My name is Diane Lil Adams, and I am a Christian romance and fiction
author. My writing is tied closely to my faith, and to my belief that
the ideas we carry, the choices we make, and the values we pass on to
our children can shape lives in lasting ways. I have always been drawn
to stories that plant something good and brave in the hearts of young
readers. That is what drew me to your book, Ride the Wind, the first
in your series, and to the two sisters at its heart, Dakota and
Chaney.
What struck me first is how you make girls the heroes of their own
story. So many adventure tales still hand the daring and the rescue to
boys, and here you have written two teenage sisters who are strong,
resourceful, and equal to real peril. Their parents, Michael and
Rachael, have raised them around horses, in training and competition,
and that shows in every chapter, in the way they sit a horse, read an
animal, and keep their heads when things turn dangerous. It matters, I
think, that young readers, especially young girls, meet heroines who
earn their victories through courage and skill rather than waiting to
be saved. That is a gift you have given them, and I admire it deeply.
Then there are Star and Galaxy, the black Arabian and the white
Andalusian stallion, and I found myself loving them almost as much as
the girls. You write the horses not as props but as companions with
real courage and devotion, and it is their bravery that saves Dakota
and Chaney when the danger is greatest. There is something so true in
that. Anyone who has loved a horse knows that bond goes both ways.
Loyalty given returns loyalty given back, and you capture that
beautifully. It reminded me of how often, in life, the ones who carry
us through our hardest hours are the faithful companions we almost
take for granted.
The adventure itself kept me turning pages in my mind. A perilous ride
through the outback of Western Australia, a hidden magic kingdom deep
in the bush, a bitter love triangle, and the wicked fairy Alba with
her dark arts. You hold two worlds together here, the very real
Australia of red earth and extraordinary wildlife, which you know so
well from your love of the natural world, and the mythic world of
ancient Aboriginal storytelling, with the old Koori shaman whose
wisdom the girls need to survive. I loved that balance. The factual
detail about the region's plants and animals grounds the magic, and
the magic in turn makes the real landscape feel even more alive and
mysterious. A reader can learn and wonder at the same time, and that
is a rare thing.
At the center of the story stands a moral tension you handle with such
care. On one side there is Alba, with her jealousy and revenge, and
the dark arts she uses to serve them. On the other there are the
sisters, the horses, and the shaman, with their loyalty, humility, and
respect for the natural world. You never make it simplistic. Jealousy
is a real and powerful force, and revenge has its own terrible logic,
which is why Alba is so frightening. But you show, quietly and surely,
that love and loyalty are stronger, and that humility before something
greater, whether it is the wisdom of an elder or the wild beauty of
creation itself, is what finally protects us. As a writer of faith,
that spoke to me deeply. The things that endure are the things given
in love, not seized in anger.
I also loved the rambunctiousness of the girls, Chaney's mischief
especially, and the warmth of the whole household, with Simba and
Enzo, the two Newfoundland dogs, adding to the bustle. These are a
real family, full of life and noise and love, and that makes the
danger matter more when it comes. We care because we know what is at
stake.
If I had to name the one idea that stayed with me most, it is this.
Courage in the young is something to be celebrated and nurtured, not
tamed. Dakota and Chaney face real fear, and they do not face it
alone. They have each other, they have their horses, and they have the
wisdom of those who came before them. That feels like a true picture
of how we all get through the hard journeys. None of us rides entirely
alone, and we are at our best when we remember it.
Jennie, I would truly love to know what first drew you to set this
story in Western Australia, and to blend Aboriginal mythology with the
factual natural history you clearly love. Was there a moment when you
knew the outback itself had to be one of the characters. I would also
love to hear how you see the balance between the magic and the real
world in the books to come, since Ride the Waves continues the
journey.
Thank you for a book that gives young readers heroines worth looking up to, horses worth loving, and a landscape worth protecting. Ride the Wind brings together magic and reality, jealousy and loyalty, danger
and devotion, and it invites the reader to remember that courage,
humility, and love are the strongest forces we carry. Congratulations
on this first book in the series, and on the sequel that follows it.
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