she rested her head back into the seat. It had been their twentieth anniversary. She and Mack were in Saint John when she saw it in the hotel gift shop. He knew she liked it, but he thought it was too much to pay for a watch. While Roni showered after a day on the beach, Mack had gone to the shop and surprised her at dinner with it. It was a romantic dinner, an open-air restaurant right on the beach, soft candlelight. Roni could picture it clearly in her mind, back when things were good and she felt like they didn’t have any worries. Funny how only a few years would put them in such a different place. It had been over two years since that terrible Monday. The day she learned that Lehman Brothers was no more. That she no longer had a job. That the derivatives she was heavily invested in were worthless; her retirement accounts with the company gone. In seventy-two hours over that fateful weekend in September, the government had decided they did not have the legal authority to rescue Lehman Brothers.

Amazon
This novel is written for a female audience. As a male I found it well composed and insightful, good vocabulary and organization. Great sociological descriptions of a varied culture. An excellent read.

An unexpected treat-Amazon
A good old reflecting on life book is always fun to find, particularly when it is written by someone who does their research, both in terms of their setting, dialects, and cultural traditions. More importantly, it is nice to see an author do their research on the human spirit as well, and present a very human approach to an increasingly common problem. The burn out of modern that millions of people across the world have recently felt is encapsulated int this novel. While, in my opinion, the book was generally directed towards female readers, I was still able to appreciate the sentiment and the struggle of finding yourself at a crossroads with no clear direction in mind. I think that Roni Dugan is an "everywoman" in the sense that she is confident in herself, but realizes that there is still so much more to learn once the facade or framework of a life is peeled back. That can be true of all of us, but placing the character in a location that is both completely foreign yet nostalgically significant makes for very interesting moments and profound realizations.

The basic foils (a horse and a simple dock master) accentuate her plight and journey without distracting the reader from the crucial growth and plot development that is occurring. I think Loomis knew precisely the kind of book she intended to write and then did it. I was impressed, and would very much like to read more of her work in the future. We could all use a reminder of how valuable soul-searching can be, and this book certainly did just that.

Self-discovery-Amazon
Roni Dugan moves from the fast life in New York to a world of paradise in the Bahamas. With everything going the wrong direction in her life, the help of a horse named Joe and a local dock master reinvigorates her spirit.

A Horse Named Joe is motivating and you'll find yourself cheering for Roni as she pursues happiness once again. The book is well-written and there is something that everyone can take from this path to self-discovery. Sometimes we get too caught up in the day to day to bother smelling the roses. This book demonstrates the value of doing just that!