Review: Half Pass by Astrid Amara

This review can also be found at Three Dollar Bill Reviews.

I love Astrid Amara’s books and so jumped at the chance to review this latest book of hers. Whilst it wasn’t one of her best books for me, I still rather enjoyed it.

The story follows reluctant stable owner Paul, who has inherited his stable business from his aunt. He’s struggling a little because running a stable is a far cry from the safe accountancy office job he used to have. However, he’s trying his best to keep things ticking over whilst he waits for a buyer to take the stables off his hands. Things are further complicated by his jealous cousin who thinks he should have inherited the business, by homophobic townsfolk and then by the disappearance of a Olympic medal winning horse. Paul also has to contend with an attraction to star trainer Estevan, who is contently throwing Paul mixed messages and seems to be hiding something.

Those readers who love anything to do with horses are going to really enjoy this book which lovingly describes the joys and frustrations of owning horses. I’m not a huge horse fan and so whilst I found it interesting to learn all about their upkeep, the ins and outs of running a stable and the various personalities of the horses, I wasn’t particularly captivated by this part of the book. As much of the book is on this subject this meant that, although it was fun to read about these things from Paul’s point of view, much of the book was merely interesting from an intellectual point of view rather than engaging my emotions. As I said, if horses are your thing, then you’ll probably find this one of the best parts of the book as the reader is taken through Paul’s day to day running of the stables and the difficulties he faces due to his fear of horses.

One of the best parts of the book for me was the character of Paul. I liked him and sympathised with his problems. He’s a bit of a whinger at first, but as the book progresses, he begins to appreciate his life at the stables more and as such his narration becomes more upbeat. He’s thrown into a situation not of his choosing and manages to conduct himself with a certain amount of dignity even when everything seems against him and the problems are piling up. His reluctant love of horses was cleverly shown and I wanted him to succeed – showing that the author had managed to get me to care about him.

The romance aspect relies heavily on the reader forgiving Estevan for being a bit of a prick. I never really warmed to him as a character, nor did I think he was good enough for Paul. He messes him about, leaves mixed messages and is as skittish as a horse (if you’ll forgive the analogy). I could see why Paul was attracted to his good looks and arrogant personality, but I never felt the spark or really believed there was any sexual tension between them. It felt flat to me and as such the romance was a bit of a dud. Whether this was because I just didn’t really like Estevan or because of some failure in the writing, I don’t know. All I do know is that emotion-wise the book didn’t work for me and that reflected in my feelings towards the romance.

There were other things that did work, including the rather clever mystery plot and the way that Paul manages to overcome all the obstacles thrown at him during the book. The secondary characters add to the story and are a nice mix of personalities.

 Overall, I would class this as a decent read, a good story but lacking a little in the romance. I would still recommend it though to those readers who love horses or those interested in reading a character based mystery story.  Grade: Good.

Buy this book HERE.