By the Horns by Ruby Dixon [Review]

By the Horns (Royal Artifactual Guild #2) by Ruby Dixon
Format: ebook
Source: provided by NetGalley
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Date read: July 2, 2025

Royal Artifactual Guild
1. Bull Moon Rising
2. By the Horns - Hardcover | Kindle

Ruby Dixon
| Website | Amazon |

Synopsis (Goodreads):

Gwenna has always considered herself a normal person. A former servant, she wants nothing more than to land a steady job with the Royal Artifactual Guild so she can make some steady coin to send home to her mother. She's not special. She's certainly not a necromancer. That would be impossible, given how necromancing (or any 'mancing) is forbidden upon penalty of death. So if the dead keep talking to her? Well, she's going to keep on ignoring them. They're not going to stand in the way of her dreams.

Also standing in her way? One big, arrogant, far-too-flirty Taurian named Raptor. They slept together once, and now he wants more . . . but she doesn’t have time for that. Her focus is on being a fledgling, a trainee for the Royal Artifactual Guild. But Raptor won't go away. He's on a secret mission for the guild to find an artifact thief.

Problem is, he thinks the thief is Gwenna.

How can she convince Raptor that he's got the wrong girl when all the signs point to her? And how do you tell a Taurian you can't date him because you hear dead people and it might cost you your life?

Thoughts on By the Horns: We met Gwenna in Aspeth's book and she was one of the unfortunate members of Aspeth's Five who was made to be a Repeater if she wanted to attempt to become an artificer again. This is all thanks to a little case of thievery which, YES, Gwenna might have instigated, but she did it with good intentions. So now her Repeater time is coming to an end and Gwenna has to apply to see if she'll be accepted as a fledgling again.

Somehow she ends up joining forces with Raptor, the Taurian she maybe might have gotten a little physical with. He doesn't know she was the one that took him to the heights of ecstasy, though, so when she acts a little weird around him, he thinks the worst. Oh, plus she can hear the dead, so she also gets a little weird because of that. Because, you know, she doesn't want anyone (except Aspeth and her former Five members) knowing THAT about her.

Anywho. With Raptor on a secret infiltration mission to help figure out who's pilfering artifacts and Gwenna acting a little shifty whenever he's around, well, you can see how he might think she's the thief. But when someone starts targeting her, he has to consider that there's even more going on than they originally thought.

A little case of the dead trying desperately to communicate, some terribly trying times in the tunnels beneath the city, the hand of a god, an undercover mission, some betrayal, a male who is willing to do what needs to be done to help the Guild, and a lady who worries that her new found ability might end up getting her killed. MAN, I like this world and all the situations these fledglings get involved in.