ARC Review: Life on the leash by Victoria Schade

3.5/5 stars 

The main reason as to why I picked this book up:
"Cora Bellamy is a woman who thrives on organization. She’s successfully run her own dog training business for years, perfectly content with her beloved rescue pitbull as the main man in her life."

Sure, the cover caught my eye too, but once I saw the words rescued pitbull I was sold. As an owner of a pitlab mix dog I am sick and tired of people judging the poor breed for what we, as humans, did to them (and sadly still continue to do). 

Will a cub tiger try to eat you or will it cuddle you? Baby animals do not learn their instincts until they are are taught them - by their mother or by a human. As shocking as it sounds a pitbull dog doesn't want to fight another dog for your entertainment . But it will do it if its trained to do so. So before you call a pitbull (or a doberman, or a boxer or whatever breed you have prejudice with) a monster, think about the true monsters behind the dog who enjoy watching innocent animals fight to death so they can make money on it. 

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I got a bit off topic over there, but some things you just can't keep inside. I enjoyed every single bit of this book that had to do with dogs - dogs of all shapes and sizes. Cora is a dog whisperer and the bond she was able to share with each dog made me pet my dog twice as much as I normally do (and I already pet her a lot!)

​The only reason this book wasn't a complete winner for me was because I didn't really care for the tv-show plot. There was just too much tv-show talk in it - I read books because I don't care about tv-shows, so obviously I don't really want to read about them. But it did propel the plot forward and all of the things that happened were nicely wrapped up in the end. 

Cora was a great main character - she was shy, but strong. She had her baggage but she always came through when important things were on the line. And her devotion to her profession was truly remarkable. We need people like Cora in real life! The love interest, or should I say the lust interest of Cora's infuriated me, but in the end I was able to see where Cora was coming from and forgave her. 

​The side characters were well developed and added nice dimension to the story. I really enjoyed Maggie, although her falling out with Darnell and then falling back in was a bit too easy to be believable. 

Despite the happy ending the book wasn't the lightest of reads for me. As a loving dog owner it was incredibly hard to read about abuse and injustice many dogs had to go through. And from the hands of their owners! It broke my heart and I definitely teared up more than once while reading. 

I think that this will make a great summer read for both dog lovers and those who don't know much about dogs and how they operate. If I had to classify this I'd say chick-lit + dogs. The book is actually rich on good dog advice (thanks to the author's dog training background) so I think I also learned something from it. 

This review wouldn't be complete without a picture of my own dog, so reading world, meet Luna (named after a Luna-cat in Sailor Moon).

Big thanks to NetGalley and Gallery, Threshold, Pocket books for an advanced e-copy of this book. All opinions are my own, honest and come from the heart. Life on the leash will be published in September of 2018.