BEAUTY AND THE WIENER by Casey Griffin is a cute story that’s part mystery mixed with the right amount of warmth and emotion at the end. Animal lovers will appreciate this mad little caper for its suspense and humor.
Addison Turner is looking for love in all the wrong places. Can being forced to work with bartender Felix, who is everything she doesn’t want in a husband, turn out to be the best happy accident? A fun escapade through the professional dog show circuit when dogs keep disappearing and the characters scramble to solve who done it.
Addison is quirky and silly with girly-girl habits and fantasies, always searching for her prince charming. She pushed my annoyance buttons at first, because I’m not into girly-girl froufrou. All her fuss and unrealistic expectations for the perfect man was sometimes exasperating, yet I hoped she’d discover the truth – that the perfect man was right under her nose, and not what she was searching for at all.
Felix made me laugh several times. He knew what Addison needed when she didn’t recognize it herself. He seemed like a playboy and unambitious in the beginning, but as his backstory is revealed the reader can’t help but fall hard for him right along with Addison.
At 400 pages, this story feels a bit too long. The plot isn’t overly done but the description is too much, as well as the inner thoughts stalling the story. Those two areas could have pared down the pages to make the tale flow faster for this reader.
This is one of those novels that grows on you. Addison is goofy and I couldn’t relate to her fairy tale wants half the time, but she has many good attributes, such as a kind heart and her love of animals. Felix is a real surprise. I liked him even more after his secret is revealed.
Even though there is too much inner dialogue from Addison’s point of view for my taste, I really enjoyed the suspense and the characters more than the first book. I think animal lovers will enjoy this RESCUE DOG ROMANCE series because its focus on the animals and the humor is hard to resist. Check out book one, MUST LOVE WIENERS, for double your pleasure.
Review by Dorine, courtesy of The Zest Quest. Digital ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley for an honest review.
Beauty and the Wiener by Casey Griffin
Series: A Rescue Dog Romance book two
Category: Contemporary Comedy Romance
Publisher: St. Martin’s Paperbacks (February 7, 2017)
Rated 4 out of 5
