Take a Chance On Me - Susan Donovan

This was my first book by Susan Donovan and I found it a really enjoyable story. In fact, for a while I thought It was going to be a keeper.

They've Got Nothing In Common...
For animal behaviorist Emma Jenkins, romance has been at the bottom of her daily "to do" list since making it through a messy divorce. But everything changes the day six-feet-of-gorgeous Thomas Tobin walks into her office with a quivering Chinese Crested named Hairy, a canine that looks more like an underfed rodent than a dog. Sure Thomas is sending her mixed signals-but that charming smile just sent Emma's dormant sex drive through the roof...

But Animal Attraction-
Thomas isn't looking for a fling. In fact, he wants nothing to do with women. He just wants to know if Hairy witnessed his owner's murder. But something tells him that asking Emma to help him with the case will spell nothing but trouble-trouble in the form of serious temptation.

And the Willingness To Take A Chance On Love
Thomas knows that relying on Emma's expertise-and her soft touch with a weird dog that has somehow become his-may be a crazy way to track a killer. Especially when Emma's down-home warmth makes him want to believe that anything is possible-even true love.


I really liked Emma and Thomas! I especially liked Emma from the start; she was smart, funny, made no excuses for being what she was and even after a lousy divorce was ready to give it a try. When she first asked Thomas for a date I thought this is my kind of girl!

Now Thomas, I liked Thomas but in the beginning it was easy to see he had been hurt and was still carrying that hurt as a shield. He was attracted to Emma but he wasn't planning on taking that anywhere. Fortunately when he did the wrong thing he finally realised how he was letting the past affecting him and decided to go for it and try to win Emma. It wasn't easy after his first bad move but I was glad he didn't give up.

What really stopped this from being an A read was Emma's ex-husband. I wasn't really interested in his story and I would have preferred to spend more time with Emma and Thomas. I see that he was needed because of the mystery part but I really would have been happy with the book just being about those two.

One final word about the dog! I was really worried at first about reading a story with a dog that talked. Sometimes authors go for cutesy and it doesn’t work for me. Well this dog did! He was really funny and had some really insightful observations. Too bad Emma and Thomas couldn't hear him.

Grade: B