📘 By the Horns by Ruby Dixon
|| @author.ruby.dixon
✨️ releases Sept 2✨️


Welp, she did done it again! Ruby Dixon’s world is wild, weird, and somehow still cozy. Honestly anything written by her is an auto-buy and goes into my comfort reads category for when I just need to escape the real world for a while. I laughed, I blushed, I wanted to live in it. The adventure was nonstop, the spice was chef’s kiss, and the emotional payoff? So worth it. By the Horns felt like a monster-sized hug… followed by a monster-sized wink. Gwenna and Raptor had me in my feels with their slow-building trust, fierce banter, and that kind of chemistry that sneaks up on you and wrecks you in the best way. I definitely CAN NOT WAIT for the audiobook for my re-read.

Thank you Netgalley for the amazing arc opportunity

By the Horns features Gwenna and Raptor. Gwenna and Raptor are both looking to start their training year as fledglings for different reasons, Raptor to find thieves and get back to his regular position and Gwenna so she never has to be a maid again. Before their training starts, they have a very spicy meet cute, leaving Gwenna hoping to never see Raptor again and Raptor determined to find Gwenna.

I really, really enjoyed this. The first book did a lot of the heavy lifting for world building (and while enjoyable) had me wanting more romance. This was the perfect mix for me. We had the world building perfectly set up in book one and book two was free to add layers and be more on the romance between Gwenna and Raptor and I LOVED that. I enjoyed their banter and Raptor’s flirting, I liked how much he tried to hold back, because of Sarya. The mystery was fun as well, I enjoyed Gwenna and Raptor working together to solve it.

Overall, a very fun book I flew through, by one of my fave authors!

I know when I need a romance with a non-human mmc, anything Ruby will scratch that itch.

BY THE HORNS picks up right where BULL MOON RISING left off and I was instantly sucked back in to the world of magical artifacts and Minotaurs.

Gwenna and Raptor had so much chemistry and there is spice pretty early on 😏

I loved that this one focused a little more on the mystery of a thief in the group. It was such a fun addition to the romance and knotting 🪢

You must pick this one up if you enjoy:

✨ monster romance
✨ hidden identity
✨ forced proximity
✨ he falls first

At this point y'all know I'll read anything that Ruby Dixon writes, and this book was no exception! The world she has created with this series is unique and nuanced, and I'm so here for more books set in this world. I didn't reread book 1, but I was able to jump into this sequel with no problem. I love how it starts, and seeing the relationship (and smut) develop was really fun. Lots of great side characters as well! And seeing Gwenna carve out a future for herself was so great and empowering!

Queer rep: FF secondary couple

Torn because we know I love Ruby. But this book was just mid for me. I know people who will love it, and I'll be able to recommend it to them. But there's just something about the romance in this series that falls short for me.

This was such a fun, spicy ride! I loved the wild, chaotic energy of the world. The chemistry was off the charts, but there was heart, too, and I really appreciated the emotional beats alongside all the heat. It’s weird, it’s wonderful, it’s everything I want in a Ruby Dixon book. Totally unhinged in the best way.

Ruby Dixon is the only author who could get me to read about a society of magical treasure seekers with bird names and minotaurs who are really hot for human women. I'm two books into this series now and I'm still not certain I like it. I'm also certain I'll read the next one.

Grateful that my gal Gwenna gets her own book!

While I enjoyed Bull Moon Rising, I LOVED by the Horns… I thought the couple made sense together, the mystery was well executed and the spice was turned up.

Ruby Dixon has done it again!

Picking up after Bull Moon Rising, Gwenna is stuck cleaning again. She's on track to repeat her fledgling year with the guild, ready to breeze through and become a full time member. Never mind the fact that she's the only woman, behind in her studies, not physically prepared for the trials and not to mention the fact that she can sense dead bodies. Aspeth, sorry, Sparrow, believes that the magic of the Everbelow brought out latent 'mancer magic in Gwenna. All she needs to get through the day is a distraction. She finds one in Raptor, a Taurian guild member, who happens to be in the right place at the right time to help her. Throw in some murder, mystery, forbidden romance as well as lots of onions, and By the Horns is a fun second trip to Vastwarren and the Royal Artifactual Guild.

3.75 ⭐️ I absolutely adore this monster romance series by Ruby Dixon! It has the perfect mixture of plot, intrigue, romance and spice! Gwenna and Raptor’s banter was amazing and the mystery surrounding who’s stealing from the guild kept me intrigued and enraptured the whole way through. I sincerely hope we get more books set in this world 🙏🏻 Please pick up any Ruby Dixon work if you’re looking for a fun, spicy, and engaging read!

Features
💜 Instalust
💜 Secret Identity
💜 Obsessed MMC
💜 HEA
🌶️ 3/5

Publishing 9/2/25

Thank you so much to Berkley Publishing Group, Ruby Dixon and NetGalley for providing me with this eARC in exchange for my honest review!

I read the 1st book in the Royal Artifactual Guild and was happy to see another installment published. The world is a cozy mix of favored video games elements and fantasy.

By the Horns focuses on Gwenna story and picks up not long after the end of the first book. Gwenna is now a repeater and must repeat fledgling training to become a guild member. She has challenges again this year when the dead call to her, someone is murdering fledglings, someone is stealing from the guild, and Gwenna is a suspect.

By the Horn is a faster burn than Bull Moon Rising with more spicy content, which is on par with Ruby Dixons other titles. Overall a fun read and again I was sad to leave the world of magical artifacts.

I really love Ruby Dixon's work, but I haven't been a huge fan of either Bull Moon rising or By the Horns. Something is just missing in this series; it feels a little undercooked. It's still an enjoyable read but I don't eat up like I do all of her other series.

Read This Book If…you’re craving a spicy romantasy…with sexy monsters!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
By the Horns by Ruby Dixon

Genre: monster romance
Series: Royal Artifactual Guild # 2
Spice Level: 5/5🌶, 5+ explicit scenes
Setting: fantasy world
POV: dual, 1st person, present tense
Tropes: secret identity, insta lust, knotting

My Thoughts:
I continue to really enjoy this fantasy series! The worldbuilding is interesting, even if the misogyny is rampant. I love that we see women continuing to persevere!

I was so excited for Gwenna’s story after seeing her care for Sparrow in the first book. Raptor is an interesting hero with plenty of experience. These two were so horny for each other and I was obsessed!!!

But there were so many secrets between these two. The emotional growth and trust took a lot of time to build, but it made for a lovely journey.

Thank you to the publisher for my advance copy!

BY THE HORNS is a bawdy tale with plenty of silliness and lots of magic. This sequel by Ruby Dixon follows BULL MOON RISING in the <i>Royal Artifactual Guild</i> erotic romantasy series. This book is fairly straightforward in letting the reader know what to expect. The minotaur hero and human heroine have sex in Chapter one, within about two minutes of being in a healing room together.

Gwenna is a former servant who is trying, once again, to pass the entrance course and become a fully qualified explorer for the Royal Artifactual Guild. There’s a few teensy problems, however! One- she’s a woman, trying to break into a man’s profession. Her best friend is the only woman who is currently a Guild member. Two- she’s getting distracted by the enormous (and enormously sexy) bull who is in her training group. Three- she can hear dead people! And that dangerous necromancer secret could get her killed. I really enjoy Gwenna’s gumption and big heart.

Raptor is a Taurian who has been demoted back to training level in order to embed him in the current training class, in hopes of discovering who has been stealing magical artifacts. Raptor grudgingly agrees to help the Guild uncover the thief, but he’s dismayed to think that it may be his fellow trainee Gwenna who has purloined the goods. Even though he’s desperately attracted to her, he can tell she is hiding something important. Raptor is definitely a himbo of the first order.

As with book one, I think my favorite character is a lizard, a slitherskin, named Kipp. He licks his eyeball when he’s nervous, and has a shell he can remove and store things in. The secondary characters are well done and bring a lot of life to this world. Readers looking for a lighthearted romp through magical tunnels and adjacent bedrooms will enjoy Dixon’s titillating BY THE HORNS.

The sequel to Bull Moon Rising did not disappoint. Gwenna returned to become her own heroine in this story, but the allure and instant attraction she has to the bull-headed (pun intended) Taurian, Raptor, is problematic and world shifting. This terrible flirt is dangerous for Gwenna's careful plans to hide her abilities and gain her own place. Caught in the middle of a steamy romance, a murder mystery, and forbidden magic haunting her steps, Gwenna is in for the ride of her life as she tries to earn her place in the Royal Artifactual Guild.

Can Raptor hold onto her long enough to save them both? Raptor and Gwenna are a hilariously good time together. Their quips and banter bring a lightness and humor to the darker plot points and keep the story moving. It is a pulse pounding race to the end, that has a nostalgic energy reminiscent of Romancing the Stone. Readers will not be able to put this one down!

First, thank you so so much to Ruby Dixon, Berkley, and Net Galley for the eARC. I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to read this in advance!

I am a huge Ruby Dixon fan and I absolutely ate this book up. Finished it in 24 hours. It was riveting and I needed to know what happened asap! This one read more like a mystery than the first book. However, both of them gave major Indiana Jones/The Mummy vibes (but spicier).

We got a little bit of Gwenna in book 1, but having her story told from her perspective was so different. While Aspeth (first book's FMC) is privileged as a holder's daughter, Gwenna is a raw working class gal. I loved being in her head and hearing what she thought of everything. Hearing how she could perform being a lady's maid/servant - like it truly was a show because it was 100% not what she truly felt/her trueself and also the things she had to put up with. I just adore her and her crass & sassy ways.

I also loved getting Raptor's POV - as you find out shortly into the book, he is "god touched" and you get to see the way it affects his life and behaviors.

Each of them feels like the underdog and you are rooting for both of them the whole book. They are perfect for one another. The amount of fear/insecurities in them both and how they truly help heal those insecurities in one another is so perfect & touching.

And of course this is Ruby Dixon - so we have to talk about how HOT their relationship is as well. While Hawk & Aspeth had a hot relationship in book 1, Aspeth was "innocent" and Hawk was almost fighting going into rut, until he couldn't anymore. In this book, both Raptor & Gwenna are experienced and both have high drives (especially with Raptor being god touched). With that being said, I felt there was more craving one another in this book and more spicy scenes because of that too. Truly in the best ways!

I loved getting more of this world. I do have more questions now and cannot wait for another book in the series. Sorry/Not sorry lol. Thank you so so much again! This book was perfection.

"In a world of magical artifacts and fantastical beings, a woman with a deadly magic secret needs the help of the minotaur she's trying to forget in the sizzling sequel to Ruby Dixon's New York Times bestseller Bull Moon Rising.

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?"

Oh, but what if her powers help find the real thief!?!

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC!

I haven't had the chance to read the first book in the series, Bull Moon Rising, so I was playing catch-up a little bit as far as getting to know the world. Even still, this was a GREAT read and I'll definitely be making my way through Ruby Dixon's other stories!

I love Ruby Dixon, she writes the most fanciful stories and By The Horns was a book I spent all night reading. It has magic, paranormal activity, and fantasy in spades. I love a grumpy hero and who is grumpier than a bull! LOL

This book felt so much like a repeat of the first book in the series that it was difficult to stay interested. And the whole book feels like it's leading up to this big moment that is actually, pretty anticlimactic.