The Twelve Dogs of Christmas

August 31, 2020
Shane (A Royal Christmas Wish) gets her Pine Hollow series off to a strong start with this quaint, Christmassy contemporary. Picturesque Pine Hollow, Vt., relies on the hard work of town council members, including hyper-responsible Ben West, to cultivate its “practically perfect” small-town charm. This charm ramps up even further for the Christmas season, though this year it’s slightly marred by Ben’s Scrooge-like vote to balance the town’s budget by cutting funds to the local dog shelter. The shelter—managed by octogenarians Rita and Hal Gilmore, with the assistance of their granddaughter, photographer Ally, who’s recently returned to Pine Hollow from New York City—must now spend the holiday season scrambling to find homes for a dozen dogs before they’re forced to shut down. Ally and Ben’s first interactions are understandably disastrous, but when Ben’s dog-loving 10-year-old niece, Astrid, whom Ben is raising, finagles a volunteer job at the shelter, Ally and Ben grow closer. Shane integrates Ben’s control issues and Ally’s feelings of perpetual displacement smoothly while also introducing the town at large via cute holiday events and dog adoptions. The mix will be just right for animal lovers seeking a seasonal happily ever after. Agent: Michelle Grajkowski, 3 Seas Literary.

September 1, 2020
What kind of Ebenezer Scrooge cuts the funding for an animal shelter right before Christmas? This is what Ally Gilmore wants to know when she discovers the dog shelter her grandparents have been running for more than two decades will have to shut its doors on January 1. Yet Ally isn't surprised to learn that the decisive vote on the Pine Hollow town council to shut down Furry Friends Animal Shelter was cast by Ben West, aka the tall, dark, and grumpy man she accidentally doused with coffee. What does stun her is Ben's unexpected offer to help her find perfect homes for the 12 dogs still at the shelter. Shane's heart-warming plot, perfect mix of small-town charm and buoyant wit, perfectly imperfect human characters, and adorable canines truly capture the thrill of love and the magic of the dogs-and-people connection.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)