Review: The Horse Mistress (The Eburosi Chronicles Book 1) by R A Steffan

The Horse Mistress: Book 1 by R.A. Steffan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Fantasy Ménage

This was a recommendation from the fabulous Reverse Harem group on Facebook that I’m a member of. The recommendation was made when someone wanted RH with MM involvement. This is technically a Ménage rather than a RH with only three people involved. It’s really interesting as the main character is non-binary gender. Born as a female Carivel works as assistant to the horse master of her village whilst dressed and acting as male. This is her preference but it is also a necessity because women are forbidden from working with horses in her culture. Horses are Carivel’s great love and passion and she so desperately wanted to work with them, to the extent she changed her identity. Women also have very narrowly defined roles that she rebelled against. (Note - I refer to Carivel as 'she' because when asked how she wanted to be called by Andoc that was the gender pronoun she requested. I am well aware that other genderqueer people have different preferences for pronoun usage and would always check with them for their preference where possible)

Carivel gained experience in working with horses after she left her home village and wandered the wilderness for many weeks observing the wild herds of horses. Her natural observational skills and love of horses led her to her position of responsibility in her new village, as assistant to the Horse Master. Though she finds satisfaction in her work, she is lonely. She lusts after one of the warriors Andoc and a eunuch priest Senovo, who seem to be lovers, but who are not treated as a couple.

When their village is attacked, Carivel, Andoc and Senovo are thrust together as they help to put the village back together and are sent to build new alliances, with a nearby village.

This book is very well written and handles the subject of gender identity and sexuality, and the differences between the two, extremely well. There is acceptance between the trio, even if they do not expect to get it elsewhere. I also thought the subject of Sendovo’s castration was handled extremely sensitively and the author had obviously done lots of research on how a eunuch would gain satisfaction from a sexual relationship.

The plot isn’t overly complicated as most of the careful work of the author is put into the characters and their identities. However, this is the first book in a series and as such I believe the rest of the series will be more plot heavy. Establishing the trio’s relationship is the most important thing in this book, and that provided plenty of enjoyment and interest for me. I really look forward to seeing where it goes from here as the set up for the coming plot looks very interesting.

This first book in the series is free
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