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From the publisher:

From the USA Today bestselling author of The Friend Zone comes a fresh romantic comedy full of “fierce humor and fiercer heart” about one trouble-making dog who brings together two perfect strangers. (Casey McQuiston, New York Times bestselling author of Red, White & Royal Blue)

Let me start by saying that I LOVED THIS BOOK. Yes, I’m shouting.

I’ve been having trouble reading lately, my mind wanders as I worry about everything and everyone. But this book sucked me in and I just about cried when I turned the last page. I wanted to stay with these characters – they are interesting and fun and damaged and thoroughly brought to life on the page. Sloan and Jason go through so much to get to their happily ever after, or in this case, “happy ever after,” that I just added them to my list of people I worry about until they got there. Did I mention how this book just completely sucked me in?

The meet-cute is a two-parter. Sloan finds a dog running around a busy road so she stops, and the next thing she knows, the dog has leapt through her sunroof and literally landed in her lap. He is a very well trained dog, and a breed I was not familiar with, and a hunting dog. The hunting stuff didn’t bother me at all, probably because there wasn’t any, just talk about Sloan’s blog of wild game recipes. But it was something that Jason and Sloan bonded over. She tries to find the owner and luckily, the dog, Tucker, is tagged. So she calls the number and leaves a message. Every day. For two weeks. By then she’s in love with Tucker and pissed at the owner and she decides the dog is now hers. And then Jason calls.

They get to know one another first by texting, and then by talking on the phone. Turns out Jason is halfway around the world, and Sloan agrees to give Tucker back if Jason can prove he loves the dog. Which he does. So the dog brings them together, and that kind of storyline always works for me. Weeks later, Jason comes home and they have their first real meeting, and fireworks. Sloan has been in a depression for two years, since her fiance died in a motorcycle/drunk driving accident. There is an author’s note at the end of the book about this type of depression that I had never heard of, and I’m glad she included it. And that is all I’m going to tell you about the story because YOU HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK!

The titular playlist is compiled from each chapter’s title, a song title, and band, and to be honest, I never heard of most of them. On occasion, I heard of the band but not the song, and one song but not the (fictional) singer. It didn’t matter in the least, although the author does provide the complete playlist at the end of the book for people who want to listen. I’m assuming it’s available on Spotify or Pandora or something?

I don’t know much about the life of rock stars. I am not especially interested in pop culture. I don’t know who most of the people are in People Magazine these days. So I was kind of surprised by how much I loved this book. Maybe it is based on someone famous, I have no idea and it doesn’t matter.

Jimenez has written a terrific story that is bound for my best books of the year list. Don’t miss it!

4/2020 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™