Puppies, romance and Christmas help make The Dogs of Christmas a heartwarming novel, but the book includes enough tension to balance its sweetness. As in his earlier "dog books," W. Bruce Cameron suggests readers will be smiling on the last page, but still keeps them guessing.
In A Dog's Purpose and its sequel, A Dog's Journey, canine narrator Buddy and his reincarnations tell the story of a good dog's role in the lives of his humans. The Dogs of Christmas opens with no dogs in the picture; instead, a lonely young man firmly rejects his neighbor's attempt to "dump a dog on him." Knowing Lucy will be abandoned along a Rocky Mountain road, Josh relents, realizing too late that she's pregnant--and her current caregiver is not likely to be seen again.
Sweet, undernourished Lucy thaws Josh's heart, and by the time she loses her litter, he's committed to her. Then a box of newborn pups shows up in Josh's truck, Lucy becomes a foster mom, Josh becomes Lucy's advocate, and that's when the beautiful and kind Kerri, of the Animal Shelter, enters their lives.
Puppy care and "foster failure"--the inability to relinquish pups to permanent adoption--are two of the lessons Cameron adroitly weaves through the tale of Josh and Kerri's romance. And while Lucy is the dog star of the book, the pups she nurtures are equally engaging. A Christmas Eve twist threatens a happy conclusion, but like Josh's "Away in a Dog Box" puppy carol lullaby, all ends harmoniously. --Cheryl Krocker McKeon, bookseller, Book Passage, San Francisco