Melody and her teenage daughter, Kristen, have moved to Colorado for a fresh start. She’s still not 100% where she wants to be in terms of her body yet but she is finally comfortable with herself and is living completely as a woman for the first time in her life. To thank Kristen for being so wonderful she promises her daughter riding lessons, something her little girl has always dreamed of.

While waiting for the lesson to start, she’s happy to see her daughter amidst the horses that she loves so much, but Melody does not expect the handsome man who sits down next to her—a man who proves to be Kristen’s instructor and idol—to be interested in taking Melody out on a date…

I don’t often have a chance to review LGBTQIA stories – not because of any personal beliefs (to me all good love stories are worth reading) but not all that many cross my desk – so I’m not very familiar with any quirks specific to the sub-genre.  I look for the same thing in all my books:  strong characters, an appealing story, and a HEA.  Horse Crazy does provide those, but since it is a novella it is in a more condensed form. 

I liked Melody and the chance to look at the issues a new trans face when stepping into the dating pool again.  It’s a hot spot in today’s society and although the story isn’t very long, I think like Ricci does a good job of hitting the important pieces.  I really felt like I could understand where she was coming from and the decisions she had to make.  Because it is a novella, we didn’t get a chance to really look into Derrick’s reaction and I really think I’d love more from his perspective – a chance to understand where his head is at, because there wasn’t a lot of conflict at the end. 

Even with just Melody’s perspective though, Horse Crazy was an intriguing read.  A sweet romance and even sweeter mother/daughter relationship, it’s a quick read and one that I couldn’t put down.