Lost and Found by Rick R. Reed Review
On a bright autumn day, Flynn Marlowe lost his best friend, a beagle named Barley, while out on a hike in Seattle’s Discovery Park.
On a cold winter day, Mac Bowersox found his best friend, a lost, scared, and emaciated beagle, on the streets of Seattle.
Two men. One dog. When Flynn and Mac meet by chance in a park the next summer, there’s a problem—who does Barley really belong to? Flynn wants him back, but he can see that Mac rescued him and loves him just as much as he does. Mac wants to keep the dog, and he can imagine how heartbreaking losing him would be—but that's just what Flynn experienced.
A “shared custody” compromise might be just the way to work things out. But will the arrangement be successful? Mac and Flynn are willing to try it—and along the way, they just might fall in love.
Review
The idea of this book is great. I love the emotionial complexity around how to deal with the issue of the dog. I also like how the relationship unfolds and some of the class and regional issues that come up. I also like the complex figures of some of the elders in the story.
What I struggled with the kind of ick portrayal of one of the hero's friends. And then she, after meaning so much to the hero, just vanishes.
Then, one hero makes a pretty big decision which I could believe in if it was really talked out but it wasn't so it feels odd.
We don't get enough after they are really together time to make this love story work for me.
The dog, of course, is great.
4
