AUTHOR: Fiona Harrison
PUBLISHER: HQ
PUBLICATION DATE: November 3, 2016
Amazon - Goodreads
Percy is homeless, abandoned by his owner at an animal rescue centre on a cold winter’s night. So when he finds a loving new home with Gail and her family, his deepest wish is that this time, it’s forever.
Gail hopes that Percy will be the little miracle that her family so desperately needs. Her young daughter, Jenny, is in and out of hospital and she’s only just holding things together with her husband, Simon.
With the family at breaking point, and Christmas just around the corner, is Percy the furry friend they’ve all been waiting for?
A Pug like Percy is a heart-warming, smile inducing read that will leave you feeling full of hope and optimism. The hardback version of this book makes the perfect Christmas gift with its adorable cover that would make even the toughest hearts melt! The book inside is a real treat with a sweet and uplifting story of a dog set out to mend a family who are falling apart. I really enjoyed Fiona’s debut – it’s a bit mushy and predictable at times but for me this added to the festive appeal to the book as the cute story will definitely put a smile on your face.
The book is narrated by Percy which gives a quirky reading experience with plenty of fun and silly moments throughout. Percy is a very colourful character and just like a fully-fledged human character we see him change quite a bit throughout. At the beginning of the book, Percy is fed up and hurt that his previous owner has left him at an animal rescue centre when he thought they had the perfect man-dog relationship. But when Gail comes to see him, they both know he has found his new home and there he makes friends with other doggy neighbours and realises this family he is now a part of need him just as much as, if not more than, he needs them.
Gail and Simon live in London with their daughter Jenny who has a heart problem. Jenny’s a brave girl despite, or maybe because of, her serious illness and I was touched by her story early on. It was very moving seeing the impact Percy had on this little family and I felt like I really liked and was rooting for the entire family from the early stages of this book. Percy puts a smile on all their faces despite the struggles they are facing and I thought the author nailed this perfect representation of what a dog can do for their family as pets in general can really add some light to a life during darker times and can often, I feel, sense trauma and upset whilst working their own bit of magic to cheer up their owner’s day.
A fun part to this book was seeing the things Percy and the other dogs got up to. There was a lot of humour involved in their interactions and I found them entertaining and a more upbeat part to the book. The dogs were energetic, enthusiastic and characterised really well – somehow the author managed to make them all memorable characters and their antics were sweet and clever with an appeal to younger people as well as the adults I think this book is mostly targeted at.
A Pug like Percy will leave you wishing you had your own dog - not just for Christmas but for life – or if you already have a dog in the family it will make you thankful for that. It’s a warm and inviting novel that lifted my spirits and though not hugely focused on Christmas, the theme to this book is an uplifting one, making it the ideal read for when Christmas does come around.
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