Admittedly I liked the story here much better than the execution. I seem to be of one of two minds with Ms. Walker’s stories. Either I absolutely adore them or they fall in the middle lands for me. This one falls sadly in the middle this time around. There were a couple of glitch moments and often the reactions felt very sharp and jagged without a smooth realistic interaction. Still I liked both characters a lot and of course the dogs were precious. I’d call this a 3.5 stars overall

Carter Reece is excited to start his new job. It was time for a change and the opportunity to take over an already established veterinary practice came at the perfect time. He’s enjoyed learning the ropes behind the vet who is retiring and though surprising to find he still did a couple of house calls in this day and age Carter’s more than happy to continue the practice. The next call on their list is nothing like Carter expected though and has the potential to turn his world upside down.

Isaac Brannigan has been blind since he lost his sight in a car accident as a child. He has had a few guide dogs over the years, but after the loss of his last dog and best friend Rosie, he’s turned even more inward. He’s refused to connect with his new dog Brady no matter how wonderful of a job Brady is doing. In fact he’s had his vet look over the dog so many times looking for that fatal flaw. When his vet arrives with a new replacement in tow it throws Isaac for a loop. He’s not a fan of change in the first place, but there’s something about Carter Reece that appeals to Isaac, which of course means he puts his foot in it almost immediately.

So Isaac is a bit surly…understandably sure, maybe a little bit. But he has almost a complete character change when he’s talking about teaching or the one little scene we see of him at the school for the blind where he works. The times he flies off the handle are all very abrupt as well. Of course they all stem back to the loss of Rosie and his disconnection from feeling. Still I liked him for the most part. I felt sorry for him but appreciated the strength of everything he’s learned to do for himself. His sister was great! She didn’t put up with most of his crap which was fun to see. Though that was one of my little niggles. When Carter first came to the house he was sure that the woman there was Isaac’s wife, or girlfriend and then by the end of the conversation and without anyone expressly saying it that I remember suddenly he’s referring to her as Isaac’s sister. It was just one of those glitches where either I missed something or the text jumped to a conclusion that hadn’t been fully established.

Carter is just the sweetest guy ever and his Missy was lovely as well. The dogs in this story were awesome. I loved the joy of their playing. ☺ Carter has infinite amounts of patience even if he does need his moments to cool down. I appreciated it when he finally snapped though and addressed the issues Isaac was having. He was the impetus needed for Isaac to finally move on in a healthy way. These two are definitely stronger together.

This was an enjoyable book that just didn’t connect with me as much as I was hoping it would. There were too many times where things came across as a little abrupt and would throw me out of the story. Yet it would redeem itself often with the sweetness and caring between the characters and of course the dogs. I wanted to Isaac to realize that he could move on and that that wouldn’t be doing any sort of disservice to Rosie. The ending was lovely and actually worked really well for me! I liked this book, I just didn’t love it.