Customer Reviews

Dogs and Goddesses

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Jennifer Crusie is one of the best contemporary light fiction authors publishing. But 'Dogs and Goddesses' doesn't read like a Crusie book at all. She is famous for her attention grabbing opening sentences, the sexy tension between the major characters, and her laugh aloud lines. I didn't find any of that here. I strongly suggest that potential readers glance at the first page or two of this book; it pretty well predicts what is to come. Some people seem to enjoy it; I didn't. I found it difficult, even after I'd read half the book, to tell the three major characters apart. There were a few funny lines, but nothing like what I'd come to expect from Crusie. I've also enjoyed Anne Stuart's books in the past, and I can't find many if any traces of her strong characterizations and interesting plots here either. I should have known to read the reviews at Amazon before I bought.

I was such a fan of Agnes and the Hitman (Jennifer Crusie) that I couldn't wait to read something new by author Crusie. D&G started off clunky. Dogs began to talk after 3 women drank a magic tonic. The women's responses to the talking dogs were cliche. In fact, most of the book is a cliche. These authors, Rich, Crusie, and Stuart, have written several books on their own, yet together, the story felt as if was crafted by three highschool girls in their first creative writing class.

I couldn't help but roll my eyes during the cliche sex scenes. I finally gave up after chapter 10 (I usually give up after the 3rd/4th chapter if I don't synch with a book). I really wanted to like this book. I kept hoping it would get better-but it went from clunky, to better, to bad, to outright silly.

That's just me, though.

I will be looking forward to Crusie's new book w/ Mayer. Not giving up just yet.

I love Jennifer Crusie. I like reading about super-natural phenomena and I'm a complete animal lover, so "Dogs & Goddesses" sounded like a great read to me. Unfortunately, I found it to be a total flop. The plot is barely existent, the characters are shallow. I was completely and utterly disappointed.

What can I say- I love dogs and goddesses... so I had high expectations for this book. Actually, I expected a series of separate short stories (since there are 3 authors) and instead was delighted to a 380+ page novel that warmed my heart and delighted me at every moment. Yes, I loved it.

The story is of three women (strangers really) who find themselves bound together as friends as they learn about their history, battle an ancient goddess, talk to dogs, find their true loves, and really come into their own individually and as a trio. Just imagine going to a dog class only to find an ancient goddess has summoned you there and you're expected to be one of her priestesses. Oh, and now you can talk to dogs (and they have definite personalities and opinions!)

I just love it- blending ancient with new, myth with reality... it's a super fun ride.The authors did make up their goddess and her history- a detail I think was wise. Based in modern day Ohio it was interesting to see how an ancient goddess would (NOT) fit in. She thought a plague would kill people, but it was for a disease easily treated these days. She expects people to bow down to her and obey... yet they don't. At the same time the three new goddesses are discovering their power, primal knowledge, and so much more. Reading from all four of these goddesses was a treat and made this a book I couldn't put down.

Smart, funny, and a total delight this book lit my inner goddess for sure! The path to being a goddess for Abby, Daisy, and Shar is paved with cookies, dogs, tonic, love, a temple, a goddess, and lots of female friendship. I can't wait to re-read it again and again.

OK, I am going out on a limb here, LOL, recommending this book. I am solidly a cat person.

Ii is the most phenomenal piece of fluff with a thoroughly ridiculous plot and is utterly delightful. I laughed out loud several times There are talking dogs, modern incarnations of ancient goddesses, one genuine ancient goddess and an equally ancient but gorgeous god king. Well, of course he is gorgeous. Is there ever an ugly male hero?

The book is more sexually explicit than I am ever comfortable with but even that is often quite funny. There are lanuage choices that make me wince but when when the ancient god king picks up the vocab, I laughed.

Over the years i've read many a Jennifer Crusie because they always make me laugh. I'm going to start reading the work of the other two authors.

I, unlike many of the negative reviewers, had not read Jennifer Crusie before, and didn't really know what to expect. All I knew was that it sounded fantasy-esque, which I enjoy, and it was on my mom's bookshelf, which is full of Jennifer Crusie. It was light and fun, and I loved it. Who doesn't love reading about talking dogs, good friends running a coffeehouse, and characters with mystical abilities and connections?

For the record, my mother, a Jennifer Crusie fan, gave it an "A-".

I was happy with this book. The first hundred pages went a little slow but once I got passed that it was a great book. I only wish they would have gotten into more detail about the characters and given more background but that's just me.

This was a totally fun read. I've read "The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes" and find that I am really enjoying the collaborative stories because they seem to take the writers in different directions from their usual paths. Multiple author books exhibit a dynamic that I find appealing: it's less about character development than about plot progression. Having read the other reviews, I felt they couldn't go unchallenged. The plot may be simple but I found that it succeeded in taking me away from my surroundings for a couple of hours and left me with a smile. Isn't that the point of this type of romantic fiction?

Ease up folks. This novel makes no pretense to being Pulitzer prize, Booker prize or any other prize material. It is a summer read and like most it can have serious writing, plot or character flaws. If JC had a background in any other than light fiction I would have put the book down Instead it is a quick break from serious books I must read or the murder mysteries I enjoy. And its not a trilogy.This is a book to just enjoy and trade. Therefore I give it 5 stars and hope JC et al write a sequel for next summer.

Dogs And Goddesses

By Jennifer Crusie, Anne Stuart, and Lani Diane Rich

Published by St. Martin's Press, 2009

Review by Debra Louise Scott

You bake cookies and suddenly an orgy breaks out all around you. You click your Bic pen and stuff just `happens' to people. Painting your kitchen gives you an orgasm. And, oh yeah, the dogs are talking to you. No, I mean really, they're TALKING! To badly paraphrase a song: Who let the Gods out? Woof, woof, woof, woof!

Dogs And Goddesses is somewhat akin to Neil Gaiman's American Gods at least from the standpoint of ancient deities living ordinary lives and having to work their way around modern conventions and conveniences. But whereas Gaiman's gods are schlepping around America with their own agenda, using the protagonist like a pawn in their game, the three main characters of this story have to deal with deity inside their heads competing for control over daily life in an otherwise sleepy college town.

When a Goddess from Mesopotamia (a fictional contemporary of Ishtar) is called into being at the site of a transplanted Ziggurat, aided and abetted by a family that has remained loyal to her from ancient times, the three women find themselves caught up in a war of divine proportions. The Goddess, accompanied by her retinue of dogs, tries to set up her temple like it used to be in the old days, but times have changed and it's not so easy to get people to worship and swear blind allegiance anymore. She's not pleased and unleashes divine mayhem.

The Three along with their dogs go through a great trial and error period learning to control the heritage they discover inside themselves, a good part of which is an eroticism of mythological proportions! It takes all of that and a sacrificial God to turn the tables on the Ziggurat Goddess.

This cleverly written book is a fun read, and will ring bells of recognition to anyone in the esoteric arts who has experienced the odd sensation of having deity `in your head' in the form of ritual invocation or as some traditions would say, `riding'. It's especially fun for dog-lovers, hearing the canine perspective of the human's world.