* * * 1/2
When Craig Williams draws the short straw and has to take his daughter’s adorable new puppy to a shelter after the holidays, it’s just another painful episode in the fall-out of a miserable divorce. He needs to pick up the pieces of his life, and, after a fiery confrontation with Megan Anderson, the young woman running the shelter, he wants to put the whole episode behind him. However, when he keeps finding new ways to reconnect with her, he realizes Megan’s compassionate and caring nature just might be the perfect salve for his broken heart.
Source: advance e-galley provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review
Take one guess as to what convinced me to request this book? Yep. The puppers. I cannot resist a cute puppy and so I was suckered in. (Kudos to the person who designed the cover!)
Megan runs the local animal shelter which is a labour of love that requires hard work and a lot of balancing. It's apparent from the get go that all the animals at the shelter mean the world to her. She has the patience to win over their trust and to help them find the right forever homes where they can continue to lead full, happy lives. She meets Craig when he comes in to surrender his daughter's puppy. Life took a dramatic downward turn for his family even before he and his wife divorced. Now his focus is on his kids and work. Understanding that his daughter and ex-wife can no longer manage a puppy in their house, he takes it to the shelter where Megan immediately assumes that he's someone easily giving up on a pet, therefore pegging him as an entitled jerk. He doesn't appreciate her assumption of him but doesn't feel the need to correct her on it either, even if it does bother him. So imagine how confused they are that despite their negative interaction there seem to be sparks flying between them. When Craig's daughter starts volunteering at the shelter, it gives both him and Megan a redo.
This is a second-chance love story in the sense that it's a second chance at life and love. Both have suffered losses and neither is feeling too brave to jump in. I thought it was fascinating that Megan who is so brilliant at gaining an animal's trust is not so quick to trust another human. We get her and Craig's side of the story but I was nicely surprised to get his daughter Sophie's perspective as well. I thought it added an interesting layer to the story to include his child's observation. Thanks to the three of them I got a better feel for them as individuals with and away from each other and their take on what has been happening. Let's not forget that the setting is an animal shelter. I really enjoyed reading how Megan worked with and trained the dogs. (Yes, I was trying to pick up some tips myself.)
A New Leash On Love is an adorable, feel-good read that leaves your heart full. It's the first in the Rescue Me series and I'm looking forward more from Debbie Burns.
~ Bel
We're happy to share with you an excerpt from A New Leash On Love as part of today's spotlight tour. Enjoy and don't forget to enter the giveaway below!
Megan drove
home through the streets of Webster Grove, trying to sort out a tangled mess of
feelings that wouldn’t unravel. When it came to Craig Williams, everything was
too knotted together to decipher.
Pulling onto her
cul-de-sac, she felt her heart thump erratically when she spotted a BMW 7
Series parked in her driveway. She hit the brakes, then the gas a bit too hard.
The engine revved, and heat rushed all the way into her fingers and toes.
Please don’t let him have seen that. She parked in her driveway alongside his car
and attempted to step out as gracefully as possible. He was still in his seat,
talking on the phone. She headed around and leaned against her passenger door.
Meeting her gaze, he held up a finger and offered a secretive smile that
lightened her mood more than a whole bag of comfort food could’ve.
She heard a
handful of words through his closed window. They were boring ones that had to
do with sales and reports and projections. Then he said he had to go.
With a wave of
insecurity washing over her, Megan pulled her jacket closed. The sun was
setting, and the temperature was dropping.
Craig stepped
from his car wearing a dress shirt that was open at the collar and no coat.
Keeping one arm draped over his door, he stared at her without saying anything.
Just three feet, maybe four, separated them.
“Hey,” she said.
Why was the onus on her to talk first? He was standing in her driveway.
“I wanted to give
you something. If you have a few minutes.”
She rocked back
on her heels. “I think I have a few.”
With a hint of a
smile curling his lips, he reached into his car and pulled out a brown-paper
gift bag. “It isn’t another donation, so I’m hopeful it won’t piss you off.”
A laugh bubbled
out of her. “Based on our history, I’d have to say you never know.” She took
it, admiring the gold tissue paper poking out the top. “Did you bag this
yourself?”
“I feel compelled
to say I’m not that good at domesticity.”
She separated the
folds of tissue, then paused. “Let me guess… You bronzed my pooper scooper?”
She said it in hope of easing the tension still hanging in the air. He’d
commented at lunch that with the new employee they were going to add, her
poop-scraping days might well be over.
Whatever he’d
given her was flat, wide, and rectangular. Pursing her lips, she pulled it out
and held it up in the dim light. “Um, is it a little chalkboard?”
He laughed in the
low, quiet way that made her tingle down to her toes. “It’s more of a
metaphorical gift.”
Megan tilted her
head, looking from him to the chalkboard. “If you’re saying not to use your
donation on new technology for the shelter, you could’ve given me a Hallmark
card. Nothing says I don’t do technology like Hallmark.”
“Try again,
Megan. This is about this afternoon. It has nothing to do with the shelter.”
That word again.
Her name. Only when he said it, it was like a tall stack of chocolate chip and
pecan pancakes with extra syrup.
With her heart
running its own marathon, she forced her attention to the shiny new chalkboard
in her hand and tried to figure out how it could be metaphorical. Suddenly she
got it. Unable to keep the grin from spreading across her face, she held it up.
“Are you offering me a clean slate?”
He smiled wide
enough to show a set of very white, straight teeth. “Yes, as a matter of fact I
am.” Pulling one hand from his pocket, he held up a finger. “And hopefully a
better explanation than the one I gave you this afternoon, if you’ll allow me.”
Her heart
plummeted into her stomach, then leaped into her throat. “I will.”
“That’s good.
Really good.” He moved a step closer, returning his free hand to his pants’
pocket. Megan suddenly wondered if he wanted to touch her as much as she wanted
him to. “Look, you haven’t had kids so you may not understand this, but the
thing is, right now my life is about my kids. My ex-wife and I didn’t divorce
for the chance to be with other people. Not now. Not at this stage in the
game.”
Why did it
suddenly feel like he was dumping her? With a chalkboard? Swallowing hard, she
nodded. “I get it, Craig.”
“Please let me
finish. I hardly ever say things. But I have to say this. To you. Because
you’re real and because you matter.”
She swept a lock
of hair behind her ear and nodded him on. “Okay.”
“You see, a few
years ago, something happened and the kids—” His voice cracked, and he cleared
his throat.
Her own throat
was so damn tight, but she had to spare him from continuing. “Sophie told me.
She told me what happened.”
Craig stared at
her for a mile of heartbeats before starting again. “Then you know that I can’t
hurt them. Not now. Not more than the divorce already has.”
Her insides
turned to mush. “I know, and I get it. Like I said, I’m sorry for the
accusation I made earlier.”
With a bitter
laugh, he walked away from her, pacing again. “I deserved it. And more. You
caught me off guard right from the start. With what you said to me the first
time I met you. About rising to the occasion. And just about everything else from
then on. But I’m not making decisions for me. I can’t move forward with you in
that way. And let’s face it, it’s obvious to the world you aren’t
one-night-stand material. I probably wouldn’t be half as attracted to you if
you were.” He sighed and dragged his fingers through his hair. “This is a
terrible apology. I’ve never been good at them, but now I’m really out of
practice.”
“It’s all right.
I’m okay with your faults, numerous as they are.” Megan grinned and held up the
bag she’d slipped the chalkboard into. “Besides, we’re starting over,
remember?”
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