Customer Reviews

Home is Where the Bark Is

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I love this book. It has laugh-out-loud moments with a very sexy hero and a charming heroine. If you are a person who needs a cheer up and who loves animals, this is the book to read.

Almost as gorgeous as the hero are the dogs. There are a lot of them, each with entertaining personalities and endearing qualities. I want to adopt Mac, but then I'm animal mad.

Shepherd's writing has star quality and I look forward to future books.

Cathleen Ross.

Home is Where the Bark Is by Kandy Shepherd

Contemporary Romance - July 6, 2010

3 stars

I was at the Romance Writers of America meeting when Editor Kate Seaver said to me, "Send me a romance with dogs in it!" and that's precisely what this book is: a light-hearted, fun romance set in an unusual location and peopled by fur-folk.

Home Is Where the Bark Is opens in a doggie day spa of staggering indulgence. This is a very uncomfortable place for ex-FBI, now private eye hero Nick Whalen to go undercover posing as dog owner for a puffy Yorkie-poo (his aunt's dog). But this dog spa seems to be the point of origin of several recent identity thefts, so undercover it is. The proprietress of the spa, Serena Oakley, has her own reasons to be uncomfortable around big, handsome men, including the fall-out of a modeling-career-gone-wrong, some bad boyfriend experiences, and a dislike of authority figures. So, of course, the two characters are instantly attracted, and have much baggage to overcome.

This book is a reasonably fun and a fast read. Some ideas don't entirely pan out. The suspected micro-recording-camera is every bit as far-fetched as it sounds, given that Serena doesn't bother to password-lock her business computer. But if the reader is willing to suspend disbelief over a few technical issues, they'll enjoy a nice beach read. The sexual tension between the characters in this novel are well written and not too in-your-face, and the cuteness-factor of the many dog personalities contributes to some fun along the way, so the book is appropriate to many reader-types. Animal lovers will enjoy the sympathies directed toward the dogs by caring, interested characters.

Reviewed by Adreinne from the Bookaholics Romance Book Club

** spoiler alert ** It's a doggie dog world out there and no-one is learning this better than Nick Whalen. A recently retired FBI agent and new private investigator, Nick's newest case has sent him to the "Paws-A-While" doggie day care and spa. His job is to investigate the owner for possible identity theft. Nick is convinced, since many of the recent victims have been clients of the business, that there has to be a connection. So armed with his aunt's Yorkie Poo Bessie and his determination to crack the case, Nick enters "Paws-A-While" only to come face to face with the loveliest woman he has ever faced. The case has just entered a direction Nick was not planning on heading in.

Serena Oakley's new business is booming. At least it was. Lately a lot of her clients have been pulling out due to "financial troubles". Therefore she is determined to make sure her new client stays, and when he does it's for more than one reason. Nick Oakley and Bessie are the weirdest dog-child and human pairing Serena has seen since she started her business. Nick is way too masculine of man for a fru fru dog like Bessie. One thing Serena knows is the moment Nick came into her shop is that things are going to be getting fairly hairy quite soon; just how hairy Serena could never guess.

I have to say I rather enjoyed this book. Living in a house with five dogs I found myself laughing at the doggie humor in Home is Where the Bark Is. I found myself relating to Serena's dog-kid talk and Nick's "a dog is a dog" talk at the same time. Speaking of Nick and Serena, their relationship is masterfully planned. There is some lust at first sight, but it took a while for the characters to realize they trusted and truly loved each other. Serena had to get past her issues as the result of a crazy stalker and an ex who dumped her by email on Valentine's Day. Nick has to stop seeing Serena as a possible suspect. It was sweet seeing them bond over Mack and the other dogs in the story. You could almost track their relationship as progressed over the weeks. Truly nothing brings people together like animals and this story exemplifies it.

The stories side subplot of indentify fraud is well written as well. You really go through all the motions believing that one person is guilty only to find them cleared. Then as you get nearer to the end of the book, you start getting suspicious of one particular character. So suspicious you find yourself mentally yelling at Serena to listen to Nick and stay away from said person. The big reveal at the end is wonderfully written and really brought things full circle. So if you're a doggie person that likes mysteries with romance, than this book is for you.

The sexiest weakness in a man is his vulnerability to that one special woman. No matter how big, gruff, rough, and tough a man may be, love makes him reachable. The bigger they are...the harder they fall. The most invincible Alpha male may offer his heart like a gift to the woman he loves, and then he will wait for the look on her face to make sure she is pleased with the gift. In one who is usually without self-doubt, that moment of uncertainty is very appealing. I love a man who loves dogs and is kind to animals, and Nick Whalen, the sexy P.I. in Kandy Shepherd's "Home is Where the Bark Is", certainly fits that description. When he goes undercover to investigate a fraud scheme, he never dreams that he will fall head-over-heels for his prime suspect. When he meets Serena Oakley, the owner and operator of "Paws-A-While", a trendy doggy day-care center, he is thrown for a loop! She seems sweet and sincere, and Nick definitely finds her sexy! Serena is immediately drawn to Nick, but somehow he just doesn't seem like the kind of guy to own a prissy little toy dog like the one he brings to her pet place. Suspicion, sweet sensuality, and secrets aplenty are combined with mysterious mayhem, great charm and humor for a very satisfying romantic read!

In San Francisco Nick Whalen brings his Yorkie Bessie to the Paws-A-While doggie day care managed and owned by former model Serena Oakley. She has a difficult time seeing the pair together. After bewildering him with doggy blogs, social networking and doggy-kids, she knows he is doggy clueless especially about pampered pooches. Her assertion is affirmed when she learns the canine's human pet is Nick's great-Aunt Alice of Sausalito

A private investigator, he actually is using the pooch to get insider information on Serena as part of an investigation he is conduction on identity theft in which the evidence points to the day care owner. Still Nick is attracted to his only suspect and soon gets involved with a doggy abandonment case that brings them even closer together.

Following up on Love Is a Four-Legged Word, Kandy Shepherd provides another warm investigative doggy romance in which Nick and Serena learn the same lesson that the previous leads learned that WC Field's was right to never co-star with animals; they always steal the show. Fans will relish this jocular romantic suspense as the undercover P.I. and the doggy day care entrepreneur fall in love one bark at a time.

Harriet Klausner