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 Royal Artifactual Guild 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 are 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.