Tag: dog walking

REVIEW: You Lucky Dog by Julia London

REVIEW: You Lucky Dog by Julia London

Posted on by Jaymie

[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

REVIEW: Rules of the Ruff by Heidi Lang

REVIEW: Rules of the Ruff by Heidi Lang

Posted on by Jaymie

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

Summary

Jessie is spending the summer with her aunt and uncle and cousin “Ann-Marie.” Ann-Marie used to be just Ann and she was fun to hang out with back then. But when she became friends with Loralee, she wanted to be called Ann-Marie instead. She never sticks up for Jessie when Loralee is hateful, cruel or manipulative. Ann-Marie usually doesn’t pay attention to Jessie unless Loralee stands her up.

So Jessie decides to find her own summer fun by pestering her grumpy neighbor, Wes, to let her join his dog-walking business. Wes agrees to take Jessie along only if she learns the Rules of the Ruff – his rules for working with dogs.

Jessie learns a lot about the dogs – and about Wes – through their partnership. When a rival dog walker moves in on Wes’ business, Jessie is incensed. When she hears that the rival doesn’t even love the dogs like Wes does, that it’s just a job to her, Jessie decides to serve up a little vengeance and get Wes’ clients back. But things quickly turn ugly and the Rules of the Ruff might not be enough to set things right again.

Review

This was a cute story with characters that produced some strong emotions in me. Loralee is horrible. She’s a typical, hateful middle grade bully/mean girl, and she’s just awful. Monique, the rival dog walker, really ticked me off, too, with her cavalier attitude about putting Wes out of business. Max and Ann’s inability to stand up to Loralee at times was infuriating. The author did a great job developing characters that incited strong feelings.

I loved Jessie’s persistence and self-acceptance. She never tried to be something she wasn’t. And she makes some really selfless choices in the book that were both painful to read and also inspiring.

On one level, this is a dog story but even more than that it’s a relationship story.  Jessie’s relationships with each of the characters tell the reader so much about Jessie and about the people around her. The Rules of the Ruff come in handy with people, not just with dogs. Hand this to your favorite dog lover and be prepared for him or her to really connect with these characters, too.

Rating: ♥♥♥♥