Pets of Park Avenue

A fun, endearing rom-com about how an estranged couples’ dog reunites them, forcing them to reconcile their feelings for each other. 

Stefanie London delivers a hearty helping of dogs and romance in her endearing second novel, Pets of Park Avenue.

Scout Myers, a 26-year-old New Yorker, works for a premiere pet social media and talent agency run by her successful best friend, Isla, the winning protagonist from the first book in the Paws in the City series, The Dachshund Wears Prada. When Scout is tasked with doing a makeover of a socially connected Bichon Frise for a photoshoot, things accidentally go awry—the dog’s cottony-white coat is suddenly transformed into hot pink. Scout, in a bind, is left no choice but to ask her ex, Lane, if she can borrow his Bichon--Twinkle Stardust, “Star”--a well-behaved near lookalike to serve as a stand-in. Lane and Scout had a whirlwind romance and marriage that flopped five years before. The two never officially divorced. What starts as a one-shot-deal to borrow “Star,” soon reunites the former lovers. Lane--a Big Tech genius who runs a multi-million-dollar company--still has a soft spot for Scout, who left him after only one month of marriage because she felt she could not measure up to him and his ideals. Lovable “Star” serves as a bridge in this smart, sexy rom-com that unravels the couples’ challenging personal pasts and explains why things soured between them. Can they make amends?

 

London’s likeable characters resonate with hidden depths as she mines their hearts to deliver a fun, revealing story that will have readers rooting wholeheartedly for love--and dogs--to conquer all.

 

Pets of Park Avenue: Paws in the City (Book 2) by Stefanie London

HQN: Original Edition, $15.99 paperback, 366 pages, 9781335498199

Publishing Date: December 6, 2022

To order this book on INDIEBOUND link HERE

 

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (January 20, 2023), link HERE

 

It Started With a Dog

In the second installment of a cheerful romcom series, love percolates amidst the competition of two Austin, Texas coffee shops.

Julia London’s second installment of her cheerful romcom series is set in Austin, Tx., during the Christmas season. She cleverly brings together two 30something dog lovers with personalities and agendas as different as caffeinated versus decaffeinated coffee.

 

Aeronautical Engineer, Jonah Rogers, leaves his job to help out at the ‘Lucky Star,’ a charmingly humble--however lagging--coffee shop run by his parents, his aunt and uncle. With his father ill, Jonah--reliable and devoted, sacrificing and loyal--steps in to assist the long-standing family business that offers no frills, old-school coffee and desserts. Matters are complicated when he accidentally swaps his phone with Chicagoan, Harper Thompson, in town to launch ‘Deja Brew’—a trendy, two-story coffee house accented with gleaming chrome coffee makers, which serves upscale coffee and vegan food choices. The driven, only-child overachiever is up for a promotion riding on the success of ‘Deja Brew.’ However, can she contend with ‘Lucky Star,’ a local fixture in town, and a ‘Starbucks’ situated in the very same neighborhood?

 

Along the way, Jonah and Harper and their swapped phones lead them to romance as they discover they are business rivals. The ante is upped when a local dog competition, “King Mutt,” pits the couple--the lovable three-legged Dachshund mascot of ‘Lucky Star’ versus Harper’s mean old bulldog--against each other, as well.

 

A perfect blend of coffee, dogs and romance permeates London’s (You Lucky Dog, Charmer in Chaps) frothy romcom that will leave readers thirsty for a third helping in this sweet, enjoyable series.

 

It Started with a Dog (Book 2: Lucky Dog series) by Julia London

Berkley (Penguin Books), $16.00 paperback, 9780593100400, 320 pages

Publication Date: September 28, 2021

To order this book on INDIEBOUND, link HERE

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (October 2, 2021), link HERE

The Dog that Saved Stewart Coolidge

Novelist Jim Kraus has been steadily building a brand writing heartwarming stories that explore the impact domestic animals have on the human experience—and vice-versa. In The Dog that Saved Stewart Coolidge, he crafts a story about twentysomethings struggling to carve out their own niches in the world and how a stray dog brings them together.

The book opens when a loose dog sneaks into the Tops Super Market in the small town of Wellsboro, Pa., and successfully steals a rawhide bone from the pet aisle. When the bone-wielding bandit starts returning regularly to the scene of the crime to make additional heists, Stewart Coolidge, a recent college graduate who can't find a job and works as a grocery store bagger, is enlisted by the store owner to catch the elusive thief. The recurring incidents soon become the talk of the town. Whose dog is it and where did he come from? When a local (and conniving) used car dealer decides to capitalize on the situation--and offers a reward for the dog, which he falsely claims is his own--Stewart, in his quest to wrangle up the stray, joins forces with Lisa, his neighbor, also a recent college grad with journalism ambitions, who works at the local coffee house.

While Stewart tries to capture the renegade dog, Lisa begins to cover the story for the town news. In their pursuit, the two become friends. But will their past heartbreaks and disappointments in life and love keep them from being honest with each other and prevent their friendship from blossoming into romance?

When the vagabond canine criminal, whom Lisa and Stewart come to call Hubert (named after The Patron Saint of Dogs), eventually shows up at the apartment house where Lisa and Stewart live--and Stewart decides to secretly take Hubert in--the dog's presence and his mischievous actions deepen the couple's relationship and things grow even more complicated around town. What repercussions will occur in harboring a four-legged fugitive?

Details of small town life ring with authenticity, along with the stresses young people face in meeting the expectations of others and finding and taking their places in the world while remaining true to themselves. Kraus (The Dog that Talked to God) presents a lovable cast of townsfolk and a suspenseful plot that is ultimately infused with a faith-based message that unites the spiritual themes of this wholesome, feel-good story.  

The Dog that Saved Stewart Coolidge by Jim Kraus

FaithWords, $14.99 Paperback, 9781455562541, 336 pp

Publication Date: October 27, 2015

To order this book via INDIEBOUND link HERE

Almost Perfect

Is it ever too late to dream? Author Diane Daniels Manning explores the implications in Almost Perfect, a touching novel about an older woman who feels her time has passed and a 14 year-old boy, with mild autism, whose dogged determination demonstrates how one is never too old—or limited—to continue to have goals and aspirations. 

The story begins as Elizabeth "Bess" Rutledge has all but given up her livelihood, serving as one of America's top breeders of Standard Poodles, and her dreams of someday winning Westminster, the premiere dog show in all the world. Bess closes up her once-famous kennel, "Umpawaug," located in rural Connecticut and keeps only two dogs: McCreery, one of her aging champions, and his rambunctious, handsome son, Breaker.

At the same time, Benny, a lonely boy who lives nearby—unhappily, with his neglectful father and stepmother and a distant mother whose affection Benny fervently craves—longs to have a dog to keep him company. When the boy with "curly, reddish hair and baby smooth cheeks" accidentally discovers Umpawaug Kennel and meets and falls in love with McCreery and Breaker, his desire to have a dog grows even stronger. His father remains adamant against the prospect. But when Benny learns of Bess's history with dog shows, he decides that if he can learn to become a dog handler and ultimately show Bess's champions at Westminster, he might finally win the attention of his self-centered mother.

Set-in-her-ways, headstrong Bess initially resists Benny's proposition. But with Benny's relentless prodding and determination—along with the encouraging support of Bess's sister, son and a counselor from the special school Benny attends—Bess softens and an unlikely partnership-mentorship forms. 

Can these two, vastly different people help each other fulfill their respective dreams? Can Bess really put her faith in Benny? Is he capable of becoming a dog handler and facing the stresses of learning how to show Bess's beloved poodles?   

Diane Daniels Manning has crafted a sensitive, hope-filled story about a friendship that slowly blooms in and out of dog show arenas, while also offering a behind-the-scenes glimpse inside the suspenseful world of show-dog competition. McCreery and Breaker may be at the heart of this moving novel, but they also serve the larger theme of how dogs and canine companions often bring unlikely people together, forming life-changing bonds that can resurrect and heal the human spirit.

Almost Perfect (a novel) by Diane Daniels Manning

Beltor,  $9.99 paperback, 9780578136394 , 342 pp

Publication Date: January 29, 2014

To order this book via AMAZON link HERE

Note: Up to 100% of the author's profits will be donated to charities serving animals and children. Visit the author's website (www.diandanielsmanning.com) to learn more

Furry, Four-Legged Narrators in Fiction

In multiple genres, dogs and cats have emerged as credible, likable narrators:

In Love Saves the Day, a novel by Gwen Cooper, a smart, tabby named Prudence tells the story of her owner, Sarah, who has gone missing. Prudence is forced to relocate to the home of Sarah's lawyer daughter and her unemployed husband. Will the feline-averse couple in marital crisis ever accept the love of this abandoned kitty?

Two cats living in modern-day Beijing narrate Pallavi Aiyar's imaginative novel Chinese Whiskers. Soyabean is a male kitten living in a multi-generational middle-class household, while Tofu, a female kitten, roams the streets, roughing it. How the two cats come to live together is only part of the story, a suspenseful morality tale about the values of "Old China" versus "New China."

Chet, a dog who flunked out of K-9 School, offers a clever point of view as the sidekick to down-on-his-luck private investigator Bernie Little. The two "babysit" a Hollywood heartthrob, a bad boy with secrets, who is filming a blockbuster movie in a sleepy little town in A Fistful of Collars, the fifth installment in Spencer Quinn's humorous Chet and Bernie mystery series.

Children and young adults can experience the perspective of Enzo, a lovable, observant lab-terrier mix in Racing in the Rain: My Life as a Dog, the adaptation of Garth Stein's adult novel The Art of Racing in the Rain. This tender-

hearted story teaches valuable lessons about friendship and the choices we make for our lives. Its message speaks to readers of any age.

So whether you're a cat or dog person, enjoy reading general fiction, mysteries or YA/crossover lit, take your pick. Animals, in the hands of the right authors, have become great storytellers. 

Note: This article is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this piece as published on Shelf Awareness for Readers (3/15/13), link HERE