[I received an electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and Berkley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]
Summary
Carly Kennedy is trying to build a PR business in Austin so she can get the money to move to New York City. She’s keeping her sister’s basset hound, Baxter (her mother’s fault – don’t ask), and she pays someone to walk him. Baxter is a quiet, sad, and anxious fella but Carly loves him.
Max Sheffington is a neuroscience professor studying dogs. He’s interested in how the reactions of neurotransmitters in dogs and dog lovers could be applied to the understanding of the autistic brain. Max’s brother, Jamie, is profoundly autistic. But Jamie really connects with dogs. That’s why Max got his basset hound, Hazel – to connect with Jamie.
When Baxter and Hazel’s dog walker gets into some trouble, someone else has to take the dogs home. And that person switches the two basset hounds. Carly and Max notice immediately that they have the wrong dogs, but it takes awhile to find each other. But once they do, they see what a difference Hazel makes in Baxter’s life.
Review
The core to this contemporary romance by Julia London is the relationship between Baxter and Hazel and the one between Max and Carly. And there’s a lot in those relationships to love. Unfortunately for Carly and Max, their relationship also has about three Hallmark movies’-worth of roadblocks and drama. The ending, thankfully, is a satisfying resolution to those roadblocks.
Along the way, though, this gets wordy. I’m not big on setting and wardrobe descriptions. I skim right by those in most books if they are more than a sentence or two long. Also, too much overthinking by the characters encourages me to skim. There was a good bit of that here. I felt like I did a fair amount of skimming, especially early on. If you enjoy the more detailed descriptions and inner processing, this may be a better fit for you in that way.
The characters in this were what kept me turning pages. First of all, Baxter and Hazel are excellent. The description of Baxter before he meets Hazel is endearing and sad. But the spark he finds in Hazel is darling. Carly and Max alone are okay on their own. She puts up with a lot of garbage from her wacky family and her clients. Max can get too in his own head. But together they are great. I liked them more as a couple than I did as individuals. I also loved Max’s brother, Jamie. I would have enjoyed even more scenes with Jamie in them. I think character-driven readers will like what they find in this book. (Language, sex)
Rating: ♥♥♥*
*♥♥♥= Fine/Solid/Good