In one of the funniest mix-ups in rom com history, Carly and Max meet after their dogs are dropped off at the wrong homes. Already flustered, Carly reluctantly takes the destructive new basset hound with her to a photoshoot where she is working with a mercurial fashion designer. Ready to have her calm, well-behaved dog back, despite the imposter dog’s apparent success as a model, Carly uses some amateur investigating skills to find the proper owner.
Max, a neuroscientist, is beyond surprised when Carly shows up on his doorstep. The two develop a not so easy friendship that is filled with the usual romance tropes of misunderstandings, missed messages, and opposites attract dynamics. Adorable but nothing new, the dogs and their antics were a welcome addition.
As other reviews have noted, Max and Carly’s parents have their own plot that adds a level of ick to their own relationship. I found myself dreading their sections and would have been happier (and rated this book higher) if that had been completely left out. It was distracting and dampened the tone of what otherwise was an adorable though predictable romance.
Three stars and my thanks to Berkley and Netgalley for a complimentary copy. This did not impact my review.

DNF four chapters in.

The audio is well done, but I find both of these characters a struggle to connect to. The heroine's business endeavors stress me out because they're so financially unstable. I'm not convinced I'm going to like the autism rep in the hero's plot. The dogs are cute, but the rest feels flat to me.

ABSOLUTELY ADORED THIS TREAT!!! Who knew I would love fictional dogs so much? And when this whacky dog walker swaps the dogs, our polar opposites hero and heroine meet and cannot stop thinking of each other. They have their differences at first and it's super adorable at how they lean on each other for support. LOVED IT!

This was the cutest book ever! I loved watching the relationships form. Who doesn't root for a dog lover!

Really fun rom-com with a great meet-cute! Give me a dog story any day, and these two basset hounds are adorable!

Max and Carly have very different personalities, right down to how they parent their doggos. They both also have a bit of drama going on in their life. Max's is a bit more relatable, while Carly has DRAMA coming at her from every angle - her flaky clients, her landlord, and her family, which was really over the top. They both meet when their drug-dealing dog walker gets arrested and the wrong basset hounds are brought back to them.

Admittedly, it took a while to warm up to Carly but I could relate to the feeling of everything going wrong at once and trying desperately to hold things together. I liked Max, and I enjoyed his scenes with his brother, Jamie.

A bit wordy in places, but overall, just a fun escape of a book.

You Lucky Dog is the perfect rom com when you just need to escape! It's like a non Christmas Hallmark movie. The more I read, the cheesier it became, which isn't a bad thing when you're just wanting to enjoy a story that has nothing to do with your current problems! I would recommend it!

I love a good meet-cute, and this book had a great one!

This book started out a bit slower, but definitely picked up. At first, Carly and Max don't seem like an ideal pair. As the book progresses, you can definitely see the spark between them!

This is a cute, easy read and perfect if you're craving a romance.

Not my favorite Julia London book, but delightful nonetheless. A drug dealing dog sitter, who is none too smart, gets himself arrested and has a friend return the dogs he had with him to the incorrect owners. This delightful romp follows two strangers who’s lives are changed by happenstance.

You Lucky Dog is about two dog owners who meet after their dogs are accidentally switched. I had high hopes for this book as I love dogs! And it's set in Austin, a great city.

However, I found that there was a lot going on that took away from the story and character development. I just kept wanting more throughout the story. I loved the quirky pets and that the book involved dogs and shelters so heavily.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, Berkeley, for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This copy was kindly given to me by Netgalley and Berkley for review: all opinions are my own.

I really wanted to like this book. The synopsis had me sucked in immediately. But, I DNF'ed about 30% in which I HATE doing once I've invested time into a book. Will I try to read another time? maybe but also maybe not. Was it a bad book (from what I read)? I don't think so. For me it was the writing style and narrator that just really wasn't doing it. I couldn't connect with the characters, even though I loved their dogs.

Come on, a romance novel starting off with dogs being returned to wrong owners? Adorable way to start a story and even better way to get me to pick up the book. But sadly I struggled to connect with the narrator, thus had a hard time connecting to the characters. Carly was a hard protagonist for me to like. She was a little bit whinny, little bit standoffish for no good reason. Max was a cute character though. I loved Carly description of denim on denim wearing lumberjack. Sounds like my kinda man, and he has a dog. Love. The talk around his research and connection to dog related thing was really cool. While Carly's family drama felt mostly like drama, Max's felt realer, a little more personable. There was a hint at maybe insta-love, not always a turn off (for me) depending on the story, but just didn't flow with me on this one.

Starred review only because it was required of me for this review

3 stars=fine/solid/good

Loved: the dogs; the descriptions of poor, depressed Baxter; Carly and Max as a couple; Jamie; the ending

This felt wordy to me, especially early on. I skipped over a lot of passages that just didn't seem to move anything forward. Carly and Max are okay characters are their own, but I didn't love either of them. They were more enjoyable together than either was alone. Carly's family and her clients were a lot, and not much of it was fun.

But the dogs were a delight. I would have loved more Jamie in the story. The ending was strong enough that I was happy I pressed through the earlier parts of the story. (Language, sex)

Those dogs! I fell in love with them from the start. They each have their own personalities and were better together than apart. Their humans grew on me over time. The story was a long slow burn but once the humans got their act together the story was very enjoyable. This story shows how meeting the right one at the wrong time can work out in the end. Very entertaining and a great way to pass some time.

YOU LUCKY DOG by Julia London took me a while to get into. It was very chaotic, as we are introduced to the characters, and I found it hard to like many of them. Carly and Max and their dogs, Baxter and Hazel, respectively, meet when Carly finally figures out where her dog is–with Max. (The dog walker dropped off an impostor Basset Hound at her cottage instead of Baxter.) Max only figures out he has the wrong dog the next morning since he was a little occupied the night before. When the two dogs meet, they really steal the limelight.

Carly comes from a very dysfunctional family. When she tries to tell Max that, he doesn’t believe her. Her family appears often, and Carly seems to be the most sane one in the bunch. She’s always helping others, but other than her dog, and then Max, no one is ever there for her. She’s an unemployed publicist with only two clients, and one is stranger than the other.

The story has multiple story lines but throughout her family continues to cause problems for her. The story takes place in Austin, Texas, New York City, and New Jersey but doesn’t always have a smooth flow. As Carly and Max’s friendship grows, Carly wants to take her career in another direction. But what will that do to them? Carly brings another dimension to Max’s life, but is it meant to be?

YOU LUCKY DOG is emotional at times, but the dogs bring a levity to the story. It’s a romance that has a lot of heart due to the main characters and their dogs, but too much drama from the rest of them, especially Carly’s mom.

Ms. London is an author who I find enjoyable and she writes in different genres—historical romances, contemporary romances, and western romances with cowboys. I’ll be back for more since I have quite a few of her books on my TBR pile.

I rated the book 3.5 stars but rounded to 4 here and on other sites.

Carly Kennedy is doing everything she can, grasping at every opportunity to prove to herself and the world that she can make it. Along with her trusty basset hound, things are moving right along. Until her beloved basset hound gets switched with another identical looking basset hound.

Enter Max Sheffington, scholar extraordinaire. He notices right away that his basset hound has been switched to, by the not-so-reliable dog walker. When Carly shows up to switch out the animals, chaos ensues. It doesn't help that Carly is wearing designer clothes from her client. Doesn't sound bad,right? Well, nobody knows this designer currently and Carly is in the publishing business. So, wearing the designer clothes should help, maybe?

Join this romping meet-cute as Carly and Max work out all the details of their lives and families. Will they fall in love with each other just like the two basset hounds did? Read this meet-cute to find out!

Sweet light romance with dogs! Of course the cover sucked me in. Carly has a basset hound that everyone loves because he is so lazy. She hires a dog walker to keep him moving during the day. Little does she know that the dog walker is going to mess everything up by mixing up her dog with someone else’s dog. The story unfolds and introduces Carly to Max. Cute story!

This book grabbed my attention right off the bat! We first meet Carly as she’s in total confusion as she’s trying out how and why she has a different dog in her house and what has happened to her dog? Carly is in Marketing and Public Relations but with only two clients. She’d love to get a job in big company and move to New York but she’s stressed, frazzled, and overwhelmed not only with her family too.
Max is a professor who is on the right track for tenure at his university when suddenly he finds himself in a strange situation and he has no idea how to handle it. Carly appears on his doorstep he soon realizes that his life will never be the same! Since their dogs have bonded, they agree to meet (for the dogs sake of course!). Add in growing attraction, humor, a crazy family along with work drama and you end up with a fun, sexy book that will make you smile, laugh and let you escape for awhile! Great, great book!

You Lucky Dog caught my attention with the two dogs on the cover. I am a sucker for any book about dogs but even more so for a rom-com WITH dogs.

I had not read any of London's previous works so I was not sure what to expect. The is a story of a case of mistaken identity of two dogs. Pot-smoking dog walker gets arrested while walking his charges. Friend of dog walker comes and delivers dogs to their respective homes but in turn switches the two basset hounds. Max and Carly then work to figure out who has their dogs.

Carly and Max then hit it off but an unexpected snag makes them doubt in their relationship. The story is cut. There isn't much steam between Carly and Max, at least not what is typical in most rom-coms.

This is a great quick story especially if you are a canine lover. The drama with Carly's family felt too over the top and contrived for me which is why I didn't rate this a 4 star.

If you enjoy romantic comedies, you will enjoy You Lucky Dog by Julia London. It is a great fun story to relieve the tension of our current situation.

A dog mix-up and a love-struck basset hound are the perfect start to a fun romantic comedy. The love story between depressed basset hound Baxter and the cheerful basset hound Hazel charmed the heck out of me and kept You Lucky Dog sprightly when the main storyline threatened to drag it down. The romance between the humans took far longer to work its charm on me.

Carly Kennedy’s life is one disaster after another. She’s struggling with starting her own PR business and her impossible clients aren’t helping any. Then there’s her family, with her overwhelmed sister who comes with a chaotic household and her recently divorced parents who are into finding their bliss and selling timeshares. And that’s all before the rent hike and the accidental dog swap courtesy of her (now fired) dog walker. Finding the cheerful, throw pillow-eating Hazel in place of Baxter is the last straw. She’s able to track down her dog at Max Sheffington’s house and sparks fly instantly…between the humans, that is. Max is a neuroscientist and trying to make his case for tenure at the university is the most important thing at the moment. He hopes the additional funding for his research will lead to help for people like his brother, who is severely autistic. The last thing he needs right now is a complication in the form of whirlwind Carly, but Max can’t help but find himself charmed. When it’s clear they need to keep seeing each other – for the dogs’ sakes, of course – the pull between them becomes stronger. But Carly has plans that don’t include staying in Texas, so things would be doomed between them from the start…right?

I liked Max from the start. He’s cute, nerdy, and has a good heart – all of those make him an irresistible hero to me. Carly is overwhelmed and a bit too much for me at the start. I could feel her stress and author Julia London made it understandable why she was so short with Max. However, there was so much chaos and so much bogging Carly down that it took until the halfway point for me to start seeing the character beneath the stress. At that point You Lucky Dog improved, becoming a more interesting romance. It never blew me away, but it was solid and I was rooting for Max and Carly to get their happily ever after by the end.

A host of supporting characters both add and detract from the story. I loved Max’s father and brother and welcomed any scenes with his family. As for the boatload of high maintenance family and clients Carly came with… I think there were too many over the top voices that dragged the story down. It was like being in a room with everyone shouting when these characters appeared and it was just too much. Sure, it made Carly more sympathetic when everyone was unlikeable. But it also made me put down the book a number of times for a break. So while You Lucky Dog ended up being just an OK read for me, I will say that readers with more patience for over the top characters might enjoy this book a lot more than I did.

I’ve been a fan of several of Julia’s historical romances and I adore dogs so I figured I’d love this as well. Unfortunately, it fell pretty flat for me. The characters were just ok. Carly is completely neurotic and hard to connect to. Max is kind of adorable but boring. And I guess that was my biggest problem. I was bored with the romantic aspect of this book and onLy cared about the dogs. Baxter and Hazel steal everything scene and are far more entertaining than any of the human character.s. There is a side plot line involving the parents of Max and Carly that agitated me to no end and the ending was rushed and left me feeling cheated. Because of these things, I will not be leaving a review on my blog.