My first read by this author.

When the book started, I didn't particularly like any of the characters. I suppose it's good, then, that I made something of an impulse buy or otherwise I am not sure I'd have continued. Oh, maybe 10% chance I'd have stopped. Not much more than that. But the characters began to grow on me, at least the two main characters, Jessica and Skyler. Kate never really grew on me. I had trouble seeing her as more than an rich old overly-opinionated woman, who stubbornly got her way, put up a show of supporting otherwise, while at the same time undermining them and undercutting them. Specifically Skyler. And her constant jabs, teasing or otherwise, about Skyler's sexual relationships, and the implied, though not directly expressed and not actual, opinion that Skyler isn't good enough. At least in the romance department. So, yeah, Kate never grew on me.

So. Long long ago I used to read horse books. I've read all but one of Dick Francis horse books, about 4 by another champion jockey, something like James MacGregor (or he was the co-author), and one or two by a third champion jockey (Bill Shoewalter(sp?)). Plus a bunch of westerns, and other horse related books by other writers. So, in other words, I grew up reading horse books. Took me a while, though, to mix that with a lesbian theme. This is something like my *counts, 2 Mounted police books, 1 book with blind character, 5 in the Chase and Rowan series, 1 set on a ranch in Wyoming . . . * so this is something like my tenth book that involves both horses and lesbians (ETA: 11th, I'd forgotten one lesbian historical fiction that included horses as transportation). I do not really have much point, just - I used to read horse books, finally got around to trying them with lesbians added in and . . . now I've read ten of them.

So. First part of the book had characters that annoyed me, but I pressed on. They grew on me, I got interested in the story, then about the 88% mark . . . I started to get bored. Which is confusing since stuff happened. Lots of stuff. Just . . . I somewhat lost my interest. For a moment or two. Ten horse competition picked up and excitement and interest returned.

A good solid book, despite my reluctance to try it, then my initial dislike of the characters. ( )