In Belle Rive, talent is admired right up until it threatens the wrong people.

Liza Bennet has fought for every inch of ground she’s won in the dressage world. At Briar Glen Stables, nothing is inherited, nothing is polished for show, and every ribbon has to be earned the hard way. So when her brilliant ride turns heads at an elite competition, Liza should be celebrating. Instead, one cutting remark from the cold, impossibly controlled Fitz Darcy turns her triumph into humiliation. He sees her as raw talent without proper refinement. She sees him as everything rotten about old money, old power, and a sport that mistakes pedigree for worth.

Fitz Darcy knows horses, precision, and discipline. He does not know what to do with a rider who breaks all his rules and still manages to haunt his thoughts. Liza’s feel for a horse is undeniable. Her defiance is even harder to ignore. But in Belle Rive, attraction is dangerous, class divisions run deep, and every social slight lands like a public challenge. When Jane Bennet and Chip Bingley begin drawing their families together, Liza and Fitz are forced into closer quarters—and their mutual contempt starts to look alarmingly like chemistry.

Half Halts and Hostilities is a sharp, romantic Jane Austen adaptation set in the high-stakes world of dressage—full of wit, tension, class warfare, and slow-burning desire. Step into the ring and see who yields first.