I hated the main character with a vehemence I did not expect. I liked Eli, loved the dogs and everything else was meh. This might be the end of the road for me and this author.

2 out of 5 wine glasses

Life on the Leash was a cute book mostly because of the dogs, but there were definitely some things in it that bugged me.

It seemed like the author was trying to tackle some heavy topics but they just weren't executed with much empathy. Like the client that ended up having a mental breakdown, and it was passed off as her just being quirky. And I'm feel really conflicted about her taking her ex-client's dogs that had run away and giving them to someone else without even having a conversation with the owner... who literally ends up being her boss. It felt like all her clients were just terrible dog owners, and as someone with a dog that has been through dog training, we know that a lot of this is training us as people to understand and look for the queues are dogs are giving us. Just felt like a weird message overall. I also really didn't like that she was so quick to jump into that guys bed when she knew he had a girlfriend. Like ALL THE RED FLAGS.

Honestly the more I write this review the more I realize how much I really didn't like this book overall.

Based on the cover and the blurb of this beautiful book, I thought I was going to absolutely love the story inside. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Several of the characters were out of alignment with their stated values, the storyline didn't hold my attention, and much skimming was done to get to the end. I am sure this is a classic case of 'It's not you, it's me', but I did try to enjoy the story and it just fell flat.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review Life on the Leash. Unfortunately, I was unable to finish this book and won't be rating or reviewing at this time. Should I decide to give it another chance down the road, I will rate and review on my blog, Goodreads and retailers at that time.

I am sorry for not reviewing fully but I don’t have the time to read this at the moment. I believe that it wouldn't benefit you as a publisher or your book if I only skimmed it and wrote a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for not fully reviewing!

4 aDORABLE stars and a big sloppy kiss!🐶

*** Mini Review ***

This was such a fun book full of humor and heart and of course lots of fur babies! A perfect pallet cleanser in between all those dark twisted thrillers. Cora was a wonderful character someone you would love to call friend. She was kind and compassionate and not only to four-legged friends but to the two-legged ones as well.

This book had a little of everything humor, love, friendship, and even a reality television show. Cora is a dog walker who meets her perfect man, the problem is he is already attached. She also has an amazing friend in Maggie as well as Eli who might be even more than a friend? She also has an opportunity to audition for a reality television show about dog training, kind of like the dog whisperer but with a more positive approach. The story is told with charm and wit and will definitely make you smile.

PS: one of my dogs was giving me lots of kisses while I was writing this review! She must’ve known!

*** thank you so much to Gallery for my copy of this book ***

This was just ok. It had its moments but for the most pay I found it a bit unmemorable abs I felt kind of indifferent in the end.

This was such a light-hearted read full of doggies. An inspiring story of an ex-corporate girl who decided to follow her heart and passion to become a dog trainer. As a dog lover I enjoyed the tid-bits of different personalities dogies and their humans possess. The author creates a very authentic story that I have a feeling might even reflect her own life… or at least I hope so. Nope I am not jealous at all!

Cora spends her days teaching people how to properly interact with their pets and teach them how to behave (both species!). She has an amazing support system and a generally happy life except couple of things missing – true love, romance, and taking her passion to another level.

There are some flaws to her in fulfilling that goal what with a charming client who she has an inappropriately huge crush on. I especially love Eli who wins over Cora slowly and surely and proving that nice guys do win!

If you are a dog lover or aspires to be this book is defiantly for you!

***I received an ebook copy from the author at no cost***

This book is a true gem. It's comical and romantic and I loved it.

The storyline is original and I loved the reality TV aspect. The characters were fantastic. Cora cracked me up and she was such a relatable character. Even though the characters went through their individual struggles (it wouldn't be a good story if they didn't), the overall tone of the book is happy and enjoyable. I also love that the author drew on her own personal career when she was writing this book.

I also loved how animals had a central focus in the book. I'm a big fan of four-legged fur kids, so the dogs were just as enjoyable as the human characters for me!

I'm a first time Schade reader and I will definitely be back to check out more.

Life on the Leash is the perfect book if you're looking for a fun, easy, light-hearted read to brighten up your winter.

Four stars to this novel!

I thoroughly enjoyed this romantic comedy debut! It was fast-paced, the characters felt well written and the plot was fun. I enjoyed each of the dog's personalities that Cora worked with as a dog trainer, and just really enjoyed her as a lead character. I would definitely read this author again.

If you really love dogs, you might enjoy this one more than I did. I wasn't expecting quite so much dog training in it, which I found boring. I found the heroine so annoying – why did this American girl just randomly speak French? She might love dogs, but she's rude to people. And don't even get me started on the romance. Cheating one minute, a rushed resolution the next. I was So Over It.

I couldn't find a connection to the characters in this book, and that made the story less enjoyable to me. I couldn't relate to the main character, and I found the plot to be a bit too cheesy and cliche for my enjoyment.

I’m very rarely a Women’s Fiction reader. I am of the camp that truly prefers Romance and sticks solidly in my genre, only a few Women’s Fiction books per year getting me to make the bridge, and that is typically because they seem to have a strong romantic subplot. Life on the Leash convinced me it would be one of those, and didn’t really deliver. What I got instead was mostly a book about dog training and neurotic dog owners.

Cora Bellamy owns her own business training dogs in Washington D.C., a cute rescue pitbull, and a great roommate and best friend. These are all the parts of her life that make sense. Get those down, because things get a little weird after that. She also has an ex-boyfriend who is going on a reality show to see who is America’s hottest landscaper, wants to snag her own reality show gig, has a gaggle of dog trainer friends who are pretty pointless to the book, a feud against a thinly-veiled Cesar Millan parody, randomly speaks French for whatever reason, and has a host of more-obnoxious-than-the-next rich training clients.

So...yeah. There’s a lot going on. And that isn’t all of it. She meets with one of her clients, a wealthy boyfriend and girlfriend, and instantly falls for the guy. His name is Charlie Gill and he seems to be a dog lover, works for an animal rights group, and appears to be the perfect guy...except for, you know, sneaking around on his girlfriend to spend time with Cora. She kind of ignores that because he’s hot and she likes his dog and not his girlfriend.

Meanwhile, Cora meets another oddball client, a barely-stable hoarder named Beth Ann who is neglecting her dog. Beth Ann lives in a building with a friend of one of Cora’s other clients/friends, a guy named Eli (because literally everyone knows everyone in this book). When she first meets him, Eli is about as interesting as stale toast. She even tells her friend she’s not into him. But the author practically screams love triangle at you when he appears.

I was on board for all of this. Cora is trying to get a job hosting a dog training TV series, in hopes of countering the very popular show that promotes harmful, aggressive training techniques (read: Cesar Millan but called by a Russian name). She’s got a little, somewhat boring, adulterous love triangle brewing. Then the book spent a couple hundred pages on dog training. Cora visits a client here, and it doesn’t go well. She rescues a dog over here. She tries on a fancy dress she’ll never need because she’s just a dog trainer (read: she’ll totally need it later). More dog training. A random dance sequence! Dogs, again. I was a little bored. Eli all but disappears. Charlie is around attempting to cheat on his girlfriend, but it was mostly dogs, and the TV series.

The thing is, it wasn’t terribly unreadable. I love dogs. Schades writing is very personable and carries you through the story well, but that was not what I came to the story for, so I couldn’t help feeling that it all went on too long. Not to mention, it started to feel like filling pages. So many friends, clients, dogs, and random people came through I couldn’t keep track or be bothered to care.

Finally, in the last fifty pages Schade rushed to wrap up the love stories. She upped the villain factor on the (already cheating boyfriend) Charlie, tried to force a black moment for Eli and Cora, and then slapped a bow on a pretty bloodless romance. Not to mention, the ending for her show plot line and how it intersects with a super weird dog training/dog rescue/rich dude animal savior story left me blinking in confusion.

Life on the Leash is sadly the most disappointing kind of book-- completely readable, not terrible, but lacking in any special spark to make it actually good. It suffered a bit from not knowing whether it wanted to be a day in the life of a dog trainer story or a romance or what, and in trying to do so much ended up doing it all with mediocrity.

A delightful read with adorable characters. Such a great romantic story. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. Thank you very much to Netgalley for letting me have an advance copy.

I couldn't finish this. Cora annoyed me to no end. Her inner dialogue a lot of times sounded like an adolescent girl who had a crush on a celebrity. And at the begging what she considered flirting, I considered a person being nice.

Cora meets Charlie, a client of hers with a fiance, and she immediately begins obsessing over him just because he likes dogs and it cute. By 28 years old this should no longer suffice for why girls fall in love with a guy. I didn't get what she saw in Charlie either. He also irritated this one.

Unfortunately, even if you are a dog lover (this revolves heavily around dogs), I'd suggest passing.

I completely adored this book! I love a good chick-lit book and add dogs into the mix, its perfect. My biggest draw back is the TV show talk. I wasn't the biggest fan. That being said, the dogs, the romance and the writing kept me on track and interested.

Cute, light hearted and fun. Not necessarily what I would pick up in my store, but I was glad I read it, because it took my mind off of some heavy things that I was going through. Would absolutely recommend!

Every once in a while we need to read light positive words. I adore dogs...yes, more than people, so this was a hit for me. What I wouldn't do to be the main character in this book. If you love authors like Mary Kay Andrews or Jennifer Crusie then I think you will love sliding this author on the shelf beside them.

Life on the Leash is fun, flirty, and perfect for dog lovers! Victoria Schade's fictional debut is fast-paced and so easy to get sucked into. I loved Cora's passion for dogs and proper training methods. I enjoyed watching Cora sum up the courage to step outside of her comfort zone for an important cause. It didn't always seem like it would work out for her, but by the end of the story she was confident in her teaching skills and she was more sure of the direction she wanted to go with her career and personal life. I would love to seem more from Victoria Schade!
*ARC provided in consideration for review*

I think you you have to be a dog lover to really enjoy this book. It was cutie and sweet, Must love gifs to enjoy it. It reminded me of a Hallmark movie at times.