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Trixie’s summer is going to be sooo boring with her two older brothers away at camp. But then a millionaire’s daughter moves into the next-door mansion, an old miser hides a fortune in his decrepit house, and a runaway kid starts hiding out in Sleepyside! (Via Goodreads)
Mystery. Adventure. Horses. Friends. It wasn’t love at first sight when I began this book, but now I’m a huge fan. Everything in it is fairly wholesome, minus most of the nonsense found in children’s books of today. So far I’ve read books 1-4 and 5-7, and I eventually want to post reviews of all of them. It’s kind of hard to separate things I liked and didn’t like, so I’m just going to put them all down. (Mild spoilers ahead.)
Trixie is fantastic. She has flaws. She has weaknesses. She’s real. Although she can be annoying at times (“Moms, I’ll just die if I don’t have a horse,” etc.), once you get past her flaws she’s lots of fun.
And Jim! By the time I got to him, I was already sucked into the story and I knew I liked him the second I saw him. I mean the second Trixie saw him. Same thing. Anyway, he was and still is one of my favorite characters. Honey, on the other hand, took a little more getting used to…
This book is very dated in the way it’s written and in the way the characters talk. The way Trixie talks annoyed me a little at first (“Moms”, “Yummy-yum”.), the story is good enough that I overlooked it.
Jim’s stepfather is abusive, and Jim, a runaway, mentions it a few times throughout the book. I don’t think it would scare most readers, unless they’re very sensitive.
The ending has an awful cliffhanger. I would recommend buying the first two books in this series together (The Secret of the Mansion and The Red Trailer Mystery).
To sum up: This book has a great plot and a great cast of characters. I highly recommend it for horse-lovers, mystery-lovers, and pretty much anybody!
See this review on Goodreads.
