Reviewed by Cindy
TITLE: Dog Days
AUTHOR: Marie Fox
PUBLISHER: Deep Desires Press
LENGTH: 153 Pages
RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2019
BLURB:
Love hurts, and James Harper has the scars to prove it.
Six years after the disastrous end of the relationship that almost got him killed, James Harper is happy. He has healed most of his physical and mental scars, has amazing friends, his writing is finally getting noticed, and he loves his job at the dog kennel. And the best thing of all? He’s managed to keep his heart locked away, safe from anyone who could possibly hurt him again.
But then Aiden Cross enters his life. Tall, blond, gorgeous, and with a great pup named Clover, James can’t help but dream about putting a collar around Aiden’s pretty neck. But Aiden unleashes more than just dreams and the nightmares keeping James awake remind him exactly why he vowed to never submit to love again.
Unable to escape Aiden and his own desires, James has to decide whether a second chance at happiness might be worth the risk. And the pain.
REVIEW:
James feels like life has done enough damage to him and has convinced himself that no relationship is worth taking a chance again….almost. But there’s something about Clover the dog’s daddy that James just can’t seem to let go of.
Aiden is sweet and kind and not exactly what people think he is. And he’s just as taken by James.
This a cute story. The blurb makes it sound all kinds of dramatic but in reality, it’s a sweet story of two men with way too much heart who spend a great deal of time trying to get closer to each other while being terribly afraid that they aren’t good enough for the other one.
Their friends Sean, Chloe and Spencer are great meddlers who keep pushing them towards each other and while we don’t get to know them well, I appreciate the moments of humor all three bring to the story.
My biggest issue with the story is the editing to be honest. The story comes across as being written by someone for whom English is not their first language. Or they have an editor who has no idea how people talk to each other. Everything is very grammatically correct…too much so. When people talk to each other, they tend to use “I’ll” instead of “I will” and “can’t” instead of “cannot.” Also, when people are talking to each other, they tend to not say the other person’s name a lot during the conversation. Both of these scenarios happen far too often in this book. It makes the conversations stilted and awkward and it kept jarring me out of this nice little story.
The sex is good though. The BDSM elements are done reasonable well, but once again the over-precise language makes it a little like trying to read while driving over rumble strips. There’s a few moments of angst but nothing really dark or overly depressing and I found it to be a compelling read. It’s fairly short and didn’t take me more than a couple hours to get through but it didn’t feel rushed or cut short at all.
I really liked both main characters and while I would have liked to have known more about Aiden, I didn’t have any trouble connecting with them.
There was something familiar about this story, although I just can’t seem to put my finger on it.
I did like it a lot and if you’re looking for something quick, with a few tugs at your heartstrings, a little bit of leather and BDSM and characters you can relate to, then Dog Days is for you. Plus, cute dogs!
RATING: 
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