I recently downloaded Danni Roan’s Carousel Horse Christmas for free on Kindle.  This novella is a sweet, romantic read with horses featuring throughout.  Party planner Audrey Alberton is surprised but pleased to find she has received an anonymous gift for Christmas.  The beautiful horse figurine is stunning and beautifully crafted.  It brings a smile to Audrey’s lips.

What’s surprising about the gift is that Audrey has a run in with her friend Lisa with a horse that looks exactly like the gift she has received.  The owner of the horse – an attractive cowboy named Holden Bays – ends up chasing up Audrey to make sure she wasn’t hurt by the car accident.

In time, Holden is the only person that Audrey knows to be able to help a client with a horse party request.  As Audrey explores the attraction that seems to be mutual, she questions whether a relationship with a cowboy that lives hours away is something she could feasibly fit into her life.

Carousel Horse Christmas is an entertaining read that has a nice horse element to it. Although there is minimal horse information, there are plenty of horse scenes with the two main characters.  The interest between the two main characters also builds nicely although the happy ending to the story occurs over a very short timeframe.  For those looking for an enjoyable, quick read with a Christmas focus, Danni Roan’s novella will do the trick.

Author – Danni Roan
Fiction – adult / romance
In my library – on Kindle

I downloaded this novella recently on Amazon after a search for some more horse reads.    The main characters of Alissa Callen’s The Purple Hills are an audiologist returned to her country town due to an ailing father and a single father, horse chiropractor.  I enjoy reads set in the country, I guess quite often because that’s where the horse stories are.  And of course, reading stories about people who have horse careers always interests me!  Then add in the promise of romance and I’m sold on the idea of the book in question.

The Purple Hills

The Purple Hills had all of these appealing qualities and was an enjoyable, short read.  Horses did feature in the story, but not in quite enough detail for me.  I loved how the first chapter started with a miniature pony streaking past a window.

But although this pony Jelly Bean was a constant in the story, there didn’t appear to be a lot of horse focused moments.  And even though the main female character has a horse Cloud, he only really features in one scene.  Add to this the fact that the main male who is a horse chiropractor, I think this story had a lot of potential to feature horses in a way that wasn’t just a reference to them.  As a horse fanatic, unfortunately I cannot say that this was the case!

That said, the story is an enjoyable read and the characters realistic and easy to come to like.  The Purple Hills is a novella worth reading and I believe could have only been built on by making the horse aspect a descriptive part of the story, rather than a simple addition.  The story focused more on the human relationships – which were enjoyable to read – but I would have enjoyed additional information in the story about the horses, especially from the side of Hugh whose profession was that of horse chiropractor.

Author – Alissa Callen
Fiction – adult / romance
In my library – as an eBook it is.