Seven Perfect Things

 

When 13-year-old Abby sees a man throw a sack into the river, she can’t imagine the path that her choice to go retrieve that sack will lead to. Inside the sack she finds seven puppies and, determined to save them all and hide them from her cruel and neglectful father, houses them in a shed that’s on the property of what appears to be an abandoned cabin up in the foothills, a safe distance from her home. In a separate chain of events, we have Elliot, who’s wife has just died and decides to get away to his long unvisited cabin for some peace and solitude. In a convergence of events, he’s surprised to find Abby’s seven puppies being housed in his shed, but instantly impressed with her character and efforts to help the puppies. After initial resistance, he agrees to continue to house them and helps her with their care, and in the process meets her mother, Mary, who he quickly develops protective feelings toward, when he finds out how badly her husband Stan treats she and Abby. These feelings are put to the test when Stan discovers the budding friendship between Mary and Elliot, which leads Stan to take menacing actions to control his family.

Although that last sentence doesn’t lend itself to what I’m about to say, my overall feeling of the book is “Awww … how sweet.” I mean it has puppies for goodness sake. That alone gives all the warm and fuzzy feels. The puppies are definitely just a plot device to examine the dynamics of three people: Abby, Mary and Elliot, each experiencing crises and traumatic situations they’re trying to find their way out of, and the puppies are the excuse to bring them all together in a common pursuit. The puppies are like the balm to these bad situations they’re all in.

If you’ve seen a feel-good, slightly cheesy movie, with an occasionally unrealistic plot that somehow still manages to make you feel all happy and content inside, then this one is a lovely, little read. All the major characters, other than the contemptible Stan, were genuinely likable and I wanted to see all the good things come to them. I appreciate that Elliot’s situation as a widow befriending Mary was handled sensitively and the book stayed within the lanes of reality on it, rather than going all romance novel on me.

I give it 4 p”awwww”s 🐾 … I mean ★★★★

Thank you to NetGalley who provided this ARC in exchange for an honest review