A Run at Love

April 1, 2024
A Black racehorse owner chases love and success in Shiloh’s spirited follow-up to The Love Script. Piper McKinney has always felt a sense of obligation to her wealthy white adoptive parents, Ian and Jackie McKinney, the owners of a thoroughbred farm, who gave her an idyllic childhood and nurtured her love of the sport. Still, she dreams of striking out on her own to raise a horse good enough to win the Kentucky Derby. Leaving her parents’ horse farm to start her own has its risks, of course, and to complicate things even further, she’s recently fallen for her childhood friend Tucker Hale and doesn’t know how to tell him. Not only is she reluctant to spoil the friendship, Tucker is white, and interracial relationships are rare in their homogenous community of Eastbrook, Ky. As Piper works to get her new farm off the ground, hurdles arise—shady dealings at her parents’ farm, in particular—and Tucker helps her harness her faith to achieve her ambition of becoming the first Black owner of a Derby winner. While the characters sometimes speak in clichés (“Who you are on the inside is what matters most to me”), Piper’s internal battles between familial duty and a desire for independence are sensitively rendered, and readers will cheer her on as she tackles the racial stereotypes baked into the overwhelmingly white world of horse racing. Shiloh’s fans will speed through this sweet, satisfying romance.

May 1, 2024
Piper McKinney is done with watching from the stands as her powerhouse adoptive parents dominate Kentucky horse racing. She is determined to become the first Black female champion racehorse owner, and she knows that expert trainer Tuck Hale is just the person who can help her. But working with her lifelong best friend might mean risking their friendship or, even worse, her dream of them becoming something more. When accusations of dosing their racehorses with performance-enhancing drugs threaten her family's reputation, Piper and Tuck must navigate the high stakes between their families, their integrity, and their hearts. Shiloh radiates wisdom and sincerity in the second installment of her Love in the Spotlight series, following The Love Script (2023). A Run at Love is an inspiring friends-to-lovers modern romance about breaking barriers of ethnicity and gender and the importance of representation in nondiverse spaces. She brilliantly captures the drama of the equestrian world and the road to the Kentucky Derby while illuminating the emotional and experiential complexities of transracial adoption and identity. Shiloh's tale features a slow-burn interracial romance, friendships that prioritize accountability, and characters guided by Christian values through difficult decisions toward advocating for what is right.

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May 1, 2024

Shiloh explores belonging, forgiveness, and transracial adoption in her new Christian rom-com. Having been adopted by a wealthy white family as a child, Piper McKinney grew up as one of the only Black people in Eastbrook, KY, a town known for Thoroughbred horse racing. As an adult, Piper is proud of both her biological and adoptive heritages, and her family provides for her every need (and most wants), but she still bucks against their blue-blooded expectations and wonders how the people she loves can bother her so much. She has a new Thoroughbred, Dream, with whom she hopes to win the Kentucky Derby, and all eyes are on her as she leaves her family's prosperous horse-racing farm to run her own operation. Her best friend Tucker Hale agrees to train Dream, part of his secret plan to win Piper's heart along with the Kentucky Derby. When Piper's father is accused of horse doping, however, Piper and Tucker also fall under suspicion, and their dreams of glory at Churchill Downs are threatened. VERDICT A charming friends-to-lovers story that will satisfy fans of Shiloh's "Love in the Spotlight" series and its previous entry, The Love Script.

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.