PHOENIX

In this series opener, a neglected horse becomes the lifeline an 11-year-old didn’t know she needed.

Harper is reeling: Her parents decided to divorce after she discovered her father’s affair with her best friend Cat’s mom. Now Harper and her mother have relocated to cramped quarters in rural Sommer Springs, Tennessee, next door to a riding barn that Harper initially wants little to do with. Then a starved, neglected horse is abandoned right in front of Harper, and something shifts. She names the animal Phoenix, and their mutual rescue begins. Bradley deftly weaves humor into even the darkest moments—an image of dead chickens on a clothesline becomes both absurd and laden with meaning—while never minimizing the genuine pain of divorce, betrayal, and starting over. What emerges is a compelling portrait of how life’s gifts arrive unbidden, even amid catastrophe. The barn community feels authentically diverse and welcoming: Miss Chelsea, the barn owner, is Black; Dante, Harper’s first friend, is Puerto Rican; Night, another rider at the stable, uses they/them pronouns; and Harper is presumed white. Bradley captures what divorce and infidelity steal from children—trust, stability, the sense of a coherent world—while demonstrating how connection, human and equine, can help us rebuild what’s broken. The horse care details ring true without overwhelming the emotional arc.

A potent, heartrending story about surviving upheaval and discovering that some rescues work both ways.