I was told not to review it because they wanted to give the author and publisher a chance to fix it. Since I see reviews been posted I’m assuming it’s find to review

I’m just going to say I read it and like the premise of the story and I like that Sam trains animals for movies and how she bonds with the horse Alyssa recuses and Alyssa who dealing with a lot steps up to try help her mother who heartbroken Sam best friend Manz is a bit much but I like that she has Sam back. Yes this book does need to be tightened up but I’m going to congratulate the author for getting her book published and look forward to her next book

I received an ARC copy of this book from the Publisher via Netgalley and voluntarily leaving my review.

I was told not to review or read this book because they were making some changes in this book. I never heard back, so that's why I hadn't reviewed this book yet

Sam Monroe seeks the comfort of family and friends after her relationship ends in dramatic fashion. She takes time away from training movie animals and heads to heal her heart in Northern California at her best friend’s home.

Alyssa Johansson is dealing with a lot right now. Since the recent passing of her father, she has taken over running the family ranch. Additionally, Alyssa is the caregiver to her mother who is inconsolable from losing the love of her life. Add in a horse she rescued who is traumatized and Alyssa jumped at the opportunity to have Sam work with the horse.

This is Nicole Gustafson’s debut novel and I admire her tenacity in making a dream of hers come true. There is so much hard work that goes into writing a novel that we, the reader, sometimes forget to honour the process as we take a few hours to read her novel.

Training Horses and Hearts is a bumpy ride of a novel. The end of the story needs to be tighter as major questions are left unanswered. Is Sam going to build her therapeutic ranch? What happens in the court case as Sam is going up against ruthless defence lawyers? Did the sale of Sam’s house go through or did the ex pull something devious as was hinted?

Sam’s best friend, Manz has a harsh personality but always has Sam’s back. As the story went along I became used to Manz. There is the issue of instant love and I am positive with more experience, Gustafson will learn how to balance the complete story without rushing the I love yous.

I enjoyed the pacing and action in the last two thirds of the novel as the storyline is interesting. This novel has really good bones and I am intrigued to see what is next from the author.

I received a free advance review copy from Bella Books through NetGalley. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

DNF at 60%. I was actually not going to read or review this book, but there is a bit of a backstory, so will start there. After receiving an ARC I got a request from the publisher to not review this book as it would be re-written. I put the book aside to provide the author and publisher the possibility to rework the book. Imagine my surprise when I noticed a few days later that this book is now for sale. Since it is being sold, I decided to review it after all. I’ll put in a disclaimer that I read the ARC and do not know if any changes were made in the days between ARC release and general release. Clearly, with this backstory I can’t say I started reading this book with a completely neutral view, but I tried to be as objective as possible and this review concerns general points only.

I hardly ever DNF a book, especially not an ARC, but sadly I couldn’t continue reading this. There are some nice ideas underlying the storyline of this book, but the execution was lacking. I look for three things in a book; 1) a well-structured believable storyline, 2) interesting characters with sufficient character development and 3) quality of writing. In my opinion this book had issues on all three points.

As mentioned, the storyline has interesting aspects but in general I found it rushed and because of that it was flat. Every single situation (and some were very serious due to emotional trauma) was effortlessly “fixed” in a day by our talented MC, which was absolutely unbelievable. Also, the romance went from 0 to 100 in a matter of days, which is something, considering that one of the mains is heartbroken. Her relationship stranded because of a cheating ex, which happened only hours before meeting the new love interest. Tears were quickly replaced with lust resulting in a new girlfriend in a matter of days (and this happened already in the 60% I read).

The book is written in third person and each chapter is written from the POV of one of the mains. Again, the MCs have a backstory that could make them very interesting, but for me they lacked depth and I was missing general character development. I also had trouble distinguishing between their voices and often had to check in which POV I was, which is weird because they are very different people. The ages of the MCs are not given, but in general their speech was immature and so were their actions at times. The most grating person was the best friend of one of the MCs. She was unbelievably juvenile and obnoxious, and plain rude. I think it may have been supposed to be funny banter but it wasn’t by a long shot (at least not for me).

The writing was inconsistent and repetitive and the book could also use a round of sensitivity reading. I’m generally not the best person to spot all sensitivity points, but this book had several issues that were very obvious.

I hate writing bad reviews, especially when it concerns a debut book, but I wish the publisher and the author had stuck to their decision to rewrite this book.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Ummm, this is hard to review because there’s not a lot of positives here. Sam finds her gf cheating and retreats to her BFF/adoptive sister. The scene in the airport with Jim is disturbing. I get that the author wants to put the character in a good light but surely there’s a better way to do it. She then gets to this ranch where me meet Manz and Jen. Manz is…a lot. There’s occasional ribbing between friends but this character is too much. So Sam is 5 hours or so after finding her fiancé with another man in their bedroom and Manz is automatically trying to fix her up with their neighbour. Which happens the next day or so. But it’s all fine because Sam fixes Alyssa’s horse, heart and depressed mum in one day. And this up to half the book. The rest is in the same note. I think this can be re-written to be quite a good book but this iteration needs to go back to the editor.

his was bloody ridiculous.

If you're into over the top cliche drama and a seriously obnoxious side character, that calls everyone "bitch" all the time, while acting like an immature tween - you might like it.

Overall this was cringe-worthy and embarrassing to read. It was like reading a lifetime style film. MC Sam comes home early, and finds her girlfriend of 5 years / fiancée being f!cked by a man in their home and bed. In shock and hurt she leaves town and state, off to her besties place. Her bestie is the most off-putting, ridiculous person I've ever had the displeasure of reading. She wasn't funny, she was just rude and obscene. Everyone other word out her mouth is "bitch" and "whore" and making sex jokes like an edgy teen.

Just how old are these women supposed to be? It's never stated, there are a few plotholes in the backstory, too.

Immediately Sam is set up with the cute horse-girl from the next ranch, and they are attracted to one another from the get-go, kissing the very next day. Sam takes no time to move on from her previous relationship that literally ended the day before in a shock to her system, and they are getting it on in no time, too. Just WTF?

Love interest Alyssa has a bit of a sob-story about her, with her dad dying and her mother living as a shadow of herself in her own grief, while Alyssa is a little lost with her first relationship to a woman, and had some past trauma, and dealing with a sad new horse addition she can't connect with. Sam is of course perfect, able to get through to mother, daughter and the broken horse in minutes, without putting much work in.

The MC's are nothing but sexually charged for eachother and nothing really deep and meaningful seems to occur. I did like the moments with the horse therapy and the attempts at creating connection and dealing with grief and trauma - but it was so lazily done, rushed over, and 'completed' in hours, there was just no depth here.

There's a lot of soap opera drama, with exes on both sides, abusive assholes who meddle and cause distrust for the couple. The end especially is seriously fucking irritating in its stupidity and black moment, where a character gets 'injured' and the other character just assumes that they have left them. Because they don't hear from them in 3 days, and it takes that long for the LOUD MOUTH meddling bestie to call them about this fact???? UM NO!!! At least be consistent with your characterizations!

Just freaking stop it with the forced drama bullshit. It's embarrassing that this was greenlit for publication by Bella Books. Just what the heck is going on with the quality of lesfic publishing lately???

You're actively insulting your audience, and that's basically how I feel.

I felt like this had lots of potential but wasn’t for me. I found the constant use of swear words was a bit unnecessary and made the writing feel quite jarring, The characters were ok, maybe a bit flat and the storyline was a bit obvious. Easy read though.