Nothing Else Mattes

A boy nobody can reach. A horse nobody can tame. One last chance to trust.

Fourteen-year-old Milo has spent his whole life being told he’s the problem. Then he meets Max, a runaway colt no one else can handle — and, for the first time, finds someone as angry, frightened and impossible to reach as he is.

For three years, Milo has been moved from one placement to another, carrying an anger he can control only by turning chaos into numbers. By the time he arrives at Harmony Ranch, he already knows how this story ends: badly. He wants nothing to do with the horses, the countryside or his new foster family. Then, on his very first afternoon, Max knocks him flat in the yard. Everyone else has given up on the colt. Milo recognises him instantly. Max is as angry, frightened and impossible to reach as Milo is. Earning the colt’s trust draws Milo into a world of firsts: a first ride, a first friendship, a first kiss — and, most frightening of all, a family that might not give up on him. At Harmony Ranch, earning Max’s trust might be Milo’s only chance to discover whether he can trust anyone else — and whether a boy who has always been sent away can finally find a place worth staying.