Adorable, fast-spaced story with a pair of extremely loveable leads. This is a great read primarily due to our couple. I’m especially fond of our groom Fenn, a regular bloke who winds up the caretaker of a wonky magical horse cobbled together with rags. I have a soft spot for our shy, black-clad sorcerer, as well. The two of them have good discussions, good steam, good chemistry. Overall fun and worth the read, especially if you like your romance to have a light tone!
I typically prefer hefty, serious romances, but this one’s good for a light type of story. The plot is a bit thin (too thin imo). Thank goodness the plot doesn’t matter as much as the couple! The thing is, the couple falls victim to one of my least favorite tropes: falling in love in a matter of days/weeks. I want months with characters, not weeks!! It makes the love more believable and they have time to really go through things! Ah, well.
The pacing of the story seems to shift halfway through, as well. The start gives adequate time to each development over the course of multiple days while still being fast-paced, but we’re dropped off the cliff into action (all taking place in 1, maybe 2 days?) in the second half. Nothing gets the time it deserves in this section, which makes it feel unfinished and/or rushed. It’s not exactly bad, just not as gripping as the earlier half. A bit disappointing.
My other gripe is the magic. I love the goofy horse, don’t get me wrong. But throughout the whole thing, we are never told how the world’s magic system works (the hand-waving was a bit TOO hand-wavey, which was at odds with detailed early attempts at worldbuilding). I never felt the story adequately convinces us of the leads’ magical abilities, and I never got a good sense of what the characters feel with magic, either, despite that coming up regularly. It was all a bit like unseasoned, undercooked chicken.
But I do love our horse master. 🐎✨️
And the audio performance is perfect!