Ami's Hoard

3.5 stars

Astrid Amara is one of my favorite authors -- when it comes to her contemporary anyway, or paranormal contemporary -- so when Susan wrote a review for this one, I realized that it was one contemporary story of hers that I had not read!! And it was released 3 years ago. So of course I had to correct that mistake!

This the journey of Paul King, who returned to his hometown Lynden, Washington, to oversee the stable he inherited from his aunt. In the beginning, Paul was dead set of hating the life of the stables, he felt miserable, he didn't want to be back on the town that was not supportive to his being gay. He wanted to sell the stable but Paul felt that he owed it to his aunt that he kept the stable going before it was being sold. Then of course as the story moved along, Paul found friendship and his heart went to both the horses and later, to Estevan, the esteemed Brazilian trainer working at Serenity Stables.

For the most part, this was an enjoyable story. I did think that the stable life was fascinating, even at few times, too many details on the horses :). I wasn't really sold on Estevan at first though ... I mean, I liked Paul just fine, but Estevan's hot and cold act (he was not out of the closet) was grating on my nerves. 

The relationship was slowly build but when they finally worked it out, I thought Estevan's willingness to finally come out and not denying his liking men as a little too quick. Oh, and the ending also felt rather quickly wrapped up. I felt that I needed more to cement my believing that Paul and Estevan would be okay together.

The mystery was a nice touch -- there was no dead (person) body, but there was a missing horse and an attempt to harm Paul. I thought the resolution about who took the horse was good and the motive as reasonable.

Uhm, by the way, does anyone can explain to me what the "Half Pass" in the title referring to??! Because I can't work that one out!