Horse Talk Reviews

Of Charms, Ghosts and Grievances by Aliette de Bodard My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is a short novella, the second in a spin-off series that focus on this particular couple, Thuan and Asmodeus, characters that featured in another, bigger series. I read the first novella about them, but didn't read the original series. I feel like each one is self-containing, as far as the mystery and the main plot goes. All the relevant world-building is there too, but it's still obvious it's only a part of something much bigger. That's even more obvious if we take the romance, as we are clearly missing the origins of this couple. But I would say that it's easy, from the two novellas, to pick up on their dynamics and go with the flow. Even though they are married, I wouldn't say they're really an established couple yet, so we still get a lot of tension and animosity coming from them, which was fun. The best part of those novellas though, is...

The Kite by N.R. Walker My rating: 4 of 5 stars 3.5 stars rounded up Reading this book is like watching an action movie with an extra dose of queer. It was a lot of fun to adventure around with the assassins on the run and watch them fall in love. The grumpy one gets soft for the sunshine one! The grumpy one murders everyone around but protects the sunshine one!! While this wasn't anything particularly groundbreaking or new it was an enjoyable read. I highly recommend not thinking too hard about the details or continuity or realism. Just sit back with your popcorn and enjoy the action. I received an ARC copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own. View all my reviews

Vortex Conundrum by Louisa Masters My rating: 3 of 5 stars 2.5 stars rounded up So I didn't, like, hate this book? But I didn't like it much either. The first 30% is spent explaining how vortexes/gateways work and it goes on and on and on blah blah blah who cares anymore. There is also a lot of callbacks and characters from the first book. Like, I understand this book is in a series but there is a better way to revisit previous events and introduce characters than this. Also, there were WAY too many characters overall and even a backdoor pilot for the forthcoming Franklin U multi-author series??? Seriously authors let your books breathe on their own. Anyway, I did like the two main characters and their cute little hook up turned into romance thing. What I didn't like was the meddling family in the form of a 1000 year old ghost or constantly being told that certain things were annoying or rude when they weren't. Let me decide for mys...

Like Silk Breathing by Camille Duplessis My rating: 5 of 5 stars 5 stars Content Warnings my ARC didn't have: attempted suicide, depression, death, grief, alcoholism, cheating (kissing only), fade to black, point of view chapters from two side characters This was a lovely little seaside jaunt of a book. It had some heavy themes but they seemed to be more accepted as something that simply was instead of a Big Dramatic Thing. The subtlety magical world building made me want a deeper dive into the lore of witches and selkies and witch hunters. The two main characters were also lovely and the slowburn relationship was nicely developed. It's just a nicely packaged simple little story. I wasn't expecting much and it gave me a lot even without Theo ever shifting into a selkie on page. (I am still disappointed we don't get to see Theo as a selkie!) Anyway, the emotional depth in the book is like looking into a tide pool: small but complex. Hi...

Flesh & Blood by Adara Wolf My rating: 4 of 5 stars Horse rating: 🐴🐴 of 5 horses Jealousy flared up inside Suraj. Eat him! his mind roared. Overall I enjoyed this book. Intriguing premise, and I liked the setting. Suraj was a himbo demon, which was hilarious. A precious himbo!! Madhava had a lot of internal conflict, which I felt was done well. “Chandra was a great man! You don’t deserve to even utter his name!” “Great. I still don’t know who he is.” The main thing that grated for me was that there was a lot of hints of politics, especially when they were in the palace, but it never got much depth. Suraj was being his oblivious himbo self, so no help on that front, and Madhava didn't have enough knowledge to pick out the nuances. I'd have liked that part being expanded a little bit more, given the setup. I'd give the first part a four star, and the end sort of slid into three star territory. It started off much stronger than it finished.  Flesh & Blood on ...

Of Charms, Ghosts and Grievances by Aliette de Bodard My rating: 4 of 5 stars Horse rating: 🐴 of 5 horses ARC difficulty: foothill Expected publication: June 28th, 2022 "I love you," he said, finally. "I see what you are and I love you. All of you." Asmodeus's hand rested, gently, on his cheek. "Oh, dragon prince," he said. "And I you. Now and always." A well-written, high tension novella! I have not read the original series, though I did backtrack to read the first one in this series, Of Dragons, Feasts and Murders just in case it would give me more context. I do think this works as a standalone though. There wasn't anything that carried over from the first book, other than just having more of a knowledge of Asmodeus and Thuan in general. I'll probably double back at some point to read the original trilogy, because I just get more and more curious about their original story. This was a fast paced, detailed and captivating st...

Pressure by Kiki Burrelli My rating: 3 of 5 stars This book is 385 pages long, but somehow felt like twice that length. It took me way too long to read and some parts bored me to hell. I'm still glad I read it and would consider this a positive read, because the parts where I wasn't bored, the ones that actually focused on the romance? Amazing. (On a related note, why are so many shifters books centered around politics and characters talking about X and Y, and not about them getting into pew-pew magical fights or whatever? I'm so tired of those suit-wearing shifters sitting around conference tables). What really makes this book is the dynamic between Axe and Caden. The caretaking and the praise kink was honestly so good that I'm willing to (almost) forget about the things I didn't like. I thought the romance part was done really well and I really felt the connection between the two of them. It was very instalove-y and instalust-y,...

the weekly chaos. Bingo continues. Read Omega Bloodlines by Kaia Pierce - Royal Alphas 1 Kindle Unlimited 3/5 Unintentionally hilarious word choices. Otherwise it’s a forgettable surface omega-shifterverse. A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland ARC 2/5 I really wanted to like this, I thought it would be an amazing fit for me - fantasy, intrigue, mystery, gay…sounded so perfect! It wasn’t. It was missing on all counts honestly, I don’t feel like retyping my review but it was such a disappointment. I hope it works for other people at least. Blue Storm by Adara Wolf Kindle Unlimited 5/5 an MMm story (capitalization deliberate), Adara can get me to read pretty much anything. This was emotionally destructive, I am still recovering from the oofowie two days later. Probably the most emotionally brutal HEA ever. A Poet, A Prince by Adara Wolf - Saga of the City by the Flowers 0.5 4/5 A prequel to a series I haven’t read yet. Fun characters, nicely ominous, looking forward...

Divine River by Marina Vivancos My rating: 4 of 5 stars At night, he’d curl under his thin sheet with the summer air everywhere around him, and his stupid heart would get away from him, replaying little moments of the week, chasing after Jason in his memories like a fool. This short novella packs a lot in a few pages in a way that feels organic and not heavy-handed. On one side, we have a sweet, small-town romance between Mike (the POV character), a local grumpy wood-worker, and his new neighbor, sunshine city boy Jason. Seeing their relationship develops was a delightful experience, as they go from strangers to friends to lovers at a rhythm that felt natural and still managed to maintain natural tension even after the confessions. Those two really cared for each other and the book is full of tender, swoony moments. Alongside the romance, we get to explore Mike's feelings about sexuality and gender in a way that feels purposeful but doesn't weigh down the overall ton...

Pressure by Kiki Burrelli My rating: 4 of 5 stars 3.5 stars heavily rounded up This was yet another take on the mail order bride (or alpha) (or mate) (or whatever) trope but this time it was a werewolf shifter contractually obligating a witch who doesn't know he is a witch yet into being his mate for...job security? I don't know the details are already lost to me and I read this like a day ago. What I enjoyed the most was the praise kink and caretaking the werewolf character gives to the witch character. I enjoyed their dynamic a lot especially as they got to know each other. I could have done without the dramatique running away in the woods crap from the witch guy but him being rescued by his mate was cute. By the way, I would use the character's names if I could remember them but I have already forgotten almost everything about this book which I have said twice now so this should tell you a lot. What I enjoyed the least was the sheer amount of characters who were som...

Deus Ex Mechanic by Ryann Fletcher My rating: 3 of 5 stars Horse rating: 🐴🐴 of five horses Violet nodded in approval. "Theft is a good first step to piracy," This has First Book energy for sure, but I like where it's heading. I enjoyed the plotline - the Coalition vs pirates, rebels, defections, etc. It was well plotted, the only sticky point is getting between those more smoothly (hence, first book energy). I liked the characters a lot, they were given creative backstories and motivations. They also had very real struggles - Captain Violet has to struggle with PTSD after some events. I also liked all of the casual rep and acceptance on the ship. Be whoever you are, whoever you want. It was very sweet. "You aren't weak for experiencing trauma, or anxiety, or anything else. Your strength lies in how much you care for this crew, and in how you pick up and keep moving. Your strength shows with every decision you make, and that's why this crew fo...

Like Silk Breathing by Camille Duplessis My rating: 4 of 5 stars Horse rating: 0 of five horses ARC difficulty: temperate sand dune Expected publication: June 28th, 2022 Content warnings: In case you don’t see the content warnings in the author’s note at the beginning: grief, loss of a loved one, depression, mental health, suicidal ideation, suicide attempt In his version of the myth about a man who stole a selkie’s skin, the selkie kept the man. This was not the story I had expected based on the blurb. I had anticipated more of a suspenseful, action-y paranormal romance, in an alt-historical setting. This is actually a much more internally focused book, rather than being concerned with a larger external plot. I found it to be a captivating and emotional look into mental health and especially depression as we see it through Tom, who I related to rather strongly. I would say I may have enjoyed it more this way, than if it had been what I had originally expected. The ...

    Brother by Marina Vivancos     Erratic's review : 5 stars What a beautifully emotional little book. The longing these two had for each other came through on every page. There is a certain feeling the summer between college years gives where you're an adult but still growing and the tangle of the past, family, new friends, and new experiences all come together. The vibe of long hot days spent by the water. Somehow this short book about incest between twin brothers captured summer perfectly. Even the length of the book worked since it was as fleeting as one of those college summers. I loved it 5 stars rounded down.   the kevins review: 3 stars   Vivancos can pack a lot of emotion into a small package, but even then, there's a limit. This one is just too short to pull it off. Every time I was just getting pulled into a scene, into the emotions, it would end or change. They were always just a bit short of complete and it was intensely frus...

The Alpha Contract by Eliot Grayson My rating: 3 of 5 stars 2.5 stars rounded up I haven't read most of the books in the Mismatched Mates series so I have very little context for the larger world this book is set in. From what I've been told by other readers this is a good thing when it comes to this book as it is truly a standalone. There wasn't much world building or shifter lore in this book and knowledge of the universe isn't necessary as the only relevant themes that come up are brief mentions of the alpha/omega dynamic, the alpha having a knot, and some vague ~shifter magic~. Overall the book was acceptable. There were a lot of dated pop culture references and the characters were rather flat but it is still readable. What I did enjoy was the caretaking Dmitri gave to Brook but there was not nearly enough of it. I didn't fully buy their transition from contractual obligation and a convenient hole for the straight dude (and th...

Bad With Love by Sophie O'Dare My rating: 5 of 5 stars Horse rating: 0 of five horse omg this was adorable and the perfect vibes!! Light, fluffy, so cute, easy read with entertaining characters...whats not to love. Roman is PRECIOUS and PERFECT and i will fight you if you disagree with me because you are wrong I couldn't get over how he'd been trying to show Warren he loved him and was trying to be perfect for him for the whole 13 years..!! It was so sweet. I could see it but of course Warren thought it was Roman being a competitive dick. Perfection. I didn't really manage to read the blurb, and I'm happy to read alpha/alpha romances....but secret omega!?! Secret omega who doesn't even know hes an omega and has surprise heat??? MORE “Your cologne.” I loop my arms around his neck and snuggle in to drag the scent into my lungs. “What brand?” “I don’t wear cologne.” omg the best trope ever plsss The surprise heat was done so well too (to my personal...

Coming out of a reading slump, and it is not going just fine. back into my cage Bingo continues its assault. Read Omega for the Pack by NJ Lysk 4/5 Lysk does existential erotic horror very well. …yeah. Million Dollar Daddy by RJ Moray Kindle Unlimited 2/5 I read this for bingo, for the daddy square. I thought my greatest dislike would be the daddy kink since I don’t like that….but I hated the characters. They were mean and boring. Daddy kink was mild. Binding Breath by Adara Wolf 4/5 I love Adara Wolf - this is a fun novella set in kind of an alt-historical magic 1920’s ish time (i’m guessing 1920’s, its not stated). Nice and unhealthy. Manipulation for everyone! I’d love to read more in this universe. Brother by Marina Vivancos Smashwords 3/5 Vivancos’s first taboo. Tragically too short to actually work - the length meant that all the scenes got chopped short, and that ruined the angsty vibes I wanted. So close, and yet…why the hell is it 14k words anyway, that’s like ...

The Parsley Knight by Dan Ackerman My rating: 1 of 5 stars Horse rating: 🐴🐴 of five horses ARC difficulty: pancake Expected publication: July 1st, 2022 DNF at 15% The blurb sounded really neat, but unfortunately all of that was pretty much done with in the first 5%. Why this is 500 pages, I do not know. • Pretty much everything is glossed over. Things just sort of happen to parsley knight, he rarely seems to have any agency. There's a lot of telling about things, without showing them happening. The scenes are short since nothing is expanded on, which leaves the book feeling very choppy. • The world building leaves much to be desired - what on earth is going on? There's the fae Otherworld, some sort of semi-fantasy "real" world(?) where Christianity is still a thing....uhhh. There's magic, a couple different kinds, but that's not explored. Lots of lore dumping, but without context it's all just noise. Even their constant jaunts around fae ...

Unwritten Rules by K.D. Casey My rating: 4 of 5 stars There is quite a lot of baseball in this book. Like, more than I was really expecting. The entire book is through the lens of baseball and it's all the main character thinks of and it colors every aspect of his life. I did not find the baseball content unapproachable or exclusionary; I don't watch baseball but I could understand the baseball content described in this book. There is also a lot more to the book than baseball (I am saying baseball a lot. Baseball baseball baseball). It's also a very romantic book. The two main characters play on the same team at the same position and meet at spring training on year and their romance slowly develops through the spring training. The book is structured a bit unusually with the present day and a series of flashbacks from when the characters meet to the present day. And sometimes flashbacks within the flashbacks. I wasn't ever lost in the narrative but it does...

Omega for the Pack by N.J. Lysk My rating: 4 of 5 stars Horse rating: 0 of five horses But you didn't need to be trying to hurt someone to do it—all it took was chance or carelessness, or just plain ignorance. This is very existential erotic horror, right on brand for what I expected from a Lysk book. Especially when it's coupled with gender and gender roles in a society and not being in control of your own person. The horror of being slave to biology, being a slave to your own biology, trapped by society in a role you don't want but can't avoid...too real. The wolf thing added an interesting component of struggling within yourself, while also giving the world some framework. This had some degree of weird romance(?not the right word) - the alphas were all trying (well except maybe Gabriel, idk about him, I am suspicious) to help Ray adjust and be happy and take care of him...but Ray is still trapped. He adjusts a little by the end, in a way thats just to...

Naked Ambition by Lisa Henry My rating: 4 of 5 stars Horse rating: 🐴 of 5 horses He was drowning, all right, and Taylor had just thrown him a lifeline. And next he was going to tighten it around his pretty little throat and pull. This was a very well done dark MMM(ish?i don't know, it depends how you count) retelling of the Emperor's New Clothes. I would not consider it a romance. Maybe it's erotic horror. I tried to write down things that should have been in the content warnings since I couldn't find any for the book: Content warnings: dubcon, noncon, sexual assault, drug use, drug addiction, noncon drug use Characters: Taylor: All his life Taylor had wanted to create, and it turned out that his masterpiece was going to be destruction. There was probably something profound in that, maybe even a lesson, or at least something that someone with a more philosophical bent would have pondered for a while, but Taylor wasn’t going to lose any sleep over it. .....

  Prince and Assassin  by  Tavia Lark Expected publication: June 1, 2022 Erratic's review : 5 stars Tavia Lark has a way of writing high fantasy in an approachable and clear way that keeps the reader engaged with the story without being confused or having to think too hard. Because I tell you what I really don't like having to think too hard when I'm reading a romance. This book in particular is a good example of how approachable Tavia's work is with a quick and easy read. I loved the characters and the magic systems and most importantly the giant cats . What I think worked really well with this book was how intertwined the romance was with the action storyline. They complimented each other instead of becoming distractions. As the action built up so did the romance. Right when the tension of the assassination plot picked up is also when (spoilers for plot) (view spoiler) The romance was so well done too with tiny touches and hand holding and the main char...

Tommy Cabot Was Here by Cat Sebastian My rating: 4 of 5 stars I loved everything about this book except the length. I usually don't complain about something as pedestrian as the length of a book but this one unfortunately suffered narratively by being way too short. Everything felt as if it was just beginning and nothing really happened. That being said, I really did love everything about this book. Especially the amount of tears Tommy sheds for no reason, or, really, for every reason ever. A weepy older main character is a lovely change from the stoic manly man stuff that can come through in a romance. In conclusion, I needed approximately 5 times the amount of pages with weeping Tommy being hugged by Everett.  Tommy Cabot Was Here on Amazon View all my reviews

Witch 13 by Patrick R. Delaney My rating: 4 of 5 stars Expected Publication: June 7, 2022 View all my reviews     I enjoyed this book quite a bit more than I expected to. The slow-building dread and tension through the beginning and the ramp up in action at the end were very well done. The middle section spends a lot of time on back story and point of view from other characters and tended to drag a bit. Some of the flashbacks got very repetitive but once the importance of these were made clear I understood why they were included. The weakest part of the book was the very, very end. The main character's story was not given enough time to breathe to make an impact in the way it could have. The same can be said for the lore of the witches which took a very long time to be revealed in the book. The ending would be improved with a bit more time spent on the witch and the main character and less time on the other side ...

False Feathers by Adara Wolf My rating: 4 of 5 stars Horse rating: 🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴 of 7 horses My original opinion was based on expecting more of an HEA, or perhaps something slightly less horror. Innocent(ish lol) me, having never read Adara Wolf or this series before.  Upon reflection, and having read much more Wolf, this is delightfully bleak. I had the wrong expectations going in originally, but it works for me now. My original review text, formerly a 3/5: This is kind of hard to review. First, it’s a retelling of a Grimm fairytale, which hedges it in for both plot and resolution. Extra challenge for a dark romance, which I think are especially difficult to pull off a HEA (or HFN, or a subjective HEA) in the first place, let alone when the end is already written for you. The kinks - they were a little matter of fact almost. It seemed to be more of a focus on humiliation than eroticism, which was fine, just not what I expected when I started this book. Aidan - poor bab...

 Dual Wielding Edition because I was in a reading slump for a while, so not much progress. Bingo begins though! Prince and Assassin by Tavia Lark  ARC 5/5 So good, another impeccable fantasy with an adorable sweet romance. Naked Ambition by Lisa Henry  Kindle Unlimited 4/5 another entry to the Grim and Sinister Delights multiauthor series. The reviews me suspicious but this turned out well. Nice and bleak, though I felt the last chapter was ott cheese HEA attempt and didn’t fit with the rest of the book. Something milder would have been better. Needs content warnings. So far I think it’s the second best after Adara Wolfs entry, and these have similar vibes. Break My Shell by KA Merikan KU 2/5 A strong first chapter, then it lost its way. Clearly one of their earlier works, but whatevs. The first chapter is A+. Brute by Kim Fielding 2/5 after a decent start, it fell apart. badly. i dont even feel like enumerating all the things i didnt like. but there was explicit se...

By the Book by G.B. Gordon My rating: 1 of 5 stars Horse rating: 0 out of 5 horses ARC difficulty: foothill Expected publication: June 14th, 2022 DNF at 29% I am strangely mad about how much of a disappointment this was. I tried really hard to keep reading but I had to tap out. I am fine with suspending disbelief for reading romance books, I wouldn’t be able to read so many otherwise. But even then, there are limits. This book far surpasses any ability to suspend disbelief because it is just so wrong on all counts. I expect at least TV show level realism, you know? The bar isn't very high.   Characters Ben : Ben is a total dumbass (derogatory). The narration tries to build him up as smart, confident, something, but what’s shown is someone with no critical thinking and is a doormat. The mismatch is painful. If he were just supposed to be a wildly naive soggy breadcrumb of a person, that’s one thing. But the other MC says he’s smart, clever, Ben himself thinks things ...

Taken by the Dark: An MM Dark Soulmates Romance about Ghosts and their Tentacles by Feral Thorne My rating: 4 of 5 stars Ghost with tentacles! Need I say more? But seriously, I was pretty impressed with this short story. In only 50 pages or so, we get a full spooky, evocative story of a young guy and the ghost who used to live in his house. It's well-written and doesn't feel campy or overdone. This is in turn sad, creepy, hot and romantic. Yes, we even get a HFN! I kind of wished the ending was longer, so we could see more of what happens "after". I highly recommend this to anyone who likes erotic horror or ghost possession story. Or tentacles. I'm looking for more from this author! There's some CW that  this review does a good job of listing. I received a free copy of this book and am providing my honest review voluntarily. Taken by the Dark on Amazon View all my reviews