Retro Review: Dog Gone, Back Soon by Nick Trout

Just look at that face and tell me that you could've resisted!!

Dog Gone, Back Soon by Nick Trout
Fiction, 336 Pages
Released April 2014
Amazon ♦ Goodreads

When Dr. Cyrus Mills returned home after inheriting his estranged father's veterinary practice, The Bedside Manor for Sick Animals, the last thing he wanted was to stay in Eden Falls, Vermont, a moment longer than absolutely necessary. However, the previously reclusive veterinarian pathologist quickly found that he actually enjoyed treating animals and getting to know the eccentric residents of the tiny provincial town-especially an alluring waitress named Amy. 

So Cyrus is now determined to make Bedside Manor thrive. Not an easy goal, given that Healthy Paws, the national veterinary chain across town, will stop at nothing to crush its mom-and-pop competitor. And the rival vet practice isn't Cyrus's only competition; a handsome stranger shows up out of nowhere who clearly has a mysterious past with Amy. To top it off, Cyrus finds himself both the guardian of a very unique orphaned dog and smack in the middle of serious small town drama.

This charming sequel to The Patron Saint of Lost Dogs is a wild and delightful ride through one jam- packed week, where Cyrus must figure out how to outsmart the evil veterinary conglomerate, win back Amy's heart, solve several tricky veterinary cases, find a home for an orphaned dog, and detangle himself from an absurd case of mistaken identity. DOG GONE, BACK SOON brims with Nick Trout's trademark humor, charm, and captivating animal stories, and is proof that all dogs, lost or not, on four feet or two, deserve a second chance.

My Thoughts

Netgalley tempted me with this book when they sent me an email that included this cute cover. I hadn’t a clue about the plot or the writer or even the genre and I especially had no clue that it was a SEQUEL to another book (grrrr) but I’m a sucker for cute dogs so here we are.

Cyrus is a veterinary pathologist who feels comfortable dealing with animals after they’re deceased. He enjoys solving medical mysteries and looking through a microscope. Cyrus does not have good people skills (there will be more on that later!) but at least he admits it early on. We all can’t be charming extroverts now, can we? But, for some reason which still confounds me after finishing this book, he has decided to run his recently deceased father’s failing veterinary clinic and is now forced to deal with pet parents and pets who still breathe. He and his dad were estranged and it would’ve been oh so very helpful to me if the reason was stated somewhere in this book. It wasn’t. It might’ve been stated in book one but I’m reviewing this one. Thus, with all of the little clues tossed about, I was forced to think that maybe Cyrus was just a jerk who left his sweet dad and never looked back and was returning out of some sense of guilt, perhaps? I was left to work up all sorts of scenarios in my head and none of them had me thinking kind thoughts about Cyrus.

This was a problem and Cyrus’s interactions with people throughout this novel didn’t have me changing my mind.

But I kept reading because when the book focused on the pets and their ailments and their attached and often kooky owners I couldn’t turn away. Those cases and visits were so interesting and I loved Cyrus’s relationship with a “doodle” dog that grew on him and took a piece of his heart. That was heart-warming and believable writing but his relationship with people, especially female people? Just no. Unfortunately all of the goodness is sandwiched between an annoying relationship/obsession Cyrus is having with a woman named Amy. This romance only shined a painful, migraine inducing light on all of Cyrus’s faults. Most notably jealousy and immaturity and the fact that he's pretty much an all-around boob when it comes to interacting with women.

I’m giving this one a three because I enjoyed and despised it almost in equal measure and some passages were just so amusing like this one:

“Margo eases herself down, pinches both of Tallulah's doughy cheeks and plants a drawn-out kiss on the dog's snout like the creepy aunt children try to avoid at family outings.”

Hee, hee, hee!

The 1st Book In The Cyrus Mills Series:

A Bit About the Author

I’m from England and I’m a veterinary surgeon working at the Angell Animal Medical Center in Boston, one of the biggest animal hospitals in the world. If I had to sum up the best part of my career in one word it would be ‘unpredictable’ because what’s great about coming to work everyday is the certainty of surprise. It might be a Chihuahua or a Great Dane, a Maine Coon Cat or an iguana. It might be the heartache of saying goodbye to a best friend; it might be the elation of a surgical cure and a relationship to a true companion restored. It is all of this and more. What’s not to love! In my first book, Tell Me Where It Hurts I tried to capture the rush and the passion of modern veterinary medicine. In Love is the Best Medicine, I have focused more on the pets and their owners, trying to expose the more vulnerable, more emotional aspects of what it means to heal sick animals. In my latest book, Ever By My Side, I turn the lens inward and consider the animals I think of as my own pets, taking an opportunity to relive some of the defining moments of my life in which an animal took their cue, stepped up and gave me a chance to appreciate a different perspective. This is my attempt to show them off and share their subtle, startling, and inspirational lessons, which have played a small but vital part in helping to shape the person you see with the stethascope around his neck.

Visit Nick Trout's website.
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Read April 2014