Horse Talk Reviews

If you were here last year you may remember me saying I was going to stick with Hallmark movies instead of reading Christmas romance books in 2023. WELL GUESS WHAT. I lied. I watched basically zero Hallmark movies and read approximately three thousand Christmas books because I did not choose self-care. This year's crop of Christmas horrors was worse than last year's which is saying a lot. Even more death, even more mayhem, even less romance, and even more overly dramatic dingalings ruining Christmas for everyone around them but especially ruining it for me. Also, apologies this is super late I was busy doing stuff like "not reading" and "procrastinating" and "washing my hair" and didn't finish the last Christmas book until December 30th. Just like last year, I've ordered the reviews below based on the rating I gave them on Goodreads from highest to lowest. Clicking on the title of the book will take you directly to my Goodreads review. ...

There's nothing like the festive merriment of holiday cheer around Christmas. Unfortunately, I made the grave error of reading a ton of "Christmas" "romance" ARCs this year and have ruined everything about Christmas. In these Christmas books rounded up below we have lots of death, mean people, more death, mediocrity, bad pet ownership, porn stars, dramatic musicians, thinking Zaxby's is good Southern food, littering, tragic backstories, and a lot of movie making. Next year I think I will stick to the tried and true Hallmark movies for the Christmas vibes I want. If you too would like to have a weird Christmas, check out the books below. I've ordered them based on the rating I gave them on Goodreads from highest to lowest. Clicking on the title of the book will take you directly to my Goodreads review. I am also going to include a content warning for Christmas deaths for each book because seriously, it was ridiculous how much death there was, and every...

A look at the kevin's upcoming ARCs for October and a sneak peek at November reads!  September's ARCs can be found here!  Some already read and reviewed, others yet to be opened. Starting to get into Christmas books! All arcs are from NetGalley. ARCs releasing in October You're a Mean One, Matthew Prince by Timothy Janovsky Expected publication: October 4 2022 Categories: LGBTQ+, MM, Romance, Holiday From the publisher: Bring a little joy to the world? Not today, Santa. Matthew Prince is young, rich, and thoroughly spoiled. So what if his parents barely remember he exists and the press is totally obsessed with him? He's on top of the world. But one major PR misstep later, and Matthew is cut off and shipped away to spend the holidays in his grandparents' charming small town hellscape. Population: who cares? It's bad enough he's stuck in some festive winter wonderland-it's even worse that he has to share space with Hector Martinez, an obnoxiously attractiv...

 another month o' suffering My DNFs for August 2022 i am so tired reading the virtuous sinners multiauthor series was not a good idea Day of Judgement by Briar Kearny and Aurora Crane  (Virtuous Sinners) DNF at 56% Look, I tried. I tried very hard (medium hard). It’s just not working. • This book has about 50% too many pages. There is so much extraneous description - instead of setting the scene, they are just distracting and pointless. Do I care what type of oven they have? Only if someone gets baked in it. I also don’t need every single action described. Most things are repeated in triplicate, especially in the inner monologues. Once is enough. I felt like I was getting beat over the head with every thought. I promise your readers can infer plenty! Or understand the sentence the first time. • The pacing left a lot to be desired. There’s a lot of floating plot pieces (the relationship, the murder investigation, the assassin company thingy, the rival assassins, the missing bro...

 !what is life without pain, horrible books that are horrible....ugh. Here you can find all my suffering for July . Links here take you to my Goodreads reviews/highlights.  Among the Living (Psycop #1) by Jordan Castillo Price DNF at 33% I have seen this series recommended a lot, and since it went on KU this month, I figured it was time to give it a shot. The premise sounded neat, and a good urban fantasy (with romance subplot) is a fun read. Unfortunately, this ended up very much not working for me, for several reasons. The writing This book being from 2006, I was prepared to give it some leeway on old timey attitudes and such, but it ended up being too much for me to want to deal with. Slurs, misogyny, all around weird attitudes…it built up to an untenable level. I guess I’d have hoped, since the author is still continuing this series(!), they could have doubled back to remove some of the obvious slurs? Maybe? In addition to that weirdness, the two victims that Bayne visited...

A look at the kevin's upcoming ARCs for September and a sneak peek at October's reads!  Find August's ARC post here! Some already read and reviewed, others yet to be opened. Starting to get into Christmas books! All arcs are from NetGalley. ARCs releasing in September Imitate the Dawn by MA Grant (Whitethorne Agency #3) Expected publication: September 13 2022 Categories: MM, LGBT+, Paranormal, Romance, Vampire From the publisher:  Cristian Slava and Atlas Kincaid despise each other. At least, that’s what they need everyone to believe. In truth, the charismatic vampire and his fierce bodyguard are more in love than ever. But when a powerful political faction emerges and threatens Cristian’s family, the only way into their enemy’s inner circle is without each other by their side. From Romania to New York and beyond, though apart, their blood-bond cannot be severed—but it can be used against them. When Cristian sacrifices his life to save his family and save Atlas from having...