Blog Tour: Dog Crazy by Meg Donahue

Author Meg Donahue
Publisher: William Morrow
Date of publication: March 2015

The USA Today bestselling author of How to Eat a Cupcake and All the Summer Girls returns with an unforgettably poignant and funny tale of love and loss, confronting our fears, and moving on . . . with the help of a poodle, a mutt, and a Basset retriever named Seymour.

As a pet bereavement counselor, Maggie Brennan uses a combination of empathy, insight, and humor to help patients cope with the anguish of losing their beloved four-legged friends. Though she has a gift for guiding others through difficult situations, Maggie has major troubles of her own that threaten the success of her counseling practice and her volunteer work with a dog rescue organization.

Everything changes when a distraught woman shows up at Maggie’s office and claims that her dog has been stolen. Searching the streets of San Francisco for the missing pooch, Maggie finds herself entangled in a mystery that forces her to finally face her biggest fear-and to open her heart to new love.

I love when I read a book and it gives me a warm and fuzzy (or should I say furry) feeling in the end.  Dog Crazy did just that to me.  It's a well written and sweet story about love and loss with some lovable four legged friends thrown in. Maggie is a recent transplant to San Francisco.  She is a pet grief counselor who is harboring a few issues of her own.  The recent loss of her beloved dog Toby has caused her anxiety to escalate into agoraphobia.  She hasn't left her yard in 100 days.  Helping her newest patient Anya find her dog Billy maybe the answer to helping her get out of the house.

The thing that I liked about the book was the author's look at anxiety disorders and the way pets can help people manage them.  Using her friend's dog Giselle, Maggie is able to slowly allow herself to leave the confines of her yard and start exploring the city.  I thought the subject was handled realistically.  Maggie is never really "cured"  but she is able to make great progress and learn some coping skills. 

 For many, pets become a part of the family and the grief that one feels when they die can be overwhelming.  Once Maggie ventures outside, she realizes that there is a whole world of possibility for new love and friendship.  I was really rooting for her to find a way to open her heart up again to be able to fall in love, not only with Henry, but with a new dog.

Does the mystery of what happened to Billy ever get solved?  I'm not telling!  You'll have to pick up this wonderful story and find out for yourself!

About the author:

Meg Donohue is the author of How to Eat a Cupcake. She has an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University and a BA in comparative literature from Dartmouth College. Born and raised in Philadelphia, she now lives in San Francisco with her husband, their two young daughters, and their dog.

Find out more about Meg at her website, and connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.

Purchase Links

Amazon | IndieBound | Barnes & Noble

Meg’s Tour Stops

Tuesday, March 10th: Walking With Nora

Wednesday, March 11th: 100 Pages a Day … Stephanie’s Book Reviews

Thursday, March 12th: A Chick Who Reads

Friday, March 13th: Kritters Ramblings

Monday, March 16th: Always With a Book

Tuesday, March 17th: BookNAround

Wednesday, March 18th: Bibliotica

Thursday, March 19th: Peeking Between the Pages

Monday, March 23rd: Patricia’s Wisdom

Tuesday, March 24th: Ms. Nose in a Book

Thursday, March 26th: Svetlana’s Reads and Views

Monday, March 30th: From the TBR Pile

Tuesday, March 31st: Books in the Burbs

Wednesday, April 1st: Thoughts on This ‘n That

Friday, April 10th: I’d Rather Be At The Beach

All the Summer Girls by Meg Donohue

Author: Meg Donohue
Publisher: William Morrow
Date of publication: May 2013

In Philadelphia, good girl Kate is dumped by her fiance the day she learns she is pregnant with his child. In New York City, beautiful stay-at-home mom Vanessa is obsessively searching the Internet for news of an old flame. And in San Francisco, Dani, the aspiring writer who can't seem to put down a book--or a cocktail--long enough to open her laptop, has just been fired...again.

In an effort to regroup, Kate, Vanessa, and Dani retreat to the New Jersey beach town where they once spent their summers. Emboldened by the seductive cadences of the shore, the women being to realize how much their lives, and friendships, have been shaped by the choices they made one fateful night on the beach eight years earlier--and the secrets that only now threaten to surface.

All the Summer Girls is  a pretty quick read just in time for summer.  At it's heart, it's about 3 women who each hold a secret about the summer Kate's brother, Colin, died.  Those events 8 years earlier have shaped their lives.  They all believe that their secret contributed to his death in some way. 

For me, the book was overall OK.  Out of the three characters, the only one I really felt badly for was Kate.  Her life is so ordered that she leaves now room for fun or spontaneity.  Being dumped and finding out she was pregnant all on the same day probably was the best thing that could ever happen to her. It spun her life out of control and forced her to face her past and the guilt she had been feeling all of these years. 

I didn't like Vanessa very much.  Yes, her husband kissed another woman, but did that give her the right to seek out her ex-boyfriend?  That makes her just as bad in my eyes. I also thought she was whiny.  She is a stay at home mom with a beautiful daughter, a great place to live and money to do what she wants, yet she isn't happy.  Stop complaining and do something about it.  What does she have to be unhappy about? I had no sympathy for her.  

And lastly, Dani.  She is clearly an addict and has been for years.  She keeps making excuses for her behavior.   She plays the victim and keeps blaming her circumstances in life on the night Colin died.  I wanted to scream at her to get over it. She is 29 years old and it's time to be a grown up and own up to her behavior. The only way I saw her making it was rehab and some serious counseling.

To be honest, I didn't really think that any of their secrets about that night was all that big. Certainly, not enough to ruin their lives or friendships. Colin was a drug addict and was clearly headed toward a path of destruction. Not one of their decisions, however poor, would have changed this. At the end of the book, I thought that Kate was the only one I thought had changed the most.  Her future looked bright and I knew she would be OK not matter what happened.  I didn't get that sense with either Vanessa or Dani.

About the author:
 
Meg Donohue is the author of the bestselling novel How to Eat a Cupcake, which was translated into Dutch, German, Italian, and Polish, and the forthcoming All the Summer Girls. She has an MFA from Columbia University and a BA from Dartmouth College. Born and raised in Philadelphia, she now lives San Francisco with her husband, two young daughters, and dog. Visit her at  http://www.megdonohue.com

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