Dog Days

This character driven book is extremely well written. The descriptions are fresh and thought provoking. The relationship between dogs and their owners is often life altering and the author captures these moments perfectly. "There is a brief moment when time pauses itself, and we can see the fragile threads between them glittering like gold in the rain. From a finger here to an elbow there. From the corner of Atticus’s smile to Dan’s beating heart. From paw to person and back again." I hope Dog Days is a great success. It is easily a five star read for me.
I received an Advanced Reader's Copy from St Martin's Press through NetGalley. The opinions expressed are entirely my own.
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I absolutely loved this book. I cannot express how wonderful this book is. It covers a myriad of serious real life issues, depression, postnatal depression, death, sexual identity and abuse. There are a few main characters and each chapter is centred on one of these characters. The author has done an amazing job of creating realistic, deeply flawed yet wonderful characters. I felt such a deep compassion for each of them and also a deep deep sadness for what they were going through. The author did not sensationalize any of these serious issues, she gave us a truth, inside view of how each person was feeling. The addition of the dogs was perfect. I have three rescues dogs so I know the amount of unconditional love they can give. Each main character had a dog in their lives that was their constant companion and these dogs were their lifeline when things became desolate and it felt impossible to go on. This book showed how dogs can make us better people and I hope it inspires people to go out and adopt a dog.

Of the three main characters, George was my favourite. George made me laugh out loud at times and at other times my heart broke for him. Dan and Lizzie both had unexpected twists to their storylines which changed their lives dramatically.

This book will move you beyond words and I hope that it will educate some people about the seriousness of mental illness, the difficulties that some people experience in accepting who they really are and the ways that the loss of a loved one has in you for the rest of your life. This is a book that I will be reading again. I wish I was eloquent enough to express just how much this book moved me.

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for allowing me the opportunity to read this amazing book.

I wasn't sure about this book in the very beginning, but the characters grew on me and I found myself wanting to continue reading long past bedtime. Dan started out as my least favorite but ended up my most favorite. George was appealing for his sense of humor and some of the lines given to him were hilarious. Dogs do play a role in this book, but more of a subtle one than you might think from the title.

Despite the fact that this book is chock-full of characters that are rather hard to like as well as very unexpected storylines, I found myself falling hard for this one and it is currently in my list of top 5 books read so far in 2020. I found this one reminiscent of Fredrik Backman's "A Man Called Ove" in some ways and since I loved that book I found it difficult not to love this one.

"Dog Days" follows the story of three distinct individuals, each with their own battle to fight. George is a grumpy old man, impossible to like, but he's grieving the loss of his wife in the only way he knows how. His wife left behind her puppy, Poppy, and he's not quite sure what to do with her as he doesn't like her at all and only wants to watch his cricket. Thankfully his kind-hearted neighbor swoops in to try to help, but will she be able to find something about George to like?

Lizzie and her son Lenny are living in a women's shelter and, while Lenny can't understand why he can't see his dad, he is attempting to fit in to his new life. Lizzie remains guarded about her past but the shelter dog Maud is determined to get it out of her, one walk and cuddle at a time.

Dan is a therapist with his own issues. Gay but unwilling to come to terms with it, he is content to live his life without love other than that of his dog, Fitz, until Atticus walks in to his life and Dan can't get him out of his head.

I feel like this book will be polarizing- readers will likely love it as much as I did or will hate it. This is not a "happy" story per se, and this is not a story about people whom we like. This is a story about those people who are overlooked, who are traumatized, and who have a hard time getting out of bed in the morning. This is also a story about triumphing over that darkness and finding a will to move forward. I found it at once haunting and uplifting, and I absolutely could not stop thinking about this story, which is why it is one of the best books that I have read this year.

After the last page of this has been read this story refuses to leave my thoughts, which is why I rated it as a five star book.