Horse Talk Reviews

Best Men by Sidney Karger My rating: 3 of 5 stars 2.5 stars rounded up A chaotic stream of consciousness liveblogging style book loosely disguised as a romance wherein the point of view character is a dude who is almost 40 but constantly drinks, never sleeps, has way too many inside jokes, eats diner food at all hours, and is generally Bad at Life. The book gave me a lot of sympathy heartburn and made me want to sit on my couch and talk to no one. The title is apt as the two main characters are both Best Men in the same wedding. Max, the POV character, is bad at wedding planning but is a huge baby about being left out, and Chasten is good at wedding planning and is a Grown Up and shenanigans ensue! Like, a LOT of shenanigans. Too many shenanigans. I needed this whole thing to be turned down like 10 or so notches. The word "gay-xpectations" was used. Approximately four hundred songs were mentioned by name, artist, and song lyric. Every offic...

Light Up the Lamp by Kit Oliver My rating: 3 of 5 stars 3 stars Perhaps my expectations were way too high but this book did not live up to them. Let's set aside the absurd shithole-level arena and facilities for an NHL team that would never be allowed and the training camp with roughly 6 people in attendance and focus on the non-hockey parts. First of all, the miscommunication in here was off the charts. Poor Gil tries so hard but he only knows how to speak in hockey and no one helps him out at any point they only ever say "Oh, Gil" to him. Someone please help my buddy out and clearly explain the problems!!! How is he supposed to know anything at all he has one brain cell and it's dedicated to hockey and thinking "Sebastian" 500 times a second but he's so willing to try if only someone would guide him :( This made the entire book frustrating to read because the 80% breakup is Gil speaking in his single-minded hockey w...

Baseball Field Guide, Fourth Edition: An In-Depth Illustrated Guide to the Complete Rules of Baseball by Dan Formosa My rating: 5 of 5 stars 5 stars I decided it would be a really good idea to get into baseball for real because I read a baseball romance book or two and was ~influenced ~. I thought I would be able to pick it up quick because I've been regularly exposed to baseball as I am a red blooded American and you can't go five feet without ending up in a ballpark or watching Moneyball again. But that was my sports watching hubris tricking me because baseball is absolute nonsense to watch (or listen to) if you don't know what's going on. That's where this book comes in! I wanted a quick reference for the structure of the game and the rules because the best way to tell sportsbros they are wrong on the internet is with citations. The baseball field guide was especially helpful because it has a chapter on how the game is played a...

We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian My rating: 5 of 5 stars 5 stars I loved this book so much. It balanced a mostly vibes and very soft romance with just enough historical accuracy to give it an edge. It is also an incredibly timely book considering it's about the news and queer people existing and finding their communities in the 1950s and while a lot has changed for the better we are also regressing so it was nice to read something so sweet and happy and hopeful despite all the things working against them. As for the romance, the caretaking was an absolute delight with the grumpy one, Nick, being so soft for the sunshine one, Andy, and making him soup and keeping track of his keys and doing anything at all Andy needed him to. And yet again Cat gave me urban planning as a treat because it had just enough dumping on Robert Moses and all the crap he did to the city to entertain me but mostly focused on the neighborhoods and people of mid-century ...

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

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