Paws in the City, Book 1
From the publisher:
How do you start over when the biggest mistake of your life has more than one million views?
Forget diamonds—the internet is forever. Social media consultant Isla Thompson learned that lesson the hard way when she went viral for all the wrong reasons. A month later, Isla is still having nightmares about the moment she ruined a young starlet’s career and made herself the most unemployable influencer in Manhattan. But she doesn’t have the luxury of hiding until she’s no longer Instagram poison. Not when her fourteen-year-old sister, Dani, needs Isla to keep a roof over their heads. So, she takes the first job she can get: caring for Camilla, a glossy-maned, foul-tempered hellhound.
After a week of ferrying Camilla from playdates to pet psychics, Isla starts to suspect that the dachshund’s bark is worse than her bite—just like her owner, Theo Garrison. Isla has spent her career working to make people likable and here’s Theo—happy to hide behind his reputation as a brutish recluse. But Theo isn’t a brute—he’s sweet and funny, and Isla should not see him as anything but the man who signs her paychecks. Because loving Theo would mean retreating to his world of secluded luxury, and Isla needs to show Dani that no matter the risk, dreams are always worth chasing.
“London’s characters leap off the page… It’s a delightful start to a series that promises to be good fun.”—Publishers Weekly
https://amzn.to/3XWGFlN
Stefanie London is on my must read list – this rom-com is a prime example of why. Camilla is a long-haired dachshund with a serious attitude. Her owner was a famous, wealthy New Yorker who has passed away, leaving her beloved Camilla to the grandson she raised and loved – but neglected to tell him. Camilla is none too fond of Theo, to say the least, and her behavior has gone from bad to worse in her grief. Theo is a famous New York City recluse who has no patience for, well, much of anything. He likes his hermit status and has no plans of changing it.
After losing so many dog walkers that the agency refuses to help him anymore, he dons a disguise – hat, sunglasses – and takes Camilla on a walk through Central Park. There he runs into Isla and her sister. Isla was a professional social media influencer, or rather she worked for a management company that helps influencers raise their standing and their income. When she accidentally broadcasts her latest client, an underage Disney princess, drinking champagne, voicing some terribly un-Disney-like words with the grand finale of vomiting all over herself, that video goes viral, and Isla is fired.
Theo is amazed that Camilla goes right up to Isla and seems to like her – the dog likes no one, unless she is biting them. He offers Isla the dogsitting job on the spot. Desperate for some income, she jumps on the opportunity to restock her coffers while figuring out her next step.
There is something about Isla that gets under Theo’s defenses and he finds himself incredibly drawn to her. They both realize it isn’t the greatest idea, the power imbalance alone is a huge hurdle. But they can’t stop their feelings and they take things to the next level.
Meanwhile, slightly bored with her dogsitting job, Isla starts taking pictures of Camilla – not anything where she or Theo could be identified, and creates a social media account for the dog she calls “C” online. She is amusing herself and a few others, that is until the number of followers starts climbing and climbing. Inspired by her success, Isla sees this as the opportunity she has been looking for. She will start her own influencer marketing company for animals. Then she can quit dogsitting for her boss/lover and their relationship can move forward.
Of course, nothing goes quite the way Isla was hoping. Theo finds out about the social media account before she can tell him what she’s been doing, and he feels completely betrayed. The happy ending seems to be completely out of reach, but nonetheless Theo and Isla get their happily ever after. And we get a whole lot of laughs along the way. Looking forward to the next book in the series, Pets of Park Avenue, which I found through my library. I have the third book, Confessions of a Canine Drama Queen, ready to go – it comes out August 1.
7/2023 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch
THE DACHSHUND WEARS PRADA by Stefanie London. HQN; Original edition (May 3, 2022). ISBN: 978-1335639837. 336p.
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