See those dogs on the cover?????

TITLE: Mutts and Mistletoe
AUTHOR: Natalie Cox
PUBLISHER: G.P. Putnam's Sons
PUBLISHING DATE: October 9, 2018

FROM GOODREADS: Her boyfriend has left her for his personal trainer, her mother has absconded with her latest husband for the holidays, and--adding insult to (literal) injury--her London apartment has just been destroyed by a gas leak. Single, mildly concussed and temporarily homeless, Charlie realizes there's only one place to go: Cozy Canine Cottages, where she'll spend the season looking after her cousin Jez's doggy day care center. And if she's not exactly a dog person, well, no one has to know...

But her plans for a quiet Christmas in a quaint country village are quickly dashed. Peggy the pregnant beagle and Malcolm the anxious Great Dane seem determined to keep her up all night. A strange man has been casing her cousin's house. And where is Cal, the unbearably patronizing but disturbingly handsome local vet, when she needs him?

As the days tick down to Christmas, Charlie's life has never felt so out of control--but with some help from her new four-legged friends, she just might learn a thing or two about living in the moment, embracing the unexpected and opening herself up to love...

MY THOUGHTS:  So ever since I saw this cover, I've been dreaming of a nice quiet weekend snuggled in a furry blankets with my pups snuggling by my side.  I was thrilled to get an ARC and have saved it for the Christmas season.  In fact, it was the perfect fit for a recent readathon.  But somehow, this book left me feeling a little flat.  Now I will admit that the last 30% or so saved it for me because in the beginning, I feared it was not going to live up to my anticipation.  

So Charlie lives in London and was recently dumped by her boyfriend.  As Christmas nears, a gas explosion in her apartment building almost impales her she ends up needing a place to stay.  Her mother, who loves to meddle, arranges for Charlie to spend the holiday with her cousin Jez, who lives in the country and runs Cozy Canine Cottages.  However, Charlie is not a dog person.  Needless to say, Charlie eventually goes and stays with Jez, who is actually a much more likable person that Charlie.  While there, she meets the local vet, who she calls Bovine Cal, because he specializes in, yep,  you guessed it, cows.  Cal and Charlie do not hit it off and things become even more complicated when Jez decides to take off for the North Pole to rendezvous with an on-line girlfriend, leaving Charlie in charge of the dogs who are boarding there for Christmas.  Even Cal questions why Jez would do such a thing.

So despite not liking dogs, Charlie ends up taking in even more boarders as the holidays draw closer and before you know it, she has a full house - literally, because the heat in the cottages go out.  Add in a small mystery, a hunk named Hugo who is engaged to the local snob, and alpacas and you have "Mutts and Mistletoe."

Like I said, in my opinion, the last part totally saved the novel.  However, I did have a couple of issues that I just can't get over.  First of all, Charlie isn't a dog person.  Strike one.  Secondly, her cousin leaves her in charge of the dogs and the kennel to traipse to the North Pole - not a smart business decision.  And last but not least, see the adorable dogs on the cover?  The ones who made me fall in love with this book before I even started?  Well, they are even in the book. Don't get me wrong, there are some adorable dogs.  We have a deaf Great Dane named Malcolm, a pregnant beagle (why did you leave Charlie with your personal pregnant beagle Jez?), two Alaskan Malamutes, an elderly dog who they call Slab because he doesn't move much, and an Irish Setter.  See, lots to chose from so why aren't any of THEM on the cover?  I have since discovered several foreign editions and both covers are more indicative of the book.

So overall I did enjoy this book, but not as much as I had hoped.  There are some great characters in the little country town whose oddness only make them that much more endearing.  The dogs are fun and adorable and Charlie does exhibit some character growth which is good, because she needed it.  So even though I could easily give this a 3/5, it's probably more like a 3.5 so for Goodreads sake I'll add up.  After all, it's still an adorable cover.

RATING: 4 PAWS