MS Review - Change Rushes West - Middle School fiction

Guide to Categories – MS Review – review of books for older elementary-aged and middle school-aged children

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About the Book

Book: Change Rushes West: A Ginnie West Adventure

Authors: Monique Bucheger & G.L. Rasmussen

Genre: Upper MG

Release date: January 8, 2025

Twelve-year-old Ginnie West has always been haunted by her mom’s tragic accident—and by the fact that her mom’s prized trick-riding horse, Eternal Love, was sold shortly afterward.

When Ginnie and her twin brother, Toran, uncover new clues about where Eternal Love might be, they embark on an exciting journey to find the horse that holds so many memories of their mother. With her horse, Calliope—who, as it turns out, is Eternal Love’s daughter—Ginnie faces a mystery filled with unexpected twists, family secrets, and plenty of challenges along the way.

As she races toward answers, Ginnie learns that sometimes the past isn’t as far away as it seems, and love can be found in the most surprising places. Change Rushes West is a heartwarming adventure about family, friendship, and finding hope in the most unexpected moments.

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My MS Review

Bucheger, Monique and G.L. Rasmussen. Change Rushes West. NP: True West Publishing, 2024.

Most older elementary and middle school girls love horses and enjoy books about them. The Ginnie West Adventures by Bucheger and Rasmussen have everything needed to pull girls of this age into a series – engaging plot, a little parent-child disagreement, some sibling/best friend struggles, and horses. In Change Rushes West, readers will learn factual information about horse care and practical examples of learning to live with others. They will also continue following the lives of twins Ginnie and Toran and their soon-to-be sister Tillie.

The West family is very unique – you’ve got brothers who an uncle and aunt raised after their parents died, and add in an honorary member of the family who had an abusive upbringing. These three are now parents trying to do right by their children. One of the brothers is never married but has a daughter. Another is divorced but has turned his life around, is friends with his ex-wife, and is now involved in his daughter’s life. The third is the widowed father of twins and is engaged to the ex-wife. Despite all the strange relationships, it is a big, happy family. While these may seem like strange relationships in a middle school book, the reality in today’s society is that not all couples stay together, and not every couple gets married before having children. I like that marriage is still valued, and the “brothers” are all trying to do their best for their children.

I look forward to reading more in the series. I’ve heard several more books are planned for the series.

While this non-traditional family may be problematic for some audiences, this is a good series for a K-12 Christian school library. It is appropriate for upper elementary and middle school-aged children.

I received a complimentary copy of Change Rushes West. This is my honest review.

About the Authors – Monique Bucheger & G.L. Rasmussen

Monique is a bestselling author, a certified Farland Fiction Coach, and an empowerment speaker, dedicated to championing the underdog, in both her writing and real-life adventures.

Having a heart for families in crisis, Monique creates stories that capture the essence of real-life challenges and triumphs, with a touch of humor.

Monique’s upper middle-grade series, ‘The Ginnie West Adventures,’ delves into sensitive and weighty themes such as parental loss, abandonment, and overcoming abuse. She delivers stories not only for tween readers, but for those young at heart.

Drawing from her experiences nurturing a dozen of her own children and fostering over a hundred more, Monique’s experiences shape her books, creating novels in a number of genres, including a historical family saga, contemporary family dramas, a fun picture book, and a middle grade series weaving whimsy and heart into her tales.

A country boy by birth and by choice, Gary spent his youth working on the family farm, for local farmers and ranchers, on horseback or playing sports. Offered scholarships in Agriculture and Advertising Design, he opted for the bright lights and big city. Eight years in the advertising field convinced him that wasn’t where he wanted to be.

Gary freelanced in design and illustration, converted his love of writing for advertising to a newspaper column about the country lifestyle. He has also worked as a ranch manager, cowboy, rancher, and horse trainer. An avid painter and author, Gary shares his talents through mentoring others, is a past president of the Western Art Guild and Idaho Writers League and is an active member of Western Writers of America.

Gary and his wife, Margie are the parents of four children and ten grandchildren and have traveled extensively throughout Europe, Great Britain and the United States.

More from Monique Bucheger

Hello Everyone,

Change Rushes West has been a long-time coming for me. It explores Ginnie’s relationship with her mom’s horse, Eternal Love. Ginnie’s mom’s tragic accident really shaped the entire series. From the beginning, I knew that losing the horse was a sore spot for Ginnie. I always wondered what happened to Eternal Love after she was sold—it felt like an unresolved part of Ginnie’s story.

The idea of bringing them back together has been in the back of my mind for years, but I didn’t seriously explore it until one night G.L. and I brainstormed ways to tie up some loose ends in the series as well as figure out what story arcs to add to this book.

That brainstorming session was pivotal. We started imagining what Ginnie’s journey to find Eternal Love would look like and realized it could be so much more than just a search for a lost horse. It could be a way for Ginnie to reconnect with her mother, heal from that loss, and explore how life moves forward—even when it feels like it’s standing still.

I also loved the idea of Calliope, Ginnie’s horse, being Eternal Love’s daughter. It felt like a beautiful connection between Ginnie’s past and present, between the mother she lost and the person she’s becoming. It added another layer of emotional depth to the story. I wanted Ginnie’s journey to feel like a true adventure, but also an internal one, where she learns that not all endings are sad—sometimes they’re just the beginning of something new.

Writing Change Rushes West was a way to bring Ginnie full circle, and I think readers will enjoy the mystery and the twists along the way. There’s family drama, of course, and the West family is as dynamic as ever.

However, at its heart, this story is not only about Eternal Love, the horse her mother was seldom apart from, but about the emotional love—both the kind you lose… and the kind you find, when you least expect it.