Review: What the Dog Ate by Jackie Bouchard

Title: What the Dog Ate
Author: Jackie Bouchard
Format: Ebook
Publisher: Self-published
Publish Date: July 11, 2012
Source: I received a copy from the author; however, this did not affect my review.

Why You're Reading This Book:

• You're a romance fan.
• You're an animal lover.

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "When Maggie Baxter, a practical, rule-following accountant, finds out what her chocolate Lab ate, her world turns upside down. Maggie thought she had the rest of her life meticulously planned out, but now she needs to figure out Plan B. With her dog, Kona, as her guru, Maggie embarks on a funny, heartwarming quest in search of tail-wagging joy."

My Two Cents:

Looking for a cute, sweet romance? Are you an animal lover? This is the book for you. This book has a really good story about breaking up and putting yourself back together. Maggie has been with Dave for just about forever. Their relationship has slipped into a comfortable sort-of afterthought as Maggie pursues her career of being an accountant.

I really felt for Maggie because she finds out in a most unconventional way that her husband is cheating on her (I don't want to give it away but it may have something to do with the title). Maggie was a great character. She's totally broken after the break-up of her marriage but it doesn't take long for her to get back in the saddle and her dog, Kona, a big, loveable lab, may just help her back into love again. I found myself rooting for her throughout the entire book. I found a lot of common ground with her. She kind of has a lot of misgivings about herself since she just got cheated on but she eventually realizes that she did absolutely nothing wrong. She got done wrong and you just really want her to find happiness again.

One issue that I had with the book is that I was not a big fan of Russell. He's one of Maggie's love interests in the book. He comes off as sort of skeevy in the book. He's just very non-committal throughout the book, which kind of bothered me a little bit. I didn't get why Maggie was so into him until the end of the book and then he redeems himself. I really wish that I would have liked him a little bit better earlier in the book.

Bottom line: This is a good summer book with a fun story!