At Least the Cover is Adorable

TITLE: Cold Nose Warm Heart (Fur Haven Dog Park #1)
AUTHOR: Mara Wells
PUBLISHER: Sourcebooks Casablanca
PUBLISHING DATE: January 28, 2020

FROM GOODREADS: 

A poodle, a black lab and a Chihuahua walk into a dog park... 

All Caleb Donovan has to do to redeem his family name is take a rundown Miami Beach apartment building and turn it into luxury condos. Easy, right? 

Unfortunately, that would also turn the local dog park into a parking lot and the neighbors aren't having it. Caleb is faced with outright revolt, led by smart, beautiful building manager Riley Carson and her poodle, LouLou.

For Caleb, this project should have been a slam dunk. But even more challenging than the neighborhood resistance is the mutual attraction between him and Riley. It would be so much easier just to stay enemies. 

Can Riley and her canine sidekick convince Caleb that what's best for business isn't always best for the heart? 

MY THOUGHTS: One look at this cover and clearly anyone who visits my blog regularly knows I was at least going to give it a chance.  And I did.  And while I wanted to love this book, it fell a little short for me.  However, I still love the cover.

Cold Nose, Warm Heart tells the tale of Riley and Caleb.  Riley used to work for Caleb's rich family is resort management until their illegal activities cost her a job and Caleb's family most of their assets.  Riley ends up being property manager for her Grams' place, The Dorothy, and honestly, she isn't doing the best job.  She seems to be able to put band aids on a lot of the repairs popping up but that's about all.  Enter Caleb.  He has been tasked by his grandfather to restore The Dorothy to greatness, and encouraging his brothers to assist.  However, Caleb is headed straight to a fight because the elderly residents of The Dorothy, as well as Riley, don't plan on letting the property go so easily.

So if I'm going to read a book with romance, usually a hate-to-love trope is one I enjoy.  But I found Cold Nose, Warm Heart to be fairly problematic.  First of all, the connection between Riley and Caleb seems forced.  I didn't really care for either of them and I felt like Riley came across as someone in or recently out of college and Caleb as egotistical and self-absorbed.  Also, the book heavily focuses on the creation of a dog park near the property which Caleb quickly uses as way to manipulate the neighborhood into agreeing with his renovation plans.  Now I LOVE dogs which is evident, but it seems like there should have been more focus on the run-down complex, the past financial mismanagement and how to make sure people, as well as their pets, didn't lose their home. 

But let's not be all negative, because there were parts I really enjoyed.  The cast of side characters is great.  Grams is a hoot an so is Eliza, a retired attorney who lives down the street with her dog Lady (who is on the cover).  I liked a lot of The Dorothy's elderly residents and Riley's poodle LouLou is pretty cute too.  I also must admit that Riley did show some growth during the book, I just felt she should have more capabilities in the beginning.  The development of her friendship with Sydney and her dog Chewy was definitely a plus.

So overall, this was a middle of the line read for me.  The book does introduce Caleb's brother Lance who in his brief appearances already grew on me more than Caleb did the entire book. The next in the series focuses on him so I will be picking it up and giving the author and the series a second chance. 

One last pet peeve and I'm sure this seems trivial to some but will shock few who visit regularly.  The dog on the cover is Lucy. Lucy is pretty and Lucy is in the book.  But Riley, the star of the show, has a poodle named LouLou.  Could they not find a cute poodle to feature or at least add to Lucy?

Also, I buddy read this with Anne over at Books of My Heart as part of Winter COYER so make sure to go check out her thoughts. 

RATING: 3 PAWS (and it was a stretch)