Casey Griffin

Addison is a pet groomer. While at a posh dog show, she sets out to promote her new business to the pet owners in attendance, while looking around for a man to fill and compliment her empty life. After a brief encounter with him during the show gala, Addison sets her sights on Philip Montgomery III, who looks as great in his tux and as does his obvious trust fund. However, during this same show, Addison also meets up with Felix, the affair’s scruffy bar tender, who shows a definite interest in her, despite her obvious rejection. Things seem to be going smoothly at the show, until several dogs being pampered in Addison’s portable spa disappear. Naturally, all eyes turn to Addison as the perpetrator of this crime. To make matters worse, the next time she attends a doggie benefit at Philip Montgomery’s, more dogs disappear. This time, both Addison and Felix, again the affair bar tender, look like a couple of conniving dog nappers. Thus, the duo begins trying to unravel the clues to solve this mystery and salvage their reputations as well as keep themselves out of jail. The story goes through some interesting twists and turns as they figure out exactly what is going on and who is responsible for the dog napping.

This is a cute story, though it never did live up to what I had hoped it would. I found the two main characters, Addison and Felix, unlikable, for the most part. Addison is convinced she is a small-time, though unrecognized, sleuth and, with Felix, will solve this crime, bringing back their reputations as well as respect. I got tired of the faux pas that Addison, the sleuth, makes as she tries to solve the crime. Some were obviously meant to be humorous, and some were. However, others fell flat, in my opinion. I never did grow to like Felix either. As the story progressed, I did come to tolerate him, and, having a daughter, who suddenly appeared and became part of the story, did make him more human (he came off as a pretty good father), since he began displaying something other than arrogance and over confidence in his looks and abilities. I disliked Addison’s new idea to spur on her dog grooming business: dressing the dogs up in human clothes. I personally dislike this whole idea, and see it as something five-to- seven-year-olds would do as part of their play time. I see no real reason for adults to do this, and I figure it makes the dogs uncomfortable while in “dress up” mode. I expected to thoroughly enjoy this book, since I love dogs and stories about dogs, but never did get into this one. It may have been the fact that I disliked the main characters and this dress-up idea. Addison’s dog seemed okay with it, but I am not so sure I would find this dog lovable, or even to my liking. This book will probably enthrall some dog lovers. I was just left short. I received this from NetGalley to read and review.… (meer)