Horse Talk Reviews

The Witch and the Vampire by Francesca Flores My rating: 2 of 5 stars DNF @ 53% 2 stars I really wanted to like this one because of the cover and the description which is why I read as much as I did but it was a huge letdown. I stopped caring at about the 15% mark, to be honest. None of it made any sense and it was going nowhere by the time I stopped. Like, this is about a witch and a vampire but the witch is way too angry and vengeful and the vampire is way too sheltered and naive and it was just boring to read. I kept the extra star because of the cover, mostly. 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

Never Ever Getting Back Together by Sophie Gonzales My rating: 5 of 5 stars I really enjoyed this one! Such great humor, I loved Skye and Maya, and the cast of secondary characters (minus Jordy) were fantastic. All the girls were distinct and played off each other so well. Isaac I enjoyed a lot too. The humor was on point - the kind that’s worked in to conversations and the internal monologue of characters, rather than feeling tacked on and try hard. I especially loved all of the Maya thoughts early on. Honestly, even Jordy was a good character. He was balanced to being fun to hate, without dragging the story down with extreme toxicity. The conversations between him and the girls were hysterical, especially the hot tub one with Maya. Absolutely comical. I liked the personal growth arc for the MCs a lot - both of them really grew as people, in a believable way for their age. A lot of focus on finding themselves, evaluating priorities, and deciding wha...

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...

    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...