Fun & Easy to read Dog Books

Lost Dogs and Lonely Hearts
Walking Back to Happiness
The Secret of Happy Ever After
by Lucy Dillon

This past summer, I discovered author Lucy Dillon, the small town of Longhampton, and its residents. I read through the existing three books quickly, and I was really disappointed when there weren’t any left! (Until I found out there’s a new one on the way!)

There are so many great things about these books. Not only can you read them in any particular order, (I started with the most recent one, The Secret of Happy Ever After, not realizing there were others before it) without getting lost, each book is focused on a few different characters mentioned peripherally in the other books, which makes connecting the dots (and dogs) fun! Reading them feels like watching the movies The Holiday, or Love, Actually, and, actually, I found myself sincerely hoping these books would be made into movies someday. The Irish twins (Roisin and Florrie) in Walking Back to Happiness are so funny, they alone would be worth seeing come to life on the silver screen!

Each book follows a pair of female characters through personal growth and struggle as each adjusts to changes in her life. Loss is a key player- loss of a job, spouse, home or relationship… as the women work to rebuild and move on with the new directions their lives are taking. The author has hit upon a great formula. There’s always a dog in the mix, and a male interest developing in predictable pattern. More than that, though, are the friendships, the unexpected secrets others are keeping, the way everything boils to the surface. Lucy Dillon definitely has a knack for writing emotions and involving the reader in her stories. Her stories are hard to put down! I think maybe I enjoyed Rachel in Lost Dogs and Lonely Hearts the most,  but really, it’s a tie between that book and The Secret of Happy Ever After.

Lucy’s fourth book, A Hundred Pieces of Me, is expected to be published on February 27th.

Jennifer Casula lives in Texas with  her husband, three dogs and three cats (they lost a fourth cat, Macie, in June of 2013, due to a very aggressive fibrosarcoma that was complicated with mast cell tumors, she was 10 years old), and two turtles. In October of 2013 they fostered their 7th puppy for Texas Cattle Dog Rescue, followed by another in November