Reviewed by Donna
TITLE: Dark Horse
SERIES: Dark Horse #1
AUTHOR: Kate Sherwood
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 384 Pages
BLURB:
Dan thinks about just driving, leaving the whole mess behind. He’s got enough money. He could just arrange to get his stuff and his horse shipped to wherever he’s going. Taking off is what he used to do when things got to be too much, and it worked pretty well, really.
Dan Wheeler thought he’d found lasting love and stability with his life and work partner Justin Archer. But when Dan finds himself alone again, still working as a horse trainer for Justin’s parents, he has to find a way to accept that his perfect life is gone forever.
Then he meets billionaire Evan Kaminski, who arrives to buy a horse for his younger sister, and Evan’s lover Jeff Stevens, a horse trainer who seems to understand more than just Dan’s job. Struggling to deal with all the upheaval in his life, Dan finds himself drawn to both Evan’s mercurial passion and Jeff’s quiet wisdom. Is Dan strong enough to take a chance on new love, or would it be better—safer—for him to be alone?
REVIEW:
When the decision was made for the blog to post these “flashback” reviews each Friday, Dark Horse was the very first book that I added to my list. I don’t know that it was even a conscious decision or if it was just muscle memory causing my fingers to type the words. Ok, I don’t know why I said that, because now that I honestly give it some thought, I doubt I’ve actually typed the words that may times in my life. But when it comes to reading this series, well, if it was an Olympic sport I’m pretty sure I’d be a contender for the gold. In fact, I don’t know why I keep reading it when I’ve probably memorized most of the words by now. I’m not sure I actually need the book or if I could just lie back and remember my way through the whole story. And did I say story? I meant the whole series. But for the purpose of this review, I’m going to force myself to focus on just the first book, Dark Horse.
Dan Wheeler trains horses. He’s practically horse training royalty, although he’d shrug off any accolades and tell you he’s nothing special. Once upon a time he trained horses beside his boyfriend Justin. Justin was more than just a boyfriend. He was the love of Dan’s life, the man he planned to spend forever with, the man who saved Dan and gave him the courage to love. They had fought their battles and they were meant to be living their happily-ever-after. But then Justin fell off a horse and for the last year, Dan has been taking care of his beloved horses alone, while Justin remains alive only because of life support.
When Evan and Jeff first enter Dan’s life, they’re on the hunt for a horse for Evan’s sister, Tatiana. Evan is a billionaire businessman, despite the fact that he’s not yet thirty. He inherited the family money young, after his parents died in an accident, and he’s use to getting what he wants. Jeff is older, more level headed and often the voice of reason when Evan heads off on a mad-plot tangent. The two men have been lovers for years but are in an open relationship, which until now suited them both. But when Dan ends up working for Evan, and both men find themselves falling for him, they’re forced to stop and reevaluate what they have with each other, and whether there’s a place for Dan in their lives.
I know I’ve said this before, but I will crawl across hot coals for a good ménage. And, my friends, this is a good ménage. And for a couple of reasons. Firstly, there was no easy transition into a relationship of three. In fact, I hope you don’t consider it a spoiler to say, that it doesn’t happen until right at the end of the book. And even then, it’s more that they are only sleeping together rather than they’ve made a solid commitment to each other. But if you loathe that type of ending, never fear, you can slide yourself straight into the second book. I usually find it frustrating if the threesome forms too easily. Maybe I buy it if there’s a couple who add a third every now and again and get attached but despite Jeff and Evan’s open relationship, they’ve never done that before. Yes, they both sleep with other people (in the past, not during this book) but they’ve always kept that separate from what they have together. I loved that they were aware that they were risking their relationship to bring Dan into it. It wasn’t a couple adding a third, as Dan kept insisting. The author did such a brilliant job of conveying how scared Jeff and Evan were of losing everything because they knew that if it didn’t work they would never manage to become a “couple” again. And that’s not even beginning to discuss all the mixed up and messed up emotions that Dan was trying to sort through, considering he was still madly, forever-in-love with Justin and didn’t know if he actually wanted to move on.
Another reason this book is right up there with the best ménages I’ve read is I didn’t feel I’d rather two of the men end up together and just ditch the third guy. I tend to find that the more main characters that are added to the mix, there’s more chance I’m going to decide I really don’t like one of them. Or rather than dislike them, I just feel they aren’t needed to complete the relationship. That never happened with Dark Horse. And despite the fact that I felt a bit sorry for Evan at times, with Dan gravitating more towards Jeff, I still felt that he was essential to making the combination work. I think without Evan, Dan and Jeff could have been a little too boring. Or a bit easy, if anything to do with Dan could possibly be called easy. And I think because the whole story was from Dan’s point of view, I never felt too bad about Evan being a bit left behind at some points. I have a feeling if we’d gotten some of it from Evan’s perspective I might not have enjoyed it as much. I think that would have tipped the angst-o-meter a little to far towards high for my liking.
As well as the main characters there are some really well developed secondary characters who bring just as much to the story, I think, as our three MCs. Chris, who is Dan’s best friend, Ryan, who is Dan’s sort-of-might-be-maybe-boyfriend, and of course Justin who never does wake up, all have their own stories told in some of the freebies that accompany the three full length novel of this series. I should probably include the warning – don’t read Dan and Justin’s story (Sometimes You Just Know) before reading Dark Horse. I think it might be one of the saddest darned things I’ve ever read and if you don’t get at least a little teary reading it, there’s a good chance you may be missing your soul.
There is a whole lot of info about horses in here. Well, not information so much as there’s just a whole lot of horsey business going on throughout the whole story. You can absolutely tell that it’s a topic Kate Sherwood is passionate about but at no time did I feel like it was too much. I can’t say I’ve ever had much interest in horses. I’ve never ridden one and never want to, but these books made me love reading about them anyway. After reading this series I went looking for other books that had horse trainers for main characters but I don’t think I’ve ever found one that I found as interesting as these.
Considering I’m by no means the first person to rave about this series, I’m guessing that most people who haven’t read it yet fall into one of three categories. 1. – Maybe you don’t like ménages? Ok, I don’t know how to talk you out of that stance but if you ever decide to try a ménage, I recommend this one. It’s much more focused on developing the relationship than having hot, threesome sex. 2. – Maybe you have a crazy fear of horses and even reading about them gives you nightmares? I suggest therapy because you really don’t want to miss out on this series. 3. – Maybe it’s been sitting on you TBR list for years and you just haven’t gotten around to it? I suggest you prioritize and bump this baby straight to the top of that list and stop messing around! Then you too can join the legions of fans who rush to be the first to type DARK HORSE (yes, in caps lock) every time someone asks – can you recommend a good ménage?
RATING: 
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