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candidceillie's review against another edition
3.0
Rick Stanton was a promising professional baseball player with dreams of playing in the major leagues and starting a family with his young wife, Francesca, when World War II changed everything. Rick returns from the war with his body broken and his dreams shattered. But it was not just body and spirit he sacrificed for the war. He and Francesca volunteered their beloved dog, Pax, for the Army’s K-9 Corp, not knowing if they’d ever see him again.
Keller Nicholson is the soldier who fought the war with Pax by his side, and the two have the kind of profound bond that can only be forged in war. Pax is the closest Keller has to a sense of family, and he can’t bear the thought of returning him to the Stantons. But Rick and Francesca refuse to give him up. Instead, an arrangement is made: Keller will work as Rick’s live-in aide. And thus an unlikely family is formed, with steadfast Pax at the center. As they try to build a new life out of the ashes, Keller and Francesca struggle to ignore their growing attraction to each other, and Rick, believing that he can no longer give Francesca what she needs and wants, quietly plans a way out.
All three of them need healing. All three of them are lost. And in Susan Wilson's A Man of His Own, Pax, with his unconditional love and unwavering loyalty, may be the only one who can guide them home.
I saw this on Netgalley, and saw that Garth Stein, the author of The Art of Racing In The Rain, recommended it, so what had been a possible choice became a definite one. Believing that this book would be horribly sad, I decided to put reading it off until I had enough time to just cry over it for several hours.
However, it really wasn’t as sad as I expected it to be, though there were definitely some very sad moments. It’s hard to see people have as little hope as Rick did after he returned from the war, but I was glad to read the epilogue.
I didn’t particularly care for Rick, though I can imagine that being a shadow of the man he once had been, and by what he saw as his own fault, it would make it difficult to find hope within the walls of his sickroom. I found myself praying for him to find hope, and I’m glad he finally found some, at least enough to spur the
I think my favorite character was Keller, and his relationship with Pax was absolutely wonderful. I loved that despite everything that happened to him throughout his childhood, he kept going and never gave up on himself or the others around him. I also liked that he was always pushing Rick to not give up on himself, even when it was clear that that would be the easiest option.
My rating for this book would be 3.5 stars. It was a good book, but it didn’t really grab me the way The Art of Racing In The Rain did, and that’s what I was looking for. It’s a very solid read, and I’m glad I read it.
Keller Nicholson is the soldier who fought the war with Pax by his side, and the two have the kind of profound bond that can only be forged in war. Pax is the closest Keller has to a sense of family, and he can’t bear the thought of returning him to the Stantons. But Rick and Francesca refuse to give him up. Instead, an arrangement is made: Keller will work as Rick’s live-in aide. And thus an unlikely family is formed, with steadfast Pax at the center. As they try to build a new life out of the ashes, Keller and Francesca struggle to ignore their growing attraction to each other, and Rick, believing that he can no longer give Francesca what she needs and wants, quietly plans a way out.
All three of them need healing. All three of them are lost. And in Susan Wilson's A Man of His Own, Pax, with his unconditional love and unwavering loyalty, may be the only one who can guide them home.
I saw this on Netgalley, and saw that Garth Stein, the author of The Art of Racing In The Rain, recommended it, so what had been a possible choice became a definite one. Believing that this book would be horribly sad, I decided to put reading it off until I had enough time to just cry over it for several hours.
However, it really wasn’t as sad as I expected it to be, though there were definitely some very sad moments. It’s hard to see people have as little hope as Rick did after he returned from the war, but I was glad to read the epilogue.
I didn’t particularly care for Rick, though I can imagine that being a shadow of the man he once had been, and by what he saw as his own fault, it would make it difficult to find hope within the walls of his sickroom. I found myself praying for him to find hope, and I’m glad he finally found some, at least enough to spur the
I think my favorite character was Keller, and his relationship with Pax was absolutely wonderful. I loved that despite everything that happened to him throughout his childhood, he kept going and never gave up on himself or the others around him. I also liked that he was always pushing Rick to not give up on himself, even when it was clear that that would be the easiest option.
My rating for this book would be 3.5 stars. It was a good book, but it didn’t really grab me the way The Art of Racing In The Rain did, and that’s what I was looking for. It’s a very solid read, and I’m glad I read it.
kathijo63's review against another edition
5.0
Susan Wilson has become one of my favorite authors. Her books just resonate deeply with me. This one was no different. It was also very interesting to learn about the Dogs for Defense program. I can't even imagine giving your dog up to go help in the war effort.
I was torn between who I thought Pax should end up with. No matter which way it went, someone was going to be heartbroken. But the story was beautifully written and while I was sad, it was the right choice I think.
I was torn between who I thought Pax should end up with. No matter which way it went, someone was going to be heartbroken. But the story was beautifully written and while I was sad, it was the right choice I think.
bravokidroxy's review against another edition
2.0
This was a very fast read and very light. There are more serious themes that are touched on: PTSD, grief and guilt, abuse and neglect but they feel only surface deep. The POV changes every chapter which to me is jarring especially since the tense and maybe even the narrative style shift too, I really wanted this book to be ‘written’ by the dog but it’s not so that was an immediate let down. I should also mention that there are some date tags that give a structured timeline to the story both in narrative and in the part break pages but even with those I felt like lots of the story was almost timeless in that it could have been literally any-when. There was a very slow burn on a revel that the readers been in on the whole time but the characters only find out at the end of the second part, I wish there had been more explosion with that, the scene ends up as a quiet, solitary “oh-no” moment and that was unsatisfying and then the time jump between part 2 and part 3 seems real after thought-y, like the story that needed to be told, had come out but there was nothing tied up neatly, so we added a chapter or two and called it part three to make the Mass Market Paperback market happy.
End piece I guess it was a book and it’s got lots of good dog bits but I just wanted more out of it.
End piece I guess it was a book and it’s got lots of good dog bits but I just wanted more out of it.
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