Two Good Dogs - 1st Book Review of 2018 - Two Good Dogs by Susan Wilson

11:37 a.m.

At some point and time in my life, I listened to Susan Wilson's One Good Dog on audiobook.  I think.

See.  

This is why I have a love hate relationship with audiobooks.

I can't remember anything.

I know I enjoyed it, and I know that the dog's voice was one of my favorite parts of the book...but when I don't have the book book...I remember just enough to drive me bonkers.

One Good Dog is a story of redemption.

Adam March should be happy with all the trappings of life that he's set in motion for himself.

Yet, as life goes...he's not.

One day he flips out and loses everything.

Through community service and the love and need of a dog, he begins to find himself and set a much better life in motion.

Two Good Dogs is Wilson's continuation of that story.

Adam's life is much changed, and he and Chance the pit bull have gone through a lot together and are still actively in recovery with Chance being trained as a therapy dog to assist Adam when he needs it most.

Adam meets Skye Mitchell and her 14 year old daughter through his new work with start ups.

Skye is herself a survivor of an abusive relationship and husband (Cody's father) who was involved with drugs.

As is suggested by the title, there is, of course, another dog as well.

And a young street kid named Mingo who is in desperate need of guidance (although he doesn't know it and wouldn't admit it anyway).

Skye's daughter is a survivor of a crime.  She's witnessed a murder, but her mom doesn't know it.

There's a lot going on in this book.

Maybe too much.

Now, overall, I loved it...because I love the dogs...and I love the advocacy parts.  

But gracious, the story had so many offshoots that I really felt could have been developed more.  

Any one of them could have made a novel.  

bullying

child endangerment

drug use and abuse in rural areas

young adult focus

murder mystery

hiding in plain site

revenge

rekindling an old inn

dog fighting

2nd chances

teenage daughters

single parenting

street kids

I couldn't help but feel that Wilson had a lot of ideas for this book but maybe couldn't decide which one she wanted to stick to so she threw in a smattering of all of them?  

The chapters are interspersed with the narrative and Chance's voice.

Chance's voice is the one I liked best.

No surprise there.

I couldn't help but wonder if Wilson has ever thought about writing a novel from the dog's perspective...something akin to Rita Mae Brown's Sneaky Pie series?

I would read for sure!

Here's just a smattering of Chance's voice:

The unhappy girl seems tense to me as she takes my seat.  I'm happy to sit in the back, give her the priority seating even I am rarely afforded.  Even though Adam keeps up a stream of tongue language, she does little more than give him back one word at a time. Words I know. Yeah.  Fine. Good.  I can sense Adam's growing regret that he's allowed this creature in our space.  Although I have only limited experience, I find teenage girls to be mysterious, more like cats.  73

My friend has no permanent name, so he's called by a number of things: Buddy, Pal, Bub.  I get a little confused sometimes because I've been called all of those endearments at one time or another, although Adam maintains Bud exclusively for me.  A distinction, I know, but one that is important to me.  I want to always be his Bud.  We've seen a lot together.  My new friend respects that, and that's why he's such a joy.  This guy, Buddy-Pal-Bub, has breached my natural reserve.  It's like we were once littermates, now reunited.  105-106

Dawg should have gone with us.  I fear that he will spend most of his time in the pen that they built, not a cage, exactly, certainly not a chain, but not a home.  I worried myself into squeezing my head over the edge of the half-lowered car window, barking like some undisciplined cur, calling to Lucky to keep the faith.  We'll be back! 234

I'd left Adam sitting on the couch, holding an object in front of his face and touching it gently every few minutes.  I think it's called a book, but don't quote me. 315

  Final Words:  You do need to be a dog lover for this one...without that perspective, I'm afraid this story will leave you short.  

12:15

Day 398 - Books I'm Waiting On Wednesday

I'm trying so hard to read what's already on my shelves, the specially priced items on Kindle and Nook websites, and my review books...

trying.

so.

hard.

And then, as I knew it would happen, the blogosphere shows me this beauty: 

The Right Side by Spencer Quinn

and

to make matters even more difficult...

the author, Spencer Quinn, is the author of the Chet and Bernie series I'm getting ready to start. 

How am I supposed to stay focused??

Here's the synopsis and first remarks from Amazon: 

(I've highlighted in red the parts that yell at me loud and clear that I must read this book!)

“Brilliant. Deeply felt, but totally under control. I loved it.” —Stephen King

“A great suspense novel, and so much more. You won’t forget the heroic LeAnne Hogan—and the same goes for her dog! Not to be missed. —Harlan Coben

In this riveting new novel by the New York Times bestselling author of the Chet and Bernie mystery series, a deeply damaged female soldier home from the war in Afghanistan becomes obsessed with finding a missing girl, gains an unlikely ally in a stray dog, and encounters new perils beyond the combat zone.

LeAnne Hogan went to Afghanistan as a rising star in the military, and came back a much lesser person, mentally and physically. Now missing an eye and with half her face badly scarred, she can barely remember the disastrous desert operation that almost killed her. She is confused, angry, and suspects the fault is hers, even though nobody will come out and say it.

Shattered by one last blow—the sudden death of her hospital roommate, Marci—LeAnne finds herself on a fateful drive across the country, reflecting on her past and seeing no future. Her native land is now unfamiliar, recast in shadow by her one good eye, her damaged psyche, and her weakened body. Arriving in the rain-soaked small town in Washington state that Marci had called home, she makes a troubling discovery: Marci’s eight-year-old daughter has vanished. When a stray dog—a powerful, dark, unreadable creature, no one’s idea of a pet—seems to adopt LeAnne, a surprising connection is formed and something shifts inside her. As she becomes obsessed with finding Marci’s daughter, LeAnne and her inscrutable canine companion are drawn into danger as dark and menacing as her last Afghan mission. This time she has a strange but loyal fellow traveler protecting her blind side.

Enthralling, suspenseful, and psychologically nuanced, The Right Side introduces one of the most unforgettable protagonists in modern fiction: isolated, broken, disillusioned—yet still seeking redemption and purpose—LeAnne takes hold of you and never lets go.

SEE!!! I TOLD YOU I NEED THIS BOOK!!!!!!!!