Horse Talk Reviews

The Sceptic by Lily Morton My rating: 3 of 5 stars   Expected publication: May 26th, 2022   What a mess of a book. The beginning dragged on forever with unhelpful callbacks to the other series this spun off from, the set up to the ghostly part dragged on ever more forever, and there was a whole heck of a lot of telling and not showing. Much like the titular character I was sceptical these characters were capable of remembering anything because between one paragraph and the next they'd suddenly no longer believe in ghosts, or try to excuse ghostly behavior away as a weird coincidence, or remember they know absolutely nothing about the other person after acting very intimate, or suddenly describe a character trait about the other person that has never come up before in any context. The ghost stuff took up a huge chunk of the book as it too dragged on forever but was neatly tied up at the end with a rather lackluster climax. And then once that m...

Peter Cabot Gets Lost by Cat Sebastian My rating: 5 of 5 stars   If there was a book version of catnip for me it would be this book. It has a road trip, a couple of dingdongs falling in love along the way, it's short, and it's very sweet with a dash of humor. All of my favorite things! I mean, the book has the main characters saying things like this: "All it takes is three days, a couple newspapers, and a handsome face, and I lose my principles." Isn't that cute? This book is just super cute and Cat Sebastian wrote it in a masterful way where no word is wasted. Tightly written historical fluff is something I want more of so I suppose I'll just have to read the other book in the series now.   Peter Cabot Gets Lost on Amazon View all my reviews

Machine Metal Magic by Hanna Dare My rating: 3 of 5 stars Horse rating: 🐴🐴 of five horses “So who’s this?” The captain spread his arms. “Our salvation.” “Our salvation looks like he could use a sandwich,” Mags said. A generally entertaining and easy sci-fi read.  Jaime was a great main character - he felt fully developed and had his own history and motivations that worked well within the scenes. Rylan...less so. I'm not sure what happened here, but he felt very two dimensional to me. I never felt like he was a complete character, he was more of an outline of a character. Noble, a bit of a blockhead, idk. Faintly sketched. Rylan being sort of empty made it hard to buy into any romance/emotional connection between the two. I wasn't quite sure what Jaime saw in Rylan, so their eventual love stuff fell flat for me. Which is unfortunate, because Jaime deserves nice things ok I liked a lot of the secondary characters too! The crew was well done, the captain was especially h...

Love, Hate & Clickbait by Liz Bowery My rating: 3 of 5 stars (spoilers in this review but really this book isn't that hard to figure out) 2.5 stars rounded up All right, look, if you ignore the absolute absurdity of the politics, how "famous" these campaign staffer dudes are, and the weird characterizations, you have a fairly sweet little book. It's a lot to ask I know especially when these staffers who are fake dating each other (?) to benefit a political campaign (??) so the candidate looks pro-LGBTQ+ (???) become so popular people are writing real person fic and drawing fan art of them and these things are being posted on buzzfeed and vulture (????). In no world would this happen. Nobody gives one (1) crap about mid level staffers on a political campaign that hasn't even been announced yet . But if you can manage to roll your eyes and look past it, the one soulless uses everyone for his own personal gain guy becomes soft for the tall u...

A pretty solid week! Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing and Cry Wolf by Charlie Adhara 4/5 both? Books 4 and 5 in the Big Bad Wolf set. I’d paused the series after the third for a while, but the new spinoff series is coming out so I decided to finish it. Very enjoyable! I think the fourth is my favorite. Of Dragons, Feasts, and Murders and Of Charms, Ghosts and Grievances by Aliette de Bodard 4/5 both I haven’t read the original trilogy that this is spun off of, but I enjoyed these anyway. The first I bought, the second was an ARC. mild romance, established (sort of?) relationship (was an arranged marriage I guess?) plus some great intrigue. I didn’t have trouble following this having not read the earlier series. Though I do want to double back!! Redemption of a Slave by Laura Taylor Kindle Unlimited 4/5 A historical sort of dystopian omega verse. I enjoyed this a lot actually, it grew on me over the read. More interpersonal plot line, built into the world dynamics and such. Really ne...

Redemption of a Slave by Laura Taylor My rating: 4 of 5 stars Horse rating: 🐴🐴🐴🐴 of 5 horses This really grew on me the more I read. I appreciated that the horrible experiences of Dante were not super long in length (doesn't make it better really) so that his healing process felt more natural, rather than like magic dick or something. He still had a long path to go and many traumas, but it wasn't overloaded. I enjoyed the slow growth of their relationship throughout the book - so slow it kind of crept up on me. So well done! And very sweet as they built a rapport and a romance overall. This had a fascinating historical aspect - it was more interpersonal, with the alpha-beta-omega dynamics being more servant/master. Belowstairs drama, jostling for position, it reminded me a bit of Downton Abbey. Like a tiny bit. Idk that's my only reference point. Great tension throughout the book despite the self-contained plot line - no massive external things. I...

Crazy Kinky Dirty Love - Box Set by K.A. Merikan Series rating: 5 of 5 stars Horse rating: 🐴🐴🐴 of 5 horses From the blurb: Crazy Kinky Dirty Love is a series of short stories and novellas revolving around the sex life of a young, kinky couple. Dan and Kyle don’t hesitate to go through with even the dirtiest and least politically correct of sexual scenarios. Each story focuses on a particular roleplay fantasy. With a partner who knows you well, and whom you trust, even being subjected to a rough gangbang can be a declaration of love. All the stories can be read as standalones. WARNING: The stories are extreme roleplay gay erotica, with a focus on dirty talk and humiliation My series rating:  5 of 5 stars Very enjoyable bundle! I loved seeing Kyle and Dan's relationship grow and deepen throughout these stories. They had unreal communication skills to pull all of this off, and I loved seeing that in action throughout the stories. The kinks were definitely wild. Such...

The Servant and the Gentleman   by   Annabelle Greene Ellie's Review:  5 stars Annabelle Greene seems to excel at writing fun, tropey historicals without sacrificing great prose and emotional connection. This features class differences, hurt/comfort, fake relationship(!), slow-ish burn, forced proximity (only one bed), long time pining and also whatever trope "being comforted after a nightmare" is, which I now realize I need more of. And it's good to read a regency-era historical where, while homophobia does exist and isn't discarded, the fear of being found out and the shame of one's sexual orientation aren't main plot points. I read this straight after reading and loving the second book in this series. I already liked Josiah, the hardworking chief assistant of the Society of Beast. He's used to blending in the background of this molly club he basically runs almost by himself and to being disregarded by every member because he's from the lower cl...

Moth by Lily Mayne My rating: 4 of 5 stars "But when I looked at Moth, I could never decide if I wanted to strangle him or start tearing off his clothes. He was infuriatingly attractive. His face was like a work of art—almost too perfect to be real. Definitely too perfect to be human. Didn’t stop me wanting to punch it, though." I'm glad I got peer-pressured into reading this, even though I didn't love Soul Eater and haven't read books 2-3-4. I would say Book 1 is necessary reading to get the whole dystopian context, but jumping straight into book 5 from there is very possible! Most of the issues I had with book 1 were related to pacing issues and how the romantic tension fizzled out too quickly after what I thought was a strong start. My expectations of something darker and more... monstrous probably played into my disappointment too, but this time I knew what I was going into when I started Moth. Moth is also very different character than Wyn, as a half-monster...

Night and Day by Georgia C. Williams Expected publication: May 17th 2022 My rating: 1 of 5 stars DNF 10% I knew almost immediately I wouldn't be able to read this book but gave it a fair shake by reading the first 10% anyway because you never know sometimes books just start awkwardly and then get better! ;however, this book continued to get more awkward. The writing was best described as "random". One second one of the main characters is spilling coffee on the other main character and the next paragraph they're at a museum before work? Nothing made sense. Some events that happened in the exactly two chapters I managed to read: -Main characters meet at a coffee shop and Joel (main point of view character) spills coffee on the other main character. -Joel is self-conscious about wearing bright colors -Joel is berated by his father -It is announced by aforementioned father that Joel will become managing partner of the law firm they wor...

Demons Do It Better by Louisa Masters My rating: 2 of 5 stars 2.5 stars rounded down I read this via audiobook narrated by Joel Leslie. The narration was solid but the book was lackluster. It had about 100 different ideas that were all half baked and had no payoff. If the plot had stuck with maybe one or two it would've been more enjoyable. It could've been a book about a human working in a supernatural government agency! It could have been a book about a human dating a demon! It could have been a book about a human who has latent shifter DNA! It could've been a book about experimenting on humans and paranormals! Instead it attempted to be all of these things without seeing any of them through and the romance was barely even a thing. AND on top of all the extra partially executed ideas there were several pages dedicated to one scene where the POV main character was drunk and rambling. It was totally unnecessary. The rating is because the ...

Everything for You by Chloe Liese My rating: 1 of 5 stars Horse rating: -10 of 5 horses ARC difficulty: sledding hill Expected publication: May 10th, 2022 I want to give props to this book for having an authentic “I’m surrounded by straight people” vibe. It was accidental, but strong work. Here are my criticisms: I believe I managed to avoid all spoilers, but as with any ARC review, please use caution for your own enjoyment. There is a time jump over the first two years of their relationship We are told about the instant antagonism between Gavin and Oliver when they meet, coming from Gavin. We don’t get to see this, because there’s a four year time jump. For an enemies to lovers slow burn, this is a critical part of the developing relationship! Excising it like this means that there’s nothing to support this animosity outside of what characters tell the reader, rather than an organic build. This leads into my main issues with the romance, where I felt there was a la...

Night and Day by Georgia C. Williams My rating: 2 of 5 stars Horse rating: 0 of 5 horses ARC difficulty: anthill Expected publication: May 17th 2022 There was a lot going on here. Plot The plot was essentially ten action movies stuffed into one book. It would have been better served to delete half the action scenes, and expand the remaining so that the story has a chance to breathe. This would give the characters time to interact during the scenes and react to things as well. And the reader. I needed a break too. This ended up with scenes like a plane mechanical failure(?there was smoke in the cabin?danger??) taking up about half a paragraph, and never being mentioned again. Quality over quantity - pick a few scenes and then make them matter . There were endless continuity, logic, and timescale errors. I didn’t even note the specifics down because there were just so many. This could have used a bit more Hollywood Action Movie level “realism”, there were just too many glaring is...

Shards of Ice by R. Phoenix My rating: 4 of 5 stars Horse rating: 🐴🐴 of 5 horses Avery smiled that funny little smile. “Eat it,” he coaxed. “Such things are made to be eaten. Beautiful or not, some things are meant to be devoured. Sometimes, that’s what they’re designed for.” This was a pretty enjoyable retelling. It kept the magic in the fairytale, which I always like. This was based off of the Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen. I looked up the original tale before I started, and it was neat to see how R Phoenix worked those elements in. Given the magic being present, it followed very closely which was fun. The fae were very ominous, and the formal and loaded way of speaking was well done. The slow descent of Kai's mental state, being irritable and pulled away from Tristan, was gradual and had me anxious to see how far it would go. Extra sad due to the dual pining!  The epilogue was unexpected, yet creepy and good. Definitely a solid read overall. This is one of thos...

  The Reluctant Companion  by  H.L. Day Expected publication: May 2nd, 2022 "I don’t know. I’ve never abducted a prince. It always seemed like too much trouble. And what would I do with one? Stick him in the middle of a field and use him as a scarecrow?” The Kevin's review: 3.5 stars This was a generally entertaining, fun, easy read. The world this is set in is pretty interesting - there’s some lore, smoothly added, just enough to build the setting without overwhelming. It also holds my attention, and left me wanting more (in a good way). I loved the maps - I am such a sucker for pretty colorful maps in fantasy books. It was further developed through the characters themselves, which is always neat when an author can do that so skillfully. The romance was a little unbalanced for me. It was built in fits and starts, and at one point, a big part of their bonding was skipped over. I had a little trouble buying into their connection, though not too much. I’d have liked a litt...

    Entanglement by Cass Lennox My rating: 4 of 5 stars   Expected publication: May 2nd, 2022     They had each other, and that was more than enough. This book was a short yet complex sci-fi novel with a secondary romance. Very much a sci-fi first novel. The story started slow because of the world building and took a while to pick up. However, once I finally adjusted to the world in Entanglement the story became much more compelling and unraveled itself along the way. As I said, the romance is secondary to the main sci-fi action plot, but it was very sweet and there were underlying hints about how much the two main characters cared about each other throughout the story. While there was a complete narrative arc and it was interesting it still felt like a prequel to a larger universe and many of the ideas could have used more exploration. The idea of entanglement, modified humans vs regular humans, and the romance all felt like they were just beginning! I sti...

  the Kevin's  Reads of the Week Not a terribly wild week this week it turns out. The Soldier and the Spy (Society of Beast #2) by Annabelle Greene 4 stars This was a great easy read, historical without being overly bogged down in historical verbiage. Very sweet, with the neediness between the characters at a great level, and dramatically romantic moments. Definitely has my attention caught for the next one in this series! Crazy Kinky Dirty Home Invasion and Crazy Kinky Dirty Clowns by KA Merikan Kindle Unlimited, both 4 stars Two more erotic shorts in this bundle (Crazy Kinky Dirty Love) - home invasion and clown abduction. Creative beyond measure. And somehow a very cute relationship under it, their communication is just A+ to pull all this off. One more entry left!  The Servant and the Gentleman (Society of Beast #3) by Annabelle Greene  5 stars ARC. Release Date: May 17th  omg this was somehow even better than the second book! 100% swoon. 100% adora...