2012: #12 – Dogs and Goddesses (Jennifer Crusie, Lani Diane Rich, & Anne Stuart)

Title: Dogs and Goddesses
Author: Jennifer Crusie, Anne Stuart, Lani Diane Rich
Format: Mass market paperback
Pages: 400 (2012 total – 3,120)
Approx. Word Count: 100,000 (2012 total – 870,504)
Release Date: February 03, 2009
Publisher: St. Martin’s Paperbacks
Categories: paranormal romance
Source: personal copy
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Back of the book:

Abby has just arrived in Summerville, Ohio, with her placid Newfoundland, Bowser. She’s reluctantly inherited her grandmother’s coffee shop, but it’s not long before she’s brewing up trouble in the form of magical baked goods and steaming up her life with an exasperating college professor.

And then there’s Daisy, a web code writer, and her hyperactive Jack Russell, Bailey. Her tightly-wound world spins out of control when she discovers the chaos within and meets a mysterious dog trainer whose teaching style is definitely hands-on.

Finally there’s Shar, professor of ancient history at Summerville College, who wakes up one morning to find her neurotic dachshund, Wolfie, snarling at an implacable god sitting at her kitchen table, the first thing in her life she hasn’t been able to footnote.

What on earth is going on in this unearthly little town? It’s up to Abby, Daisy, and Shar to find out before an ancient goddess takes over Southern Ohio, and they all end up in the apocalyptic doghouse…

My thoughts:

This was fun, but don’t start looking at it too closely. One of the things the authors did do right was manage a consistent voice, which couldn’t have been easy with three of them writing it. The different women do have their own sub-voice, but overall the tone was very consistent. Also, the dog sidekicks were rather entertaining, and it wasn’t particularly difficult to tell the difference between them.

The part that doesn’t really hold together is the mythology, from the overall goal of the ancient goddess to the fact that an ancient temple had been moved to this small town piece by piece and was now being used as a home. There were seven goddesses total, but it seemed that everyone but Abby, Daisy, and Shar didn’t really matter.

But, when push comes to shove, we don’t really read a book like this for an air-tight plot. We read them because we want something fun and sexy, and that’s exactly what we get.

Available from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound | WorldCat

Other reviews:

• ” I read the story happily for the dogs, and they totally deserve their share of the book’s title. The dogs are marvelous. “ — Smart Bitches, Trashy Books
• “I’m all down with humor, you know, but if you’re going to make jokes out of your own characters, I’m not going to feel much empathy for them.” — Alpha Heroes
• “I actually found the love stories a little thin because there were three love stories going on at the same time. I think the authors should have focused on the struggle with the godess (sic) Kammani.” — I Read Pulp Fiction

Past reviews:

2011: Bloody Mary (J.A. Konrath)
2010: Eat This, Not That (David Zinczenko)
2009: All Night Long (Jayne Ann Krentz)
2008: Nineteen Minutes (Jodi Picoult)
2007: The 5th Horseman (James Patterson)
2006: The Lunatic Cafe (Laurell K. Hamilton)
2005: The Miserable Mill (Lemony Snicket)