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ranjanireviewsreads's review against another edition
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
So. Here we are again with a romance that could have been much better if it were queer. (TL;DR at the end)
Don't get me wrong, You Lucky Dog is an average romance with not a lot of sex (which honestly, seems kinda rare to me) and with two dogs!!!
The dogs were the highlight of the book. I could just read a whole book about them, but that's nothing new.
Julia London takes on a strong writing style from the very first sentence. This is my first book by London so I don't know if this is just how she writes, but it was a bold choice. One that did not age well in the next 300-odd pages.
In the beginning, it was different and endearing but towards the end, coupled with a too-fast romance and a conflict that was not well done, I was over it.
The romance was just so quick and off-page, I had a hard time believing that either of them truly liked each other. It felt like too much time was wasted in conversations where they talked about what was happening in their lives and jobs - which the reader already knows - and not enough time was spent testing out their compatibility.
We don't need to know how they tell each other of their woes - woes that we already know about by the way, so that just makes for unnecessary repetition and filler. So a lot of times when they were together, it just felt like filler and that we were not getting any insight into their minds.
Moving on to the conflict. I will not talk plainly about it here to avoid spoilers for how the story ends.
The conflict itself was external. A family issue initially, and then a life issue. It was supposed to be a representation of "right person, wrong time" and it would have worked! If only the family issue were not an issue and the life issue resulted in actual, long-term consequences.
The family issue itself made no sense. Both their families were involved and it made zero sense to me that people who were supposed to be adults and experienced were acting like little children. Maybe that's how a mid-to-three-quarter life crisis is; I wouldn't really know. But what made it worse is that it got resolved so easily. Within three pages, that conflict was no longer there. There were seemingly no real consequences of that obstacle either, which I really don't like. I want stuff to have consequences!!!!
The life issue too was very badly done. It was hinted at from the beginning of the novel so that's not the problem. The problem was that this too was resolved too quickly and easily. When I read the ending, my first thought was, "but why couldn't this have happened five chapters ago?"
Additionally, there is an autistic side character. The MMCs brother, Jamie, is autistic with moderate-to-high support needs. I'll be fair, writing an autistic character when you're not autistic is not an easy task. I was kinda excited to read about Jamie but he didn't have a big role to play. I thought London might want to make a comment about how caring for and supporting a disabled person takes a toll on an abled family member, but that was barely mentioned. I supposed to not take away from the theme of the book.
But again, while the representation of autism and autistic people didn't seem inherently harmful (as far as I noticed), the writing and the plot just took away from it, as they did with everything else.
TL;DR: I was very underwhelmed with everything in this book - except the dogs. The dogs were great. More dogs, I say.
The romance was not great, the writing became quite stagnant after a while, and the plot was,,, well there was a plot for the sake of having a plot. The autistic rep was not harmful (as far as I noticed) but again, the bad writing and plotting took away from it.
I would not recommend this to anyone.
If you're wondering why I read this, it's because someone gifted it to me.
Don't get me wrong, You Lucky Dog is an average romance with not a lot of sex (which honestly, seems kinda rare to me) and with two dogs!!!
The dogs were the highlight of the book. I could just read a whole book about them, but that's nothing new.
Julia London takes on a strong writing style from the very first sentence. This is my first book by London so I don't know if this is just how she writes, but it was a bold choice. One that did not age well in the next 300-odd pages.
In the beginning, it was different and endearing but towards the end, coupled with a too-fast romance and a conflict that was not well done, I was over it.
The romance was just so quick and off-page, I had a hard time believing that either of them truly liked each other. It felt like too much time was wasted in conversations where they talked about what was happening in their lives and jobs - which the reader already knows - and not enough time was spent testing out their compatibility.
We don't need to know how they tell each other of their woes - woes that we already know about by the way, so that just makes for unnecessary repetition and filler. So a lot of times when they were together, it just felt like filler and that we were not getting any insight into their minds.
Moving on to the conflict. I will not talk plainly about it here to avoid spoilers for how the story ends.
The conflict itself was external. A family issue initially, and then a life issue. It was supposed to be a representation of "right person, wrong time" and it would have worked! If only the family issue were not an issue and the life issue resulted in actual, long-term consequences.
The family issue itself made no sense. Both their families were involved and it made zero sense to me that people who were supposed to be adults and experienced were acting like little children. Maybe that's how a mid-to-three-quarter life crisis is; I wouldn't really know. But what made it worse is that it got resolved so easily. Within three pages, that conflict was no longer there. There were seemingly no real consequences of that obstacle either, which I really don't like. I want stuff to have consequences!!!!
The life issue too was very badly done. It was hinted at from the beginning of the novel so that's not the problem. The problem was that this too was resolved too quickly and easily. When I read the ending, my first thought was, "but why couldn't this have happened five chapters ago?"
Additionally, there is an autistic side character. The MMCs brother, Jamie, is autistic with moderate-to-high support needs. I'll be fair, writing an autistic character when you're not autistic is not an easy task. I was kinda excited to read about Jamie but he didn't have a big role to play. I thought London might want to make a comment about how caring for and supporting a disabled person takes a toll on an abled family member, but that was barely mentioned. I supposed to not take away from the theme of the book.
But again, while the representation of autism and autistic people didn't seem inherently harmful (as far as I noticed), the writing and the plot just took away from it, as they did with everything else.
TL;DR: I was very underwhelmed with everything in this book - except the dogs. The dogs were great. More dogs, I say.
The romance was not great, the writing became quite stagnant after a while, and the plot was,,, well there was a plot for the sake of having a plot. The autistic rep was not harmful (as far as I noticed) but again, the bad writing and plotting took away from it.
I would not recommend this to anyone.
If you're wondering why I read this, it's because someone gifted it to me.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism and Sexual content
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