Title: You Lucky Dog
Author: Julia London
Rating: ★★½

ARC provided by Berkley through NetGalley.

I never thought a book about dogs would disappoint me so greatly. At first glance, You Lucky Dog seems like everything I could ask for in a book: an accidental dog switch leading to a romantic match between their owners? Sign me up. However, between the lukewarm romance and the writing, I was pretty indifferent towards the story.

I am never a fan of long passages of text and exposition, and unfortunately You Lucky Dog was full of them. I can’t tell you how many chapters were dedicated to painstakingly describing every minute of Carly’s day in detail. I don’t care and it lends absolutely nothing to the story. I also wasn’t a fan of Max’s internal dialogue. Max is a neuroscientist, yes, but I found it super pretentious and annoying whenever he would think something like, “the norepinephrine levels were increasing throughout my body at the thought” instead of simply, “the thought was exciting me.”

The book does shine a light on autism awareness which was really appreciated. The author did a great job showing some of the challenges of living with someone/having a family member with autism. Max’s brother, Jamie, plays an important role in this book and it felt honest and realistic.

As a dog lover, I was really looking forward to You Lucky Dog. Who could resist that cover or the synopsis? But when it came down to it, I did not enjoy the writing style and the story itself was mediocre.