Eve Marie Mont‘s Free to a Good Home is a delightful read about Noelle Ryan whose husband, Jay, has finally told her his deepest secret — he’s gay — effectively obliterating her dream and forcing her to reassess her life. Noelle has a successful, if stressful, career as a veterinary technician, but she occupies most of her time with her family and the dogs at the shelter, rather than coping with her own problems. She’d rather solve everyone else’s problems and be the good person that everyone leans on when they need consoling or help.
“‘Sure,’ I say, handing him my cup. He’s cute. Messy brown hair, crinkly eyes, and that sexy clenched jaw thing. Too cute. A turn-your-brain-to-clotted-cream cute.” (page 32)
Noelle is passionate about saving animals and finding them homes, but she’s also passionate about helping people, including her WASP ex-mother-in-law, Margaret, who made her marriage miserable. However, what will get to readers is how much of a doormat Noelle is when it comes to Jay; he asks her to do many unthinkable favors including taking care of his mother. Many readers will want to scream at this character and beat her back to her senses. While Jay is not a bad guy per se, he crosses the line in his relationship with Noelle, which effectively prevents her from moving on with her life even after she meets a gorgeous musician named Jasper.
“‘Luxwood Victorian Gardens.’
‘They make it sound so pleasant. Like you’re staying in some luxurious estate, Blithewold Mansion for the physically impaired.’
‘Well, they have to do that to get people in the door. They can’t very well call the place Let-Us-Steal-Your Independence Gardens.’
‘Feed-Us-Flavorless-Food-Courtyard.’
‘Watch-Jeopardy-Until-You-Die-Village.'” (page 193)
However, Mont’s writing is engaging and dramatic and even humorous. If you love animals and a bit of romance in your summer reading with a good dose of drama, Free to a Good Home will fit your needs.
About the Author:
Eve Mont lives with her husband, Ken, and her shelter dog, Maggie, in suburban Philadelphia, where she teaches high school English and creative writing. Free to a Good Home is her first novel, which was released on July 6, 2010. She is currently working on her second novel.
http://www.literaryescapism.com/new-author-challenge10
This is my 37th book for the 2010 New Authors Reading Challenge.
Gee, I never thought of her as stress relief! That’s a good way to look at it! Thanks for the congrats on my new author reading. It’s been fun finding new voices. I hope I reach my goal of 50!
Sometimes a character that you want to shake some sense into can be a good stress-reliever for the reader (yelling and sighing at the book). I’m glad you enjoyed this despite being irritated by Noelle’s wishy-washy attitude.
congrats on reading so many (37!) new authors so far this year!
I thought this book was fun, even though it was a little predictable. Great review!
Glad to see you enjoyed this one Serena. I think it’s going to be one I like for sure!
I have been reading a lot of good reviews of this book, and since I love any literature having to do with animals, this sounds really good to me. It also reminds me of another book that I will be reading for a TLC book tour called The Blessings of the Animals. Of course, I don’t really know how similar the books are since I have not yet read either, it is just an impression I got. Great review!
I hope you get to check out this book as well as The Blessings of the Animals
I’m sure she will drive you knuts…like she did me.
Glad to see you liked it. I’ll be reading this one soon, and I can guarantee that Noelle will drive me batty!
I think I might lose my patience with the character Noelle. It is so hard to sit back and watch a woman allow herself to be a doormat. On the bright side, the book is about animals which is always a plus!
I liked the animal parts of the story and Noelle did drive me crazy, but I liked her in the end when she finally came into her own.