Title: You Lucky Dog
Author: Julia London
Summary: Carly Kennedy’s life is in a spiral. She’s drowning in work, her divorced parents are going through their midlife crises, and her sister somehow convinced her to foster a depressed basset hound. When she discovers that the dog walker has accidentally switched out Baxter for a perkier, friendlier dog, she reaches the end of her leash. When Max Sheffington finds a depressed dog instead of his cheerful Hazel, he’s bewildered. But when cute, fiery Carly arrives on his doorstep, he’s intrigued—he was expecting the dog walker, not a pretty woman with firm ideas about dog discipline. With Baxter besotted by Hazel, Carly realizes she may have found the key to her puppy’s happiness… and she begins to understand the appeal of falling for your polar opposite.
Note: an eARC of this title was acquired via NetGalley.
You Lucky Dog was a combination of all of my favorite things—a contemporary romance featuring dogs, a meet cute, and a near-sighted professor—and yet it still fell flat. (If I had known going in that it was written by the same author as The Billionaire in Boots—a book I only read on assignment—I’m pretty sure I would have skipped it.) There were definitely parts of this book that were cute, but they were overshadowed by a predictable love story that ended up being kind of boring.
There’s nothing wrong with a solidly average romance where everything works out the way you want it to… where there’s narrative conflict but nothing too tragic… where dogs are involved because obviously they are the best…. but I wanted more. I even put off writing this review for weeks because I hoped I’d come up with something better than “eh”. (Which, lol, didn’t happen.)
So, instead, may I offer you three books I loved more than this one, and one book I can’t wait to read:
- Interested in a protagonist who works in social media? Try One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London
- Adore romantic meet-cutes? Would Like to Meet by Rachel Winters is chock-full of them
- Hot for teacher? Well Met by Jen DeLuca’s got you covered
- Need a four-footed friend with your romance? Crazy Stupid Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams is on my list!
thewasofshall.me 