GRR Reviews COLOR MY HORSE (Dangerous Odds Boo by Bev Pettersen

Color My Horse is a horse racetrack mystery romance that centered around one young woman and a horse trainer. I felt that there are not enough karma for the douchebags in this story, and the mystery was a little too drawn out and not quite enough tension to be a must-read. But it is nonetheless quite enjoyable.

To recap, Jessica was a skier and suffered a major injury to her knee. Grandpa wanted her to join the family business, but she refused, and insisted on doing something else, such as opening her own animal shelter. Grandpa relented with a condition: she needs to go to work as a stablehand at his racing horse's training facility, hoping she'll go crying home after a few weeks and settle down. However, Jessica is made of sterner stuff. The stable ran by trainer Mark had just suffered a death... Lefty had apparently drowned in the pond, but he was known as the town drunk and there's nothing suspicious. Mark did not want to babysit spoiled princess Jessica, but he had no choice after he had to fire stablehand Trisha the day before. Jessica learned to care for the gentlest horse, Buddy, and came to care a lot about the head trainer, Mark as well. Mark knew Jessica is off limits... she's his richest client's granddaughter, after all. But as she blossomed in the stable, strange things started happening around them. Who is the little brown-skinned kid that's picking pockets? Who is the Middle-Eastern guy trying to sabotage the horses? Why was Tricky Dick stabbed and his place tossed? Does the phone found by Jessica, presumably Lefty's, have anything to do with it?

The mystery was revealed layer by layer and the stakes raised higher and higher, until the very end with a great confrontation where the evil was thwarted in the nick of time. I don't feel one of the real douchebags in the book got enough karma and having a gesture made at the end was not, IMHO, sufficient penance, even though it is appreciated. All in all, ANOTHER enjoyable book from the author.

Category: Contemporary / Romantic Suspense

Primary Plot: Woman went to race horse stable for her own reasons, came to care for the horses and the trainer, stumbled into conspiracy... but of what?

Tropes: ranch (horse stable), conspiracy, different worlds, evil relatives, protector, woman in peril

Overall Rating:  4/5