Thursday, March 19, 2015

Dog Crazy - Excerpt & Giveaway



Dog Crazy
A Novel of Love Lost and Found
By: Meg Donohue
Releasing March 10th, 2015
William Morrow


Blurb
The USA Today bestselling author of How to Eat a Cupcake and All the Summer Girls returns with an unforgettably poignant and funny tale of love and loss, confronting our fears, and moving on . . . with the help of a poodle, a mutt, and a Basset retriever named Seymour

As a pet bereavement counselor, Maggie Brennan uses a combination of empathy, insight, and humor to help patients cope with the anguish of losing their beloved four-legged friends. Though she has a gift for guiding others through difficult situations, Maggie has major troubles of her own that threaten the success of her counseling practice and her volunteer work with a dog rescue organization.

Everything changes when a distraught woman shows up at Maggie’s office and claims that her dog has been stolen. Searching the streets of San Francisco for the missing pooch, Maggie finds herself entangled in a mystery that forces her to finally face her biggest fear-and to open her heart to new love.

Packed with deep emotion and charming surprises, Dog Crazy is a bighearted and entertaining story that skillfully captures the bonds of love, the pain of separation, and the power of our dogs to heal us.

Buy Links:  
Amazon | B & N | iTunes | Kobo

Excerpt:
Pet bereavement counselors hear a lot of happy stories. Thialways seems to surprise people,   whassume sessions are soggyheart-wrenchinundertakings. Sure, there are tears, but therare also the stories of the dogs that  made people feel less alone, the dogs that taught them about love, that made their hearts feel bigger and stronger. And dog peoplethmajoritof my patients are dog peoplehave wonderful senses of humor.Somothe funniest, most uplifting stories Ive  ever heard have comfrom my patients. Theyre an eclectic bunch, but the stories thetell have  thsamsimple truth at their core: dogs make us better.
A lot of the counseling I do is as straightforwaras honorinthese storiesthe happy ones and the sad ones. The stories commemorate the life.We laugh; we  cry; we get iall out there. Often we discover that there are issues at play beyond the  loss of a pet.
 Emotions can be sly. Years can go by before you discover the pain that lives inside of   you, a spikold barnaclclinging to your heart.
At the close of our session, Im determined to walk Leanne althe way up the path  that leads from my apartment door to thgate at the sidewalk, but with each step a now-familiar sense odread builds within me. My heart pounds. I hide the tremble imy   hands by pressing theinto the pockets of my blazer.
In my chest, panic is a small dark bird threatening to spreaher wings.
When I open the gate, Leanne walks through it and turnto wrap me in a hug.  Shes on the sidewalk and Im on the last stepping-stone of the path, so our hug starts out kind of loose and awkward, but then she shuffles toward me and   closes the gap between us.
Thank you for everythingMaggie, she says near my earTruly, thank you.
Im afraid she can feel how fast my heart is beating. I try tfocus on the palm tree across the street, but suddenly the winpicks up and the tregroans, its dark,  misshapen shadows morphing into wounded animals that thrash against the pavement. I close meyes and suppress ainvoluntary shudder. Or maybe dont, because when open my   eyes I see that Leanne is pullinaway, a crease denting her brow.
Are you okay?” she asks, her hands on my shoulders.
          "Of course! My voice comes out breathless. It seems to mthat the sky is  darkening and Im not sure how much longer can stand there athe gate. I take her  hands in mine and squeezthem, feeling her newly manicured fingernailpresinto my palms, and wish her well.
Author Info
Meg Donohue is the USA Today bestselling author of How to Eat a Cupcake and All the Summer Girls. She has an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University and a BA in comparative literature from Dartmouth College. Born and raised in Philadelphia, she now lives in San Francisco with her husband, three young daughters, and dog.

Author Links:  Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads 

Print Book Bundle of Meg's Releases including:
ALL THE SUMMER GIRLS, HOW TO EAT A CUPCAKE & DOG CRAZY

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