This started out super cringy- in love with your best friend's boyfriend/husband, but ended with some good life lessons of how to put yourself first (besides the fact the whole book is a little cheesy but in a good way). Also, there's an adorable dog.

So good. So good. So good. Anyone who read The Art Of Racing In The Rain or A Dogs Purpose or really any other dog book needs to pick this book up asap!

A fun read - part love story, part dog story - how can you go wrong. Nice to have a new celebrity author from Rochester.

A cute story. Not as good as Why Can't I Be You, but I enjoyed it.

Ahhhhh tis so sweet to post the 52nd review! And in the nick of time too– I still have a couple of hours until the end of the year! I’m not a big New Year’s Eve person so I’m perfectly content to stay home, drink wine and play games with the fam/pseudo family that come over. Tonight nobody would talk to me until I finished my last book! haha I appreciate the support but I’m glad I can now have some wine and ring in the new year!

Anyway, Stay is indeed a very endearing novel. I was slightly disappointed that it wasn’t MORE about the dog (Joe) but more focused on the love triangle/drama surrounding Van’s love life. I was expecting more of a story about a girl and her dog. So I got more than I bargained for is all.

At times it felt silly and I don’t know how else to explain that other than the shallow comments/thoughts Van had. It was easy to think of her as still in high school or something, so a challenge to relate. Stay is also extremely predictable and I found myself hoping for a twist or turn that would keep me shocked and surprised. Not every novel will wow, but this one was a cute one to end the year with.

Larkin does a good job of tying everything together but I just wish Stay was more about the dog instead of the boys. Van gets her dog for companionship (granted, it’s a mistaken order) but then she comes to value her pet yet somehow the bonding seems skipped. I guess I think the book jacket was slightly misleading in what the novel would offer. But I’m a sucker for the love of dogs All in all, this is a light-hearted read to be enjoyed!

http://bookwormz2010.wordpress.com/2010/12/31/book-52-fabookulous/

I was on a wicked dog kick when I went shopping for audio books. Lucky for me I have another winner here. I did thunk my head on the desk a few times at how thick headed the main character was - but overall I really enjoyed the story and was happy with how it all unfolded.

a decent book; quick read

I read this from around 11 p.m. to 3 a.m., straight through, and I mention this because I don't know if it was lateness and sleep deprivation alone, or the effectiveness of writing, or how easy it was for me to empathise with the lead character of this book - but wow, I cried. I cried three chapters in, and then every once in a while something would happen and my heart would sink all over again.

I want to liken this to a YA novel? not for any reason except for the way this book felt. it felt. it wasn't a romance novel and it wasn't a girl-gets-job-and-relives-life! novel, it was about a girl who had lived for a while, whose life and friends and family made a huge part of her, and it was about how she dealt with things she's been feeling and dealing with for years. the key part was the reconciliation of it, I think - not many books in this genre flesh out backgrounds and then make every aspect of these backgrounds matter, but Stay does that. Stay does that and makes it super satisfying.

There was a part around halfway into the book when I decided I knew where this book was going re: the friends she had and the people she used to know, and I found myself getting exasperated because that's predictable and kind of just dickish to all parties involved, but Larkin ducked that and then really worked towards an ending that kept Van (the lead)'s heart and life and history in mind, and I found that wonderful. It felt earned, and it felt realistic, and even with Van's awful emotional lows, it felt believably warm and kind and good. Seeing Peter and Janie with Van by the end made my heart sing, and I hated them both for a while in the middle.

Man, I'm really glad I read this book. Wouldn't recommend it to everyone, maybe just because it made me cry but also because I'm appreciating it in a "thank you so much for not doing that gross, terrible, irritating thing, Ms Larkin!" way, but my heart is very full.

Re-read in March 2018. In the five years since I first read it I found the story worked less than I remembered. The characters seemed more stereotypical than I remembered. It's still a good story, but I'll remember it a little less fondly. I do still wish Allie Larkin had written something in the last 5 years!

3.5 stars

After reading [b:Why Can't I Be You|15808285|Why Can't I Be You|Allie Larkin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1349186351s/15808285.jpg|21532919] (my review) I knew I had to see what else Allie Larkin had wrote. And Stay didn't disappoint. Like Why Can't I Be You, the main character in Stay is struggling with who she is and where she belongs. Her best friend is marrying her longtime crush and after the wedding, feeling completely lost and lonely (and drunk), she decides to order a German Shepard puppy online. When the puppy arrives, rather than a cute fur ball, he's a pretty large, well trained (except in Czech) dog. And hilarity ensues.

There's an especially great romance that she strikes up with the dog's vet. I really loved the vet and the scenes with him (and the scenes where Van is alone with the dog talking to him) made up my favorite parts of this book.

I won't lie, there were some themes in this book, especially surrounding family that I thought repeated in Why Can't I Be You and that's one of the reasons I can't four or more stars. I think having not read Why Can't I Be You would probably have made me like this book more. Especially because I felt a greater connection with the main character in Why Can't I Be You so I'll just always like that book more.

All that said I've definitely added Allie Larkin to my must-read list of authors and I'm excited to see what she comes up with next. And hopefully she's pick a slightly different theme.

The good: the story & main character grabbed me right away. I read it in a day. The prose was cleanly written. There were a few nuggets about real-life experiences that rang true and gave the story some depth. The dog character is adorable.
The just-okay: Yes, the main character endured some tough things, but too many incredibly lucky things happened too quickly for me to take the story or her too much to heart. For me to completely buy in and root for a character, I'd like them to be a bit more grounded in realism. Also, I wished for more humor/funny moments.