This is a story that I just about inhaled, I savoured every word it packs an emotional punch with beautiful and damaged heroine Golden Saunders, what she has been through and that she can still smile and love is amazing and then we have our hero Tor Amundsen, who also has issues from his past that make him strong, a bit arrogant but so very caring, this is a journey with many obstacles, but with so much love to offer for both Golden and Tor it is a journey that I highly recommend you join in with because with the horses and the settings, it is one that will leave you smiling.

Golden is small and feisty she was bought up by her loving grandfather around horses, her father was a top jockey but dies when she was young, and although she has a mother and step-father she is not close to them but is very close to her half –sister Angelina, they share a very special bond. Golden falls from a horse at the age of fifteen and is seriously injured but never gives up, she has a true love of her horses, her home with the trees that are special to her and the children she helps in her position as speech therapist, but her step-father is putting the pressure on her with an investigation into race fixing, this brings her in contact with “a spy” Norwegian Tor Amundsen and this arrogant man thinks he is going to start telling her what to do well think again.

Tor works for the United Nations and has been bought into the country to work on a horse racing scandal that could cast a worse black mark on the reputations of Golden’s father and grandfather, with this investigation he gets closer to Golden and can feel a sensual pull like never before, but there is also danger uncovering truths that have been hidden for many years and does he really want to hurt Golden?

There was a lot of emotions throughout this book, I loved Golden from the start I felt her pain and her love for her horses it also took me back to days that I spent at Rosehill and Randwick racecourses and hearing the pounding of the horses hooves in a race and the excitement of the turf, but I felt her love for Tor even though she tried hard to deny it for so long she is one stubborn heroine, and Tor what can I say I could have smacked him at times when he joined in with everyone else trying tell Golden what to do, what was best for her, but in the end he could not refute the love that her felt for her. Woohoo MS Janu a fabulous story with fabulous characters rich and alive and left this reader very happy, this is one not to be missed thank you 

If you are a horse lover you will love this book. Jut if you are not, don’t worry there is still enough going on in the story that you are going to totally enjoy it. This was an entertaining plot with some great characters. Golden, Tor and Nate bring this story to life. The family secrets and the mysteries behind the secrets, will have you hooked. The chemistry between the Golden and Tor is electrifying. Golden is a stubborn and won’t let anything stop her from doing what she wants. Tor is a United Nations diplomat who is an arrogant, but he eventually rubs off on you. Nate is the one you will like right from the beginning I titled him ‘Mr Good Guy’, he was who you would want beside you at all times.

Can Golden Saunders get her life back on the right track? The only way you are going to find out is to read her story for yourself.

Penelope has written an enjoyable read that will have you intrigued and laughing throughout the book. I am looking forward to reading more from this Author. She hit the right track with me!!!

I would recommend this book.

Thank you to Harlequin Australia & MIRA and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an open and honest review.

Last year one of my favourite books was In At The Deep End by Penelope Janu. The hero of that book Per, a Norwegian Navy Commander has an identical twin brother named Tor, who works for the United Nations. When I discovered that Tor would be featured in Janu’s next book, it went straight to the top of my wishlist.

In On The Right Track we meet Golden, a speech therapist who works with children and uses her horses as part of their therapy. She lives alone in her grandfather’s old house, studiously attempting to avoid most of her family and the fancy dinners her politician stepfather is insistent she attend. When Tor Armundsen arrives to investigate race fixing rings with links back to Golden’s (deceased) jockey father and her grandfather, her quiet life is turned upside down and she finds herself drawn back into a world she had stepped well out of.

Golden is such a contradictory character. She’s incredibly strong in some ways – as a teen she suffered a terrible injury and still bears the ramifications of that today. It’s affected her quality of life to the point where she can’t do the things she loves at the level she wishes she could and she’s also quite self conscious of the way that it looks and the way that she can rely on supports to get around when her injury is playing up. She has a mental strength too, in that she’s spent a lot of time carving out a life for herself, a life that she wants, that makes her as happy as she can currently be and resisting the attempts of her family to draw her back into a more fancy, affluent society lifestyle. But Golden is also incredibly fragile, haunted by the allegations surrounding her father and the toll it took on her beloved grandfather, the man who basically raised her.

So much in this book just…..broke my heart about Golden. She’s been through so much and her family (mostly her stepfather at the behest of her mother) put so much pressure on her, almost to…..change herself. Not be what makes her, her. They want her to fit in, to tow the line and for Golden not to remind her mother so much of the circumstances of her very existence. I felt a lot for Golden throughout this entire book, the way she was emotionally manipulated and financially bullied, the way that people tended to believe the worst of her, either due to her ‘flakiness’ living all alone on a property with just her horses or because of her connection to her father, a man who is not alive to defend the allegations levelled at him. Likewise her grandfather is no longer alive also and Golden still has a lot of feelings about what happened when he died. What people do to her in this book is unbearably awful at times and I had to stop and almost like, take deep breaths at times because I found myself getting so annoyed about how she was being treated.

Which probably brings me to Tor. I wonder if it’s hard to write identical twins in different books and make them noticeably different. Per and Tor do have some similarities but they are also full of differences, although they both find and fall in love with women who really challenge them and their perceptions. Tor is quite suspicious in the beginning – he believes that Golden’s family are crooked and that she’s most likely hiding plenty of information from him. I really liked their interactions, it gave Golden an opportunity to showcase her strength – despite doing what Tor wants so she can clear her family’s name, she tends to do what she wants when she wants and Tor has to fall in around some of that. They have a lot of arguments and Golden tends to keep a lot of things from him as I don’t think she trusts him. They have both have trouble looking at things objectively – Tor has probably seen a lot to make him assume people are always innocent or taken advantage of and Golden is passionate about believing her family to be good. Honestly, the relationship Golden had with her grandfather was amazing and it’s highlighted so brilliantly despite the fact that he has passed away long before this novel even begins. It’s a very special bond that the two of them had and he was clearly a lovely, lovely man. The more Tor spends time with Golden the more he appreciates the true goodness of her, the small pleasures she takes from her work and her horses. It took Tor a little time to grow on me, but he so did. Especially when he was one of the few people in her life who didn’t want to change her and by the end of the book I felt he really understood so much about her and what would make her truly happiest.

Also there’s a cute little scene in here with Per and Harriet which is super perfect because it’s just enough to show you what they’re up to and it makes my heart happy. It’s the perfect length because it doesn’t take the focus off Tor and Golden either. I do kind of have a question though…..who is the third girl in the waiting room? Let’s hope that in 2019, we find out!

This book was a perfect follow up for me and it gave me all of the same heady feels as In At The Deep End.

9/10

This was a very different story to what I was expecting, but it was definitely a good surprise. Plenty of intrigue, mistrust, secrets and some romance. Golden is a stubborn woman who has been hurt physically and emotionally in the past and doesn't plan on letting that happen again, especially with an arrogant diplomat called Tor. I enjoyed the way the relationship between these two characters played out, but my favourite character was Nate who had humour and was protective of Golden even when he went against Tor. An enjoyable read, I'd like to read Ms Janu's first book now.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Australia for a copy in return for an honest review.

I was enthralled with this book! I adored the first novel featuring Per and Harriet's characters, and Tor and Golden are equally heart-melting. On The Right Track by author Penelope Janu is on my unputdownable, fave reads category. There was humour, tension, chemistry amongst a backdrop of family drama that just keeps the pages turning. A first-rate read that I could go back to again and again.
Review copy received from Harlequin MIRA via Netgalley