In Anne Montgomery’s novel Wild Horses on the Salt, Rebecca “Becca” Quinn knows her life will never get better unless she escapes her cruel and abusive husband.
Battered and bruised, her sense of self-worth in tatters, Becca leaves her life in New Jersey and flies out to Arizona. Waiting for Becca is Gaby, her aunt’s college roommate. Gaby gives Becca a place to hide and heal at the Salt River Inn.
Not only does Becca connect with Gaby, she also bonds with Gaby’s gentleman friend Walt, a local blacksmith, and Oscar Billingsley, a retired psychiatrist with a passion for bird watching.
And Becca also becomes acquainted with cattle rancher and bee keeper Noah Tanner. Noah just might be the man to rekindle her belief in love and to value herself as a worthy human being.
Other than her group of supportive friends and the splendor of Arizona including wild horses, Becca also indulges in her true passion-art. This passion gives her life more meaning and joy than her previous vocation as a lawyer.
On her path to wholeness, Becca has time to reflect on how her dysfunctional upbringing caused her to end up in the arms of an abusive man. She also comes to terms on how her parents’ rigidity forced her into a career as a lawyer, instead of the life of an artist.
Yet, Becca’s past will not define her. Her talent as an artist gathers her some much deserved praise and success. She learns more about the plight of Arizona’s wild horses and how to recognize various birds. She also becomes closer to Noah whose kindness and decency help heal her. Will Noah be a part of her new life or will he be a romantic disappointment?
However, Becca’s husband finds her in Arizona. He goes to horrific lengths to claim her and take her back to New Jersey. It’s at this point Becca must find her inner strength to defy him and be the powerful survivor she is. She refuses to be a victim.
Though a bit slow at times, Wild Horses on the Salt is vividly descriptive and an important story about overcoming terrible odds. Becca is a heroine you root for and can relate to.
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