I think this book was more about the main character learning to truly mourn her mother instead of being a cheeky chick lit love story. There's nothing really wrong with this, it's just not what I thought it was going to be and not really how I think the description on the back presents the story. I liked the premise of Van adjusting to life after her BFF/love of her life marries her childhood BFF and getting a dog to cope. Hilarious foibles were sure to ensue, right? Well...sort of. The dog is great and so is the attachment Van develops with Joe. I was also intrigued by the possibility of romance with Alex, the vet. But that's all this character has. When she's not attempting to mourn and come to grips with her mother's death, lamenting her life without Janie and/or Peter, she's chasing after the dog and quibbling over what Alex thinks of her. Which was also weird, since he made it pretty clear he was into her. And as cute as Louis would be in real life, in the book he was a ridiculous anti-plot device since any real issues she could have with Alex or moving were conveniently solved by Louis. Seriously? The plot was all over the place (love story? Story about coping and moving on? Story about dogs?) and therefore very weak. The characters were never in any real danger of anything and anytime the plot came close to real development, it either ended abruptly with juvenile non-communication or ended in a sobfest with the characters falling over each other to apologize. The writing wasn't awful and could be quite cute, but Joe the dog was the best part of this poorly plotted book and will be the only character I will miss fondly.