Title: A New Leash on Love
Author: Debbie Burns
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Publication
Date: July
4, 2017
Blurb from
Goodreads:
When Craig Williams draws the short straw
and has to take his daughter’s adorable new puppy to a shelter after the
holidays, it’s just another painful episode in the fall-out of a miserable
divorce. He needs to pick up the pieces of his life, and, after a fiery
confrontation with Megan Anderson, the young woman running the shelter, he wants
to put the whole episode behind him. However, when he keeps finding new ways to
reconnect with her, he realizes Megan’s compassionate and caring nature just
might be the perfect salve for his broken heart.
Review:
There’s a lot of things I loved about A New Leash on Love and a few things
that made me sort of roll my eyes. Not
necessarily in a bad way, after all, it’s impossible to write a romance novel
without a few cliches, but I do
prefer to roll my eyes as little as possible while reading. I’ll let you make up your own mind.
A New Leash
on Love is
a contemporary romance novel filled with innocence and puppies. The passion in this novel burns light pink,
not red hot, so if you’re looking for something to make you blush and sweat
while you read this isn’t going to be the sort of novel for you. It’s the sort of book you wouldn’t think
twice about reading curled up next to your mom.
Sweet, and warm, and just a little bit frustrating. The perfect combo for a relaxing afternoon
read.
Craig and Megan meet with a whirlwind of
sparks. I love sparks. However, those sparks taper out into a soft
glow throughout the novel with a few attempts to relight, but never fully
reigniting. Some people love their books
explosive and other people don’t want something that makes their heart explode,
they just want something that will make their heart do a delightful pitter
patter. That’s this book.
These characters, and their stories, are
believable. Megan could be the girl at
the supermarket. Craig could be the guy
at the gym. I find something pleasing
about that. So many novels build
characters that are above and beyond the people we see every day that you start
wondering if these characters could even exist.
Debbie Burns’ story lets you know that they do.
Who could dislike a book with such a large
focus on animal welfare? If you’ve ever
owned a pet you’ll love Megan’s devotion to her animal shelter. Learning about all her adorable charges made
me want to go out and snatch up a couple more cats and some dogs to boot. If only my landlords allowed more than two
pets…
One of the portions of the book that had me
going ‘hmmm’ was that everything seemed to work out in the character’s
favor. Okay, not everything, but it’s like Ms. Burns couldn’t give us more than a
couple pages of suspense before she felt obligated to fix the problem. I personally prefer a little more “will it
work out?” in my books, but someone who doesn’t want their heart palpitating
dangerously will be the perfect candidate.
I, also, tend to have a problem with
characters meeting, falling in love, and living happily ever after in a short
time span. I either want my characters to have known each other previously or
for the passion to be that over the
top that they decide they have to be together forever or they’ll simply
die. I need to believe that they couldn’t find what they have anywhere else. Megan and Craig’s relationship was sweet, but
I don’t know that I’m believing it’s the end all-be all relationship that a
romance novel should have. It felt a
teeny bit rushed. Maybe I’m being picky
though because I have no qualms about someone jumping into bed with a stranger…
Who knows.
If the book sounds like something you might
enjoy you can pre-order it here, but as always consider supporting your local indie bookstore. Find your closest store here.
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