Once Upon a Puppy

After loving first book in this series, The Twelve Dogs of Christmas, I was happy to return to Pine Hollow to follow up on the lives of the dogs (and their newly adopted owners) that were introduced in that book. This second book in the series focuses on Ally's best friend, Deenie, a free spirit who is temporarily in town to spend time with her great aunt, and Connor, a slick, workaholic corporate lawyer, who adopted Maximus, a goofy, untrained, 140-lb part Irish wolfhound at the end of the first book (mainly after being goaded into doing so by Deenie). Predictably, it's not going very well for Connor or Maximus. After a training session in which Deenie subs for the regular dog obedience instructor, Connor gets the brilliant idea of hiring her for private lessons with Maximus. The only problem is that Deenie and Connor have clashed from the moment they met due to Connor's buttoned up, hyper-organized approach to life vs. Deenie's free spirited, travel oriented one. As they spend more time together, Deenie's laid back attitude works its magic on both Maximus and Connor. After getting into a fake relationship to appease her family and the partners in his law firm, they inevitably give in to their attraction and end up in a relationship for real, the only question is how will they resolve the basic conflict in their opposite approaches to life? As in the first book, the main characters were both likable and relatable, there was plenty of doggie action (mainly Maximus, but some of the others pups make appearances also), and the story was sweet and heartwarming. The next book looks like it will feature Elinor, the librarian, and Levi, the police chief and I'm looking forward to it. Although I'd recommend reading the first book since it was so great, this book does stand alone and it would be easy to jump in here. My thanks to Netgalley for an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.