I love it when one of my favorite bloggers publishes a book. Why, you might ask? Aside from the fact that it gives me hope that I may one day achieve my own meager publishing dreams, it also means that I get to read even more awesome stuff from the blogger in question. Sometimes, those daily snippets just aren’t enough…

Today, I’m thrilled to tell you about a book written by Jackie Bouchard, the brilliant blogger behind Pooch Smooches. The book is called What the Dog Ate, and it’s the tale of a woman named Maggie who reinvents her life after a vet visit reveals some unwelcome news. You’ll find out what the dog ate in the first chapter, so I don’t think I need to give a spoiler alert here… the dog ate a pair of underwear. However, the underwear didn’t belong to Maggie or to her husband, but to another woman.

The book made me laugh, and it made me cry. I picked it up and couldn’t put it down – in fact, I finished it in less than two days. So, needless to say, I think you should go read this book. In case you’re not convinced (although I can’t imagine you’d need more encouragement than my ringing endorsement), here are five more reasons:

• The introduction is clever and immediately grabs your attention. (Also, I identified with Maggie right away. I’ve often wondered why my dogs would prefer to get sick on the carpet when there’s an easy-to-clean tile floor mere steps away, and I also spell certain words to keep the dogs from going crazy.)
• Maggie is a successful, smart woman. It’s a nice change of pace from the oft-irresponsible heroine you see in romantic comedies.
• Jackie has a knack for colorful descriptions. One of my personal favorites was when she described something as having “more gray area than the mosh pit at a Neil Diamond concert.”
• Throughout the book, Maggie often looks to her dog for inspiration. I love that idea, and I love the fact that Jackie worked in a “dogtrine” pun.
• Maggie is such an interesting character. We all know a Maggie. Inside of each of us is a Maggie. (When she attends an event in a Target dress, she compares the store’s bullseye to the Scarlet Letter. Who hasn’t felt that way?)

So, what are you waiting for? Go read this book!

What the Dog Ate is available for Kindle here, or you can purchase the print version here. (Jackie plans to donate 10% of the profits on print sales to Best Friends Animal Society. She really is the coolest.)

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Dog-loving disclosure: Author Jackie Bouchard gave me a free Kindle version of the book to review. Otherwise, I was not compensated in any way for this post, and the opinions here are all mine.