An average story about love, particularly love for animals, and loss. I felt the author was frequently over-the-top in trying to make the voice of the story dramatic and tear-jerking. It came off as distracting and disingenuous to me. Just tell the story well and the emotion will come through. Don’t close each chapter with some heavy, sentimental observation. The book grew on me as it went along, but the sappy everything-wrapped-up-neatly ending made this novel difficult to embrace in the end.