From One of My Favorite Best Selling Authors
Details
- Rating: ☆☆☆1/2
- Title: What A Dog Knows
- Author: Susan Wilson
- Genre: Animal Fiction
- Length: 368 pages
- Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
- Release Date: June 22, 2021
Ruby Heartwood has spent her life running away. Away from the orphanage where she was left as a newborn, away from those who exploited her, and away from the man who raped her. She ran from child welfare authorities as a runaway and teenage mother. She’s never stayed put. She’s never felt connected. Until now.
Ruby is a psychic, a fortune teller. She has spent most of her life working at street fairs, carnivals, and the odd Renaissance Faire. Of late, her abilities to tell a person’s fortune have been declining. One night she pulls off the road during a violent thunderstorm, sheltering in her Volkswagen Westfalia. At the storm’s height, a bolt of lightning leaves Ruby shaken––and changes her life.
As the storm clears, Ruby finds a visitor sitting outside her van door: a little dog who says, quite distinctly, Let me in. Ruby has woken up able to hear the thoughts of animals, so she adds that to her list of psychic offerings and signs up for the Harmony Farms Farmers’ Market and Makers Faire.
With the little Hitchhiker, her fast friend and her familiar, Ruby finds herself lingering in Harmony Farms. At the same time, she is haunted by dreams that lead her to wonder if she hasn’t been running away all this time, but running toward something––or someone.
My Thoughts
Ruby grew up in a convent orphanage never knowing who dropped her off there or who her mother was. Unfortunately, her memories of the orphanage aren’t the best, especially after it became known that she had some psychic abilities. So at an early age she escapes from the orphanage and finds herself trying to survive any way she can.
This is a hard book for me to review. It is original, well written, and has the elements that should have attracted me. Yet for some reason I had a hard time feeling engaged in the story.
Susan Wilson is my go-to author when I’m in the mood for a story that includes dogs. In my opinion she’s the best. But in the case of What a Dog Knows, I felt no real compassion for Ruby or Hitchhiker, the dog that attached herself to Ruby. Why didn’t this story work for me? I’m still trying to figure that out, since other reviewers seem to be rating this very high.
As I rethink the story, there was a section that had more tension than other parts of the book, but it just took too long to get there.
My Concerns
I had trouble feeling emotionally invested in this story, even though it was well written and very original. Neither Ruby nor Hitchhiker caused me to want to keep turning pages.
My Final Thoughts
This is a book with such high reviews that it would be a mistake for you not to read it and form your own conclusion. The odds are in favor of you loving it.
I received an ARC from #NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press. This is only my opinion.
Rating
Better than GOOD but didn’t make it to the top.
About the Author
SUSAN WILSON is the author of ten novels, including the New York Times bestselling One Good Dog. In her most recent novel, TWO GOOD DOGS, the two main characters from One Good Dog, Adam March and his rescued pit bull Chance, make a return. She lives on Martha’s Vineyard.
