Tag: dog show

REVIEW: The Pumpernickel-Daffodil by Galia Bernstein

REVIEW: The Pumpernickel-Daffodil by Galia Bernstein

Posted on by Jaymie

Summary

A dog with an impressive pedigree gets a human with whom to do dog shows. The human has a pretty impressive pedigree, too. But together they may make a path all their own.

Review

This was exactly as cute as I expected it to be. The illustrations are darling from start to finish.

I expected the main story – the puppy and the girl do their own thing which flies in the face of tradition. But I expected it to cause trouble in both families. Instead, this is a story of full acceptance. It’s very sweet!

Dog lovers should be sure to check this out. This would make a sweet read aloud, too.

Rating: ♥♥♥½*

*♥♥♥½ = Good +

 

REVIEW: Paw and Order by V. M. Burns

REVIEW: Paw and Order by V. M. Burns

Posted on by Jaymie

[I received an electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and Lyrical Underground in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]

Summary

Lilly Ann had convinced her bosses at the Chattanooga Museum to host the Eastern Tennessee Poodle Rescue Association’s fundraiser when their venue fell through. It would garner funds for the museum as well as goodwill as they helped out the charity.

Having wealthy recluse Archibald Lowry show up was a big surprise. Lilly Ann’s friend, Dixie, had been courting him as a donor for the Rescue, but no one expected him to show up for the fundraiser. It might have been better for him if he had stayed home, though. Before the event was over, Archibald Lowry was dead.

Now Lilly Ann is fostering Archibald’s poodle, and that seems to be bringing trouble to her doorstep. When someone repeatedly tries to steal the dog, and someone else ends up dead, Lilly Ann and her friends decide it’s time to kick off a new investigation.

Review

Other than the fact that this is a book about all manner of poodles, yet the dog on the cover is not a poodle, I have only great things to say about this mystery!

This is book 4 in the Dog Club Mystery series, but it’s the first one I have read. But I have already placed the first 3 books on my To Read list (along with the first book of the author’s other series – The Mystery Bookshop series – The Plot Is Murder!). This was so good, and I liked the characters so much, I don’t want to miss any of their adventures.

I prefer to start a series at the beginning, but I had no issues following the plot of this one. There are a number of core series characters in the Dog Club that I had to track carefully in the beginning since I had no context for them from the earlier books. But by the middle of this, it was no longer an issue. The author does a great job making sure readers can drop in wherever and still follow the story.

The mystery here is fantastic. I loved how Lilly and her friends banded together to investigate. The sleuthing was great, the pacing of the mystery was excellent, and the ending wrapped up most of my questions. This is a series I will definitely be following in the future!

Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥

REVIEW: Foul Play on Words by Becky Clark

REVIEW: Foul Play on Words by Becky Clark

Posted on by Jaymie

[I received an electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and Midnight Ink in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]

Summary

Charlee has traveled to Portland, Oregon to speak at the Stumptown Writer’s Conference run by her friend Viv. But when Viv shows up at the airport to  get Charlee, she announces her daughter Hanna has been kidnapped.

Viv says she can’t call the police or Hanna will be killed. And she refuses to cancel the conference. She wants Charlee to help her save Hanna. But Charlee knows she’d be way out of her league on that. So Viv drops Charlee at the conference hotel where Charlee says she’ll help with the conference. Then Viv races off, leaving Charlee to muddle through on her own because, “oh, by the way,” all the volunteers have food poisoning.

Food poisoning isn’t the only issue with the conference. The hotel is doubled booked with a dog show. The registration site is glitching and over charging people thousands of dollars. Charlee’s “tech support” is a guy who knows how to use a spreadsheet and is proud of his 12 friends on Facebook. The three volunteers she has seem unfamiliar with what might need to be finished to kick off the conference. Oh – and the hotel chef has been fired.

Charlee has her hands full with the conference itself, but she can’t help picking up clues about what might have happened to Hanna. Soon, she agrees to help Viv find her daughter. But the clues won’t be easy to sift through.

Review

I have mixed feelings on this one. On the positive side, I loved the writer’s conference pieces. Charlee gets thrown into some new territory due to the countless disasters with the conference. I loved how she handled them. And I really like Charlee as a protagonist. I’ve read both books in this series so far, and she’s great. I enjoy her voice and her general attitude toward the various situations she finds herself in.

The disasters at the writer’s conference were pushing the boundaries of reasonable for me. It felt like too much – I didn’t even list them all in my summary.  I had a hard time believing that Viv would dump everything on a conference guest knowing ALL of her usual volunteers were sick, and then disappear. It feels more likely that she would show up but be distracted. Maybe throw herself into conference things and become a drill sergeant and at other times be in a distracted stupor. There were ways to have her there and have the kidnapping impact her. Her total disappearance felt odd to me. I had a similar feeling  – it was all TOO much – in the first book. This may just be the author’s personal style – pile on the problems to the point of overwhelm.

The mystery seemed to be whether there even was a mystery for most of the book. Was Hanna really kidnapped or was she hiding or in rehab or trying to fleece her mom for money? And at times, Charlee seemed to forget herself and her uncertainty and lack of solid evidence. Her behavior in those moments undercut some of the strengths I like about the character.

I will probably stick with the series to see how the style continues to develop with a third book.

Rating: ♥♥♥½