Dawn Tarnauer is a 30-something, twice divorced employee at a doggie day-care. She has been in a string of bad relationships, the most recent with Paxton, a narcissistic DJ who hates dogs. Her mother is also a narcissist who flits around from one fad to another, her dad is a serial womanizer who perpetually needs a handout, and her sister is a wannabe life coach who used to date Scott Peterson. In short, her life is a mess. The only stability in her life has been dogs, so she talks to them. However, the big surprise is when they start talking back. After her boyfriend suddenly walks out, Dawn suddenly starts hearing the voice of her pitt-bull mix, Chuck, in her head. When Dawn goes to work at the day care, she notices that she can hear the voices of all of the dogs. Since she has had terrible taste in men, she decides to let Chuck start picking potential dates for her. Unfortunately, Chuck's criteria seldom aligns with Dawn's. Chuck picks out a butcher for her because, "he seemed humpy".
Overall, I liked this book. It wasn't really a page-turner, but it was an enjoyable, light read. Of course, as a dog trainer, I'm contractually obligated to like anything with dogs in it. I also just got out of a bad relationship, and am constantly surrounded by dogs, so I may have related to this a little too much. One thing that frustrated me was how long it took Dawn to realize her boyfriend was an asshole. As soon as a guy told me that either the dogs could sleep in the bed, or he could, I would send him packing. That's a dealbreaker ladies! I really enjoyed hearing the dog's perspectives on life and love - basically, chase the ball when you can and hump everything that will let you.
Cute book. 3 out of 5.
