Horse Talk Reviews

Game Misconduct by Ari Baran My rating: 3 of 5 stars 2.5 stars rounded up This book was straight up baffling to read. The two main components of the book, the hockey and the romance, were equally weird and made me question if I knew anything at all about hockey or reading romance. To start, the hockey. I was initially ok with the idea of the two main characters being enforcers but they were Extreme Enforcers who fought multiple times every game. In the year of our lord 2023, hockey fighting and enforcers are barely a thing. The players in real life hockey who fight a lot have maybe 12-14 fights an entire season! What makes it even more confusing as a character choice is this is a league that's progressive enough to have a female hockey player. It makes no sense to have both of these be true at once and still have a homophobic league. As for the rest of the hockey it was all a little...off. Like words might be used in hockey but they were slightly...

Solomon's Crown by Natasha Siegel My rating: 5 of 5 stars 5 stars This book is low on historical accuracy but very high on vibes. It was such a compelling read and I could not put it down. It has some truly beautiful moments in it despite it being about two very problematic medieval kings getting it on throughout various castles and manors. I probably could have done without the political gambits and all the people dying in the background (or foreground in a few instances) so they could be together but it was also the 1100s so, like, stuff was weird. Honestly the less you think about this book and the more you vibe along with it the better off you'll be. 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

Weyward by Emilia Hart My rating: 4 of 5 stars 4 stars This was an interesting and layered book with just enough witch stuff and birds and insects to keep me going. I don't think it says anything particularly new as the thesis seems to be "men are bad we should be single badass witches instead" including the first born child of the Weyward women always being a girl to keep the witching going, but I had a good time reading it anyway. The thing keeping it from being a 5 star read is I had issues with a few of the narrative choices like the witch trial in the 1600s seeming way too modern. I'm pretty sure trials weren't like that at all but I wasn't there so what do I know. Anyway, solid entry into the women's witch fiction genre! 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