Horse Talk Reviews

10 Things That Never Happened by Alexis Hall My rating: 3 of 5 stars 3 stars I'm as surprised as you are that I didn't completely hate this book after the last several tries with AJH. I'd even go as far to say I quite enjoyed it. Sure it had the very annoying thing where -y is added to the end of words to be cutesy (see what I did there) and it is written in what I assume is a northern accent so if i never see a sentence end in "like" again it'll be too soon. But the amensia plot was kind of fun, I liked the two MCs, and the meddling family and meddling coworkers were rather enjoyable. What's keeping it three stars is the rather predictable 95% breakup, the 97% Christmas Death (ugh we were so close to a mostly death free Christmas! But no here they are kissing in a cemetery wtf), and the aforementioned annoyingly accenty (lol) narrative. It helped a lot that the POV character, Sam, wasn't completely full of anxiety ...

Once a Rogue by Allie Therin My rating: 4 of 5 stars 3.5 stars rounded up This series is what I consider a popcorn read where you consume it without thinking too hard about it and everything works out and you remember almost nothing once you're finished. This book is no exception. I like Sebastian but Wesley can be kind of grating with his "im the worst man on the entire earth how can you POSSIBLY like me" stuff it, man, you are not the worst AT ALL. The magic is also rather convenient especially in this book (which it was very convenient in the whole series) but you know what? sometimes it's nice to know everything will be fine. I am looking forward to their next book and hopefully Wesley stops with the thinking he's some unloveable monster crap and lives his truth of being a cat dad and doting boyfriend to Sebastian. I received an ARC copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own. ...

Prince and Bodyguard by Tavia Lark My rating: 4 of 5 stars 4 stars This was cute and had nice forehead kisses and caretaking but I do not remember nearly enough of the previous books to follow the intricacies of the political gambit parts. I also expected the series about the House Dire princes in the evil land of blood magic and dragons and whatnot to be darker but this was as light-hearted and neatly wrapped up as the previous series. Which is fine but a bit more evil angsty grit would be great! Of course, as always, it's a very readable and sweet book. Even if I couldn't remember who any of these people were lol. I received an ARC copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own. View all my reviews

The Dragon and His Prince by Adara Wolf  and R Phoenix My rating: 2 of 5 stars This was unfortunately a let down for me. I was very excited for the sex pollen/aphrodisiac body fluids and double dicked dragon!! How fun! Alas. Having read both these authors individually before, I skipped the content warnings for a more fun surprise (this is very fun). I still suggest everyone else read them first, in the book and on the authors website. Now, to book: I was told by a friend to expect more of a fluffy dubcon fantasy book, relative to the authors’ individual works, and that was pretty spot on. Very not dark, cute dubcon via sex pollen. Well…yeah okay, that was about it for the book. I really liked Jade being super possessive of Larkin though, and calling him his treasure and gem all the time. So cute! I was settling in to have fun guessing who wrote which character, and then it was immediately obvious due to ellipses abuse in Larkin’s POV. So that was...

Wedding Dragon by Liv Rider My rating: 3 of 5 stars A cute fluffy fated mates dragon shifter book, exactly as advertised! A fun twist to the fake boyfriend trope, where the human mate shows up to a wedding with a fake boyfriend, and meets his fated dragon!  Anyway, Chris is the best character by far. I loved him so much. Followed by the internal dragon suggestions of dropping mean people in lakes.

Temporary Partner by Nicky James My rating: 4 of 5 stars Excellent start to this series! Or continuation, if you read the prequel.....which you should! I know it says optional, but I think it made reading this a lot better. It introduces the characters and their dynamics - which are well developed here - and you get the background for the events discussed in this book. Also its fun. Anyway. I really enjoyed this book! I couldn't put it down - such tightly written tension on all fronts!! I'm a total dingdong for crime solving, and this was perfect for me. I had no idea who could be the culprit, and I got to suspect literally everyone ever. Except the MC, that one takes serious chops to pull off. But anyway. Loved the crime mystery!! (this is a strong positive, i love not knowing what's going on and just like to keep pace with the MCs as they solve it. if i can solve the mystery, its a very bad sign) The chemistry between these two was pret...

Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots by Cat Sebastian My rating: 5 of 5 stars 5 stars If you haven't noticed by now, I am a big Cat Sebastian fan. She just gets me, ok? Especially the Cabot books that she describes as "vibes" and "people crying while wearing sweaters" and "generationally queer" which Tommy calls them in this exact book. Which is exactly right. What I loved most about this book is how much space Daniel and Alex make for each other. The story starts with them already as friends and together in every sense besides fucking so there is immediately domestic slowburn vibes which continue the entire time. Alex is an immigrant, a doctor, and neurodivergent, all of which are treated with care in the writing. Daniel is from a wealthy family but is still a cinnamon roll and a dirtbag who starts a community garden on a city-owned abandoned lot. In a way, the book is a story of these two finding their way both as independ...

Wrong Hunt by J.S. Harker My rating: 4 of 5 stars 3.5 stars On the whole, this was a pretty entertaining read, and I enjoyed it. It had mean family, which I have such a weakness for - saddest boi zack being bullied by his mean family!! how dare and then he finds out they're also terrible and judgey and he finds acceptance and niceness in the alleged enemy (vampire/supernaturals) and has to face the pull between being accepted (maybe) by his mean family and everything he's known, vs being accepted by actually nice people...such the best. That part was actually pretty light - Zack didn't face a whole lot of tension accepting that his family sucked and the supernaturals were nice, especially because his family (especially brother!) were OTT Evils. I don't mind that though. I liked that the romance and plot were well woven together, it never felt like one got in the way of the other. It also never felt choppy. However! My one major gripe...

Necromancing with a Ghost by Cari Z. My rating: 2 of 5 stars Okay. Well. The writing is fine. But. but. 1. Where’s the romance?? There isn’t any! A little bit of “he’s pretty” and then….yeah nah. Nothing. 2. This reads like a prequel, not a standalone anything. There’s so many small tidbits of information that would make sense if this was a prequel to a same couple series. The whole world setup with necromancers, the law, history, etc. The brother?? the family??? The dogs! So many things that feel like they’re meant to be expanded on, but since this is just a novella, it feels very out of place. It ends so abruptly. If this was off to “and then they were a ghost-necromancer dog psychic crime solving team roaming the US with dogs” for a series premise, that would be cool. It is not. Instead I’m left feeling very ????? 3. The file is a grand total of 72 pages long, and yet it still ends at 88%!!!! !!! Overall, while the writing was fine, a...

Gardening with a Ghost by Amanda Meuwissen My rating: 2 of 5 stars I was curious about the premise here - gardener who brings plants back to life? Super neat. I guess I should have expected that it wouldn't be a ton about gardening, tragically. the plot Instead there's a babbys first murder whodunit, lead by the worlds worst detective (gardener man), for no apparent reason. He's there to fix the garden, and somehow decides "yes I will follow people around (unsneakily), question them (obviously and they notice he's being weird), and decided everything and everyone is Suspicious" go back to your garden. the romance this was, all in all, kind of just whatever. They had instalove vibes though early on, before Peter even found out who the ghost was or what he looked like, which was a little too far for me to buy into, even for instalove. Feel a connection, sure, but they were very dramatic about it when the ghost dude was like a ...

Screwing with a Ghost by Morgan Mason My rating: 4 of 5 stars Aww this was very cute and fluffy, and even had a little bit of sad emotional moments to balance it out! I appreciated that this book decided to skip over the "i don't believe in ghosts" part - that has its place, but it gets annoying and I much preferred that this focused on the connection between Miguel and Edward instead. I liked the creative ghost sex too. I mean, that's why I'm reading this series, but still it's fun to see how different authors approach it. Overall, nice easy read, very fluffy and adorable plus ghost. Screwing with a Ghost on Amazon View all my reviews

Sexting with a Ghost by Ashlynn Mills My rating: 3 of 5 stars I always did have bad taste in men. Normally their issues were being assholes, and now the guy I'm crushing over may not even have a pulse. This was a cute 4 star ghosty romance...until the end. >:( 4 stars: I liked seeing the cute sexting and dating and connection between Darcy and Caleb. It was very sweet seeing them establish a connection and then deepen it despite ghostyness. Though the "communicating while sleeping" was comically silly, since it read exactly like Darcy was still awake, but whatevs. There was a great balance of the romance and mystery too, throughout the book. It felt naturally connected, no choppiness found. The reveal !! wat (positive) why it's now 3 stars: spoilers for the ending!!! [The ending felt super incredibly rushed to me, and left so many strands hanging I was very frustrated. Was there a length limit for these books in this series? That's the only rea...

Prince in Disguise by Tavia Lark the kevin's review: 4 of 5 stars Another fun and romantic fantasy romance! This one is more adventure-plot based compared to the previous book, which was more interpersonal/intrigue. I liked the shift - it balances well within the series. I enjoyed the characters a lot too, Bellamy and Rakos were very amusing together, and of course I loved Sarka. I hope there's more dragon-y stuff in the next book too, this one did some intriguing openings. I also always love the plant magic, so much fun! My one major issue was the random Julien POV chapter in the middle of the book. It didn't add anything, and it actually was detrimental to my reading enjoyment. It interrupted the story of Bellamy/Rakos and their travels, didn't add anything, and then sort of spoiled a moment (minor, not a plot spoiler) later in the book that would have been fun to guess on for it's whole two pages or whatever. Basically, a small th...

How the Wallflower was Won by Eva Leigh My rating: 4 of 5 stars I wasn't planning on reading a straight regency romance but I was told this one had a dining table sex scene so obviously I became interested. Now that I have read it I can confirm that boy does it ever have a dining table sex scene. A+ work on fulfilling my exactly one expectation for the book. As for the rest of the stuff that doesn't take place on a dining table, it was a fairly decent regency romance. The intellectual pursuits of the titular wallflower were interesting (to a point. Some of it felt like name dropping a bunch of philosophers i dont give a crap about. What is with books thinking I am here to learn!) and the support between the two main characters for fulfilling these pursuits was nice. I also enjoyed how nonjudgmental the intellectual female lead was to the dude's inability to read well. It was very sweet. On the other hand, I could have done without the con...

The Rivals of Casper Road by Roan Parrish My rating: 3 of 5 stars 3 Stars I wanted to like this book more but there was a whole lot of nonsense and not nearly enough of the promised Halloween-y romance. The book was part dissertation on architectural theory, part introspective essay on getting over a breakup, part meddling family, part low stakes prank war, part trauma recovery, part Halloween decorating contest, part cameos from all the queers of Garnet Run and tiny part romance I guess. For such a short book I am kind of impressed how much was shoved in. So yeah while it was competently written and had the start of some of the right vibes there was too much other stuff going on for me to fully enjoy it. Particularly the past trauma for the sad boy main character Zachary that was a bit much. So was all the inner monologuing on architecture I had enough of it in architecture school I don't need that crap in my romance books too! Give me more Hall...

Stargazing with a Ghost by K.L. Hiers My rating: 3 of 5 stars This was a book, kinda cute, kinda annoying. It felt to me like it had trouble deciding what kind of book it wanted to be. The ghost fucking plot and the Evil Staircase plot are sort of chunked together, and it lacked flow. It seemed like its goal was to be cute and funny but then the Evil Staircase plot would try to be ominous at times and it didn't work for me. Or maybe it wasn't trying to be ominous. Maybe I was expecting more spooky vibes than there were ever meant to be (none). I struggled a bit to connect with the writing - it's sort of choppy? I'm not sure, but I didn't get hooked into the story. All the characters spoke the same as well, with the exception of Sip, who still managed to speak the same as the Hollywood starlet ghost. The romance is just instalust plus a whole lot of sex. The extended discussion of The Walking Dead, a show I know nothing about and care nothing about, wa...

  Imitate the Dawn   by   M.A. Grant Expected publication: September 13 2022 erratic's review: 4 of 5 stars Another action-packed book and a fitting conclusion. This book picks right up where book 2 left off so definitely read these in order and probably back to back too. The intensity is high the entire time with this one and there are a lot of reveals and characters and callbacks from the previous two books. The romance between Christian and Atlas seemed to take a step back and then propel really far forward in the space of a few chapters and their relationship could have used some more space to breathe in between the relentless action. And similar to book 2, some things were glossed over a bit too much and needed more explanation in the narrative - particularly what was going on between Christian and Atlas and their scheming. The ending of the book was very interesting. A fresh take on the vampire lore and I appreciate when books try new things out. And of course the e...

  Crooked Shadows   by   M.A. Grant Crooked Shadows on Amazon erratic's review:  4 of 5 stars Well this certainly wasn't a standalone book! It picks up right where book 1 left off and then ends on a cliffhanger. Highly recommend starting at the beginning and reading all three books in the trilogy. Even though it begins where book 1 ended and continued a lot of the story lines it still managed to feel like a whole new (albeit not standalone) story. The change in setting from New York to Romania and the bloody vampire road trip vibes were fun. I also enjoyed seeing Christian and Atlas grow closer and take care of each other more. My main gripe is there is far too much that is glossed over and not explained enough. For example, there is an emotional feeding between Christian and Atlas which goes bad but it's never explained why it goes bad or what exactly it means??? It seemed to be going fine to me? Maybe it's because I am not educated in all the ways of the vampire an...

Sightlines by Neve Wilder My rating: 4 of 5 stars “Everyone else is always trying to play it cool and you’re just you.”  “Just me,” he said softly.  “Perfectly you. Do you really think I’m crazy?” It is totally unfair how Neve Wilder can emotionally compromise me like this. This novella was a wonderful addition to the Nook Island series(?), following some time after the events of Center of Gravity (talk about an emotionally destructive book! gah). It was less angsty and grief heavy than Center of Gravity, but still had an undeniable emotional pull. But as I walked through the rooms and down the halls, flipping on lights and inhaling the sea air that seemed to saturate even the walls, all I felt was the same soft, comforting warmth that had always been present, and I wondered why I’d waited so long. I loved the flirting and connection and conversations between Liam and Brooks. They had such an amusing banter going on throughout their interactions. The side charac...

Nightingale by Laura Lascarso My rating: 1 of 5 stars DNF at 26% Right off the bat, I have to say my highlights on goodreads are required to understand the shit I just read.  This is my first book by this author. …yeah. Honestly one of the things that caught my attention was that it says its accountant x assassin - what is the assassin going to need an accountant for?? This is intriguing. Lies. It is not intriguing because it doesn’t really matter than he’s an accountant. Rude. Characters This is dual first person POV, so we get to see inside of both characters heads and thought processes. And then judge them accordingly. Khalil - what a dillweed. I actually strongly dislike him, and not in a fun way. He just sucks. He’s rude and judgmental of Julien, and somehow breathtakingly naive. How can he be so naive after working for the mob for x years? (timeline is very unclear) I don’t even know how you can ostrich to that degree. Which is also why I really dislike him f...