This month the BlogHer Book Club is reading Love At First Bark by Julie Klam. I have to admit, of all of the books we’ve read for book club I thought I’d relate to this one the least. I mean, it’s not that I don’t love puppies. I totally do. Have you seen how cute my dog Lucy is? I’m definitely no Chandler Bing.
I just don’t read a lot of animal literature. The last book I read about a dog was Marley and Me and that pretty much ruined me on dog books, thank you very much. But the pup on the cover of Love At First Bark was super cute and I’m a sucker for cuteness. Plus, I’m trying to branch out from chick lit and Amish fiction, so you know, there’s that.
By the middle of the first chapter, I paused to double check the publishing date and see if I could adopt Morris. Morris is a dog by the way. I love him. I mean, there isn’t even a picture of him and he doesn’t do anything remotely interesting but still. I love him. Which I think is due to Klam’s writing. She’s witty and I adore witty. But more than that, she’s so passionate that it made me emotional. I also adore unexpected emotion.
If there are any negatives about the book I’d say the last chapter felt really long and bit drawn out. The first portion of the book flowed really well from one story to the next. The latter part of the book was bogged down with transcripts of emails from various animal rescue facilities. I find that unless I’m uncovering a juicy scandal or discovering what my husband bought me for Christmas, reading other people’s email is boring.
Overall? It’s a quick read with sweet stories. My copy has a post-it note on the front reminding me to pass it on to my friend Stacey, who I know will love it.
(I received a proof copy of this book + compensation for participating in the BlogHer Book Club review but all opinions are my own. If you are interested in joining the book club or doing compensated reviews, click here!)
