I received a free digital copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Derby horse is the third book following July Carter as she weaves her way through horse racing, dressage dreams and boyfriend drama. In this book, July is starting her dream college at last with her horse Kali and hopes to become a dressage superstar team. She also is cementing her relationship with Beck even further as the two work on getting his horse to where he needs to be in the racing world.

It wasn’t much of a surprise to me that I really loved this book once I allowed myself to settle down and dive into the story. There’s something about July and everything she is going through and dealing with that always feels really authentic and real.

This book wasn’t so much of an emotional rollercoaster as the previous book but July still has a lot to get used to like her new college classes as well as her work in the racing stables (which honestly I’m amazed she was able to do everything because wow!) She’s also dealing with mom back in her life in more normal circumstances, and we’re seeing July and Martina still figuring out how they want the relationship to work out.

As always, I adore Beck and I think I finally figured out one of the reasons why I love him so much in this book - he reminds me of Peter K in Jenny Hans To All the boys I’ve Loved Before trilogy. He’s popular and very good-looking but he’s always honest, earnest and kind, and basically just completely lovable.

I love how July tackled wanting to lose her virginity in this book. She knew that it was something she wanted to do, and that in the moment it felt right. It was made obvious they used protection from the mention of the condom wrapper on the floor the next day, which is so important in any kind of YA novel. I love that she didn’t feel ay guilt or ‘brand new woman’ revelations afterwards. She had sex, she enjoyed it and that was that. LOVE.

Also a short note that I love that these books are set in New York but a completely different New York we normally see in media. It’s not all traffic packed streets and the only time we’re in the city is when July is visiting Beck.

I loved seeing more of July’s dressage lessons too. I’m not big into dressage and I’m more of a jumper, if I had a horse and could choose one obviously, so it’s interesting for me to see more of the dressage world and what kind of work and commands go into it.

One of the things I would love to see in this book is the mention of menstruation which probably sounds weird but I feel like in July’s story so far, we have seen her deal with lots of normal teenage, coming into adulthood stuff, from family drama, new love, sex, college decisions, etc and now I’d love to see her deal with her period as well as having to be on a horse all day because if anyone who has periods know, it’s pretty uncomfortable ton the back of a horse and I’d love to see how July deals with it, as well as that PMS and cramping - I think it would be some great representation.