I’m not sure how I feel about this one still. I liked it while I was reading it but I found it very forgettable. I did really like the characters and the story line.

I loved this dog centric love story. The mistaken dog swap was such a fun premise. Cute, easy to read and perfect for dog lovers and others.

This was such a cute read! I loved the characters and thought the story was really charming. I loved the writer’s humor also and couldn’t get enough! I’m looking forward to picking up book two. Thank you netgalley for my free review copy.

If you like dogs and romance this is a must, totally adorable and sweet with some charm too! Any connection to autism is an added bonus to me too

This was a cute, slow-burn and I would recommend it for sure if you're into that type of romance. To me, it felt a little bit slow and I had a bit of trouble staying engaged. I kept setting the book aside to read something else and it took me longer than expected to finish this one

After their dog walker was arrested and their basset hounds accidentally get mixed up, Carly Kennedy is not in the slightest bit amused. And after showing up on Max Sheffington’s front steps to retrieve her rather depressed pup Baxter, Max is completely smitten with Carly and as the plot continues, their relationship grows. I have to say, I am all for a cutesy romance, especially during quarantine, but there were times as I read this one that I kept thinking “okay when are they going to fall in love?” Despite the predictability, the real-life factors that Julia London incorporates into her latest book made it easy to connect with the characters and continued to entice me to keep reading. The struggles of working for yourself, an Autistic bother, a big promotion, crappy clients. If you’re looking for a beach read, let it be this one!

Well that was ummmm… interesting to say the least. This story was one that I really found hard to say I liked it per se, but it was definitely compelling enough that I also found it nearly impossible to put down. I am a huge fan of the historical writing of Ms. Julia London, but I always find it much harder to get into her contemporary stories, though I am not sure why as they are always written well and interesting, but this story was one where I didn’t much care for the female lead and also didn’t much feel the emotional or romantic connection between the characters until nearly the end of the story. Carly has been kicked a lot lately and she is beyond down, but when she arrives home from the mother of long days to find that the dog walker has mixed up her basset hound with another much different dog, she doesn’t realize how much it will change her life. Conversely Max Sheffington doesn’t realize the issue with his own beloved basset immediately but once he does, he is livid and confused, but determined to care for the animal until his own sweet Hazel comes back to him. When Carly and Max’s worlds collide as they attempt to trade back their dogs, they strike up a strange and reluctant friendship, though neither truly understands one another. Carly’s life continues to unravel in the strangest ways and Max has his own issues, but leaning on one another for emotional support they are able to build a believable friendship, but soon it becomes something more and they find themselves depending on the other and dating. Then the shit just hits the fan and their lives go off the rails, making them wonder if they even have a chance at a future relationship. So I have to admit I still don’t actually like Carly, despite her becoming a little bit more likeable in the end of the story. She is opinionated, but the opinions are not her own, controlling in the weirdest ways, and strict about the dumbest things. Maybe it was just something about the way she behaved with the dogs in the beginning or the way she let people walk on her too much, but she seems like a characters that would not be someone I can be friends with, and that has always been how I rate characters. She did slowly learn to stand up for herself, make herself heard and let others’ shit not affect her so much so that she could deal with her own shit. Don’t get me wrong, we all have those times where the world just seems to be conspiring against us, but there was so much whining and not enough proactive doing from her, that I found myself not a fan. And compounding bad decisions with more just because she felt she needed to do something was just not cool when it left so many people including herself unhappy. Max was a weird guy to get to know, very much in his head most of the time, but he was overall a decent guy and one of those people that just seemed to move along in life letting things happen around him and not dealing with the hard stuff until he was forced to. At the same time he handles catastrophe much better and knows what he wants out of life and goes for it in a way that made me like him much more, despite his confusion over why he was actually attracted to the strange and outrageous Carly. I loved both the Bassets in the story and they were obviously both perfect for their masters and the perfect outlet for them to come together again and again, giving them a high rating for sidekick characters in my book. While the laughter and weirdness of the relationship between Carly and Max kept things interesting, it was hard to truly point out passion or emotional connection unless they were directly pointing it out themselves. There were a few really great moments as they comforted one another through hard times, but other than that, everything seemed very superficial until the end. I also just have to put out there that I hated Carly’s entire family and hope that she is able to leave them to live their own lives for the most part as they were dragging her down through 90% of this story. If you are into quirky, compelling and interesting rom-com meet-cute stories this one will hit every button, though there was plenty of serious and dark moments, but in the end there wasn’t a lot of sensuality if you’re looking for those types of moments. I look forward greatly to the next London release in her historical series and will guarantee it will be amazing, but I continue to feel her contemporaries just aren’t my cup of tea, sadly.

I loved the quirkiness of this story! It starts with two bassett hounds that get mixed up, and everything spirals out from there. There were surprises all through the plot, and I found myself gasping with shock several times.
Carly is trying to believe herself into the life she wants because her hard work doesn't seem to be getting her there. She is trying to put the best face on things, but that is cracking one facade at a time. I found her struggles to be very relatable. She seems a bit shallow in the beginning because she is trying so hard to keep the plates spinning. Her true self comes through as she gets to know Max, and I really loved her as I read on.
Max is trying to follow his career path, but he is beginning to feel that something is missing. When it crashes into his life, he will hardly know what to do with it or about it. Even though emotions are a little difficult for him, I loved that he was honest with himself about his feelings as he moved through this story, especially as pertained to his father and Jamie.
Carly and Max have the best conversations. They are so funny and offbeat, and I think I highlighted almost everything they said to one another. I could feel their connection as they learned to communicate with each other. I was definitely rooting for them the whole way.
Under the craziness and comedy, there are some serious themes. What do you do if hard work is not enough to get what you want? What is the balance between logic and emotion, and how do you know when to favor which? London also realistically portrays the challenges of caregivers and their family members. I enjoyed evvery page and am looking forward to a reread soon.

You Lucky Dog is the story of what happens when Carly’s mopey basset hound, Baxter, gets swapped with Max’s cheerful basset hound, Hazel, when their dog walker ends up arrested. Baxter and Hazel are as opposite as their owners, and they fall in love quickly! In order to keep Baxter happy, Carly begins spending time with Hazel and Max.

The cover is super cute, and I thought the dog swap concept was super cute, too. However, I started this book like four times before I finally got into it. I liked it once I got through the first four-ish chapters. I enjoyed the dogs, and Max’s and Carly’s families. Max has an adult brother with autism that I enjoyed reading about, and Carly’s parents were bananas!

Thanks to @NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for my ARC!

I found this to be incredibly cute and charming. If you put dogs on your cover or in your title, I'm easily drawn to the book. Thank goodness this book really gave me the vibes I was looking for. It was a fast read and enjoyable throughout. The characters were likable and written so well.

You Lucky Dog has a super cute premise! And the cute dogs were definitely the star of this book. The romance was a bit of a slow burn but sweet.

I'm a major dog lover, so I had a lot of affection for the plot of this story. There were definitely a lot of side stories going on that muddied the story a bit, but overall it was a fun read that made me excited to read more from London in the future.

I am a member of the American Library Association Reading List Award Committee. This title was suggested for the 2021 list. It was not nominated for the award. The complete list of winners and shortlisted titles is at <a href="https://rusaupdate.org/2021/02/2021-reading-list-years-best-in-genre-fiction-for-adult-readers/">

Carly Kennedy's life is in a spiral. She is drowning in work, her divorced parents are going through their midlife crises, and somehow Carly's sister convinces her to foster Baxter--a basset hound rescue with a bad case of the blues. When Carly comes home late from work one day to discover that the dog walker has accidentally switched out Baxter for another perkier, friendlier basset hound, she has reached the end of her leash.

Max was confused try his dog acting weird. All Baxter wanted to do stare into corner and not respond. Max knew he had to find the dog walker to get his dog back.

Love the dogs, they were the cutest. The book was so cute. I loved it. It's easy to read and so enjoyable. The romance was expected, but it was fun and cute beginning to end.

This book started off well with a fun and unique meet cute. I thought it was funny how the dogs got switched up because of the dog walker.

The story continued as light and fluffy but then it just felt awkward. The relationship between the two main characters felt stiff and was lacking. There’s really no reason for the two to be together other than their dogs. Wayyyy too much was about the dogs. And that’s all they had in common.

The “steamy scenes” were more like cringy scenes.

Nothing about this story felt like it flowed. Too much of it felt surface level and wasn’t fleshed out enough. I saw the surprising twist coming as it wasn’t unique.

The cover is cute though!

Just a super duper cute book! I love a romance and especially love romance with pets so this one is right up my alley. So sweet & perfect love story. !

This book was just okay for me. I love dogs but this was not the book for me. The premise of the story was good and the writing was good as well.

Thanks to Berkley and Netgalley for my eARC for review.

This book just did not work for me. It may have been a mistake to read it immediately after another book where dogs played a main role because I kept getting so mad at the way Carly treated the dogs and would talk about "the manual." She just came off whiny and annoying and I never got over that.

Thanks to Berkley and Netgalley for my eARC for review.

I saw the Bassett hounds on the cover and I clicked <b>request.</b>

An absolute delight of a book, with some unexpected diversity and grounded romance. When Baxter and Hazel get accidentally swapped due to their dog-walker being arrested, the owners become friends (and more something more...) over text messages and doggie playdates. Carly works in PR, the field I am currently studying, so I had so much fun reading about her work. Max has an autistic brother with some excellent representation. I loved the twists and turns, but just wanted a little more oomph for it to be a favorite.

TW: cyberbullying, use of a disability slur (countered)

<i>Thank you to Berkeley Romance for the early copy in exchange for an honest review.</i>