Book Review: Sit, Stay, Love (Rescue Me #2) by Debbie Burns

Sit, Stay, Love

Author: Debbie Burns
Series: Rescue Me, Book 2
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Expected Publication: April 3, 2018
Paperback, 416 pages
Rating: 4 Stars
★★★★☆
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Summary: These dogs aren't the only ones in need of rescue
For devoted no-kill shelter worker Kelsey Sutton, rehabbing a group of rescue dogs is a welcome challenge. Working with a sexy ex-military dog handler who needs some TLC himself? That's a different story.
Kurt Crawford keeps his heart locked away from everyone. Well, everyone except the dogs who need his help...and always have his back. But as Kurt gets to know the compassionate, beautiful woman he's been assigned to work with, he can't help but feel a little puppy love...

Review: This book was great on so many levels. Kelsey and Kurt are both great characters dealing with issues from their pasts, as well as trying to do their best to get through each day and build a better future. I love Kelsey's history with depression, her rainbow color-of-the-day T-shirts, and how she takes one of the shelter dogs home with her each night. I appreciate the amount of diversity in this book - Kurt is dealing with PTSD, Kelsey struggles with depression, Patrick (a wonderful side character) has Asperger's.

The romance storyline doesn't really feel front and center of this book to me. It splits its focus on Kurt dealing with his PTSD, his family issues, and the loss of his grandmother;  running rehab for 37 dogs rescued from a dog fighting ring in a falling apart mansion, with a specific focus on a few of the individual dogs' stories, as well as issues with protesters and the like; the relationship with Ida (another really great side character). There are also many themes of fate in this book, which at times got a little sappy for me. The sex scenes are also told in a very fade-to-black manner, so this book is definitely more sweet than steamy. At times it got a little too saccharine sweet for me, which is what inevitably made me rate it 4 stars instead of 5. The writing is great, I loved the characters and the world they built, and this book make me want to go adopt a cat exactly like Mr. Longtail.

This is the second book in the Rescue Me series, but can be read as a stand alone novel. The first book, A New Leash on Love, is about Megan and Craig who do feature some as side characters in this novel, but the spoilers are really limited to things you already know from reading romance (i.e. that they wind up together and live happily ever after). There is also some set up that makes me really hopeful that the next book will be about Tess and Patrick.

*I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.