Reviewed by Kat
TITLE: And the Beagle Makes Three
AUTHOR: Geoffrey Knight
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 93 pages
RELEASE DATE: April 12, 2018
BLURB:
When Stuart Summerfield finally realized he was gay, he knew that telling his beloved wife Claire would be one of the hardest, most heartbreaking things he would ever do. Unfortunately Stu’s coming out wasn’t simply heartbreaking… it had the most unexpected and tragic consequences imaginable.
Now, almost one year after the car accident that took Claire’s life, Stu has buried himself in his work to push through the pain and guilt while doing his best to raise, Atticus, their young son, who has himself handled his grief in his own unique way. While getting by one day at a time proves difficult enough, it never crossed Stu’s mind that the family’s annual weekend away at the lakeside home of his sister-in-law, Bethany, would still go ahead now that Claire was gone.
Atticus, however, has other ideas. With his loyal beagle Digby by his side, Atty makes a phone call to Aunt Bethany in an effort to keep the family tradition alive, no matter what chaos and calamity might ensue.
And so over the course of one weekend filled with commotion—and emotion—Stu and Atty are about to learn that healing can open up your heart, that grief can sometimes be good, and that nobody travels the road to recovery alone
REVIEW:
I am going to state straight up, this is not a romance book in my opinion. This is a book about a family overcoming a tragic death.
Stuart Summerfield and his son Atticus have had a rough go of it. He finally had the courage to tell his dear wife, that he loved very much, about the truth about him…that he is in actuality gay. When she takes off no one could imagine that it was the last time anyone would ever see her alive again. Now Stu is left holding the shattered pieces of what is left of his and Atty’s life without Claire.
When I said this is not a romance I was giving my honest opinion. Yes, there is a small bit of interaction between Stu and a police officer however that was a very brief part of the book. I kept waiting for all the drama between Stu and his witch of a sister-in-law, Bethany, to end so we could get to the romance part. But that isn’t what we got. Yes, there is one kiss finally. But this is the story of a precocious eight year old son that just wants his dad happy. Either Atty is extremely wise beyond his years or he just doesn’t work for me all the time. Also Bethany, and her two evil twin daughters, were way too much of the storyline. I must admit though that there were several things I never saw coming. And Mrs. Duckworth, Stu’s assistant, I have no words for how inappropriate that woman was! I think she could make better use of her time on the internet looking up the ways to be a proper and appropriate employee.
Unfortunately, I went into this with preconceived ideas that this was going to be a quick, sweet romance and it was nothing of the sort. If you love a novella that deals with the aftermath of the death of a mother, then this book might work for you. Unfortunately it just didn’t for me.
RATING: 
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