Review: To All the Dogs I've Loved Before

Recently I’ve found myself not being drawn to traditional romances. I love my rom coms and other stories (contemporary or otherwise) with heavy romance elements but something about the sweeter, Happily Ever After stories hasn’t been working for me lately. But To All the Dogs I’ve Loved Before? Oh. Oh, friends. I adored it. It’s the third book in Lizzie Shane’s Pine Hollow series and I have to say it’s my favourite.

Here’s the book’s description:

The last person librarian Elinor Rodriguez wants to spend time with is her first love, Levi Jackson, but it seems her mischievous rescue dog has other ideas. Without fail, Dory slips from the house whenever Elinor’s back is turned. And in Pine Hollow, calls about a dog herding cars on Main Street go straight to Levi. The quietly intense lawman broke Elinor’s heart once, and now she’s determined to move on, no matter how much she misses him.
As the kid who barely graduated—and still struggles to hide his dyslexia—Levi always believed that Elinor was way out of his league. Even though he ended their engagement all those years ago, Elinor still takes Levi’s breath away whenever he sees her. But with a little help from a four-legged friend, Levi and Elinor may just get the second chance they deserve.

I’ve been burned by second chance romances in the recent past so I admit I was a tad wary of this one and how the trope would play out. Happily, it totally worked for me. Elinor and Levi had had an on again-off again relationship for years and they had such a solid friendship foundation. Their romantic relationship ended only a few years ago so it wasn’t like they were wide-eyed high school kids when they broke up. They had some big issues to work through and I was almost worried that they wouldn’t be able to get past them. There wasn’t really miscommunication so much as no communication and Elinor didn’t really understand why Levi ended things. She was quite protective of her heart, and I couldn’t blame her, so I was firmly Team Elinor as Levi worked on his issues.

Speaking of Levi’s issues, it was sometimes difficult to get past his “woe is me, no one can love me because I’m not worth it” feelings. They’re totally valid feelings and I’m so SO glad that Shane had him work past his prejudices to therapy and realize how much it can help. It just seemed like that was the only thing holding him back from being with Elinor and he refused to discuss it. It got a bit repetitive by the time they figured everything out.

Some of the storyline was pretty heavy because Levi’s personal issues were tough for him and Elinor was still working through her grief after the death of her best friend. Shane made sure to have some light hearted moments throughout to keep this romance more sweet than sad. Dory’s antics provided some much needed levity and the couple-to-be’s friends were always welcome on page. It was nice to get caught up on what was happening with the crew from the previous books and planning for a wedding always makes for some good stories.

An aside: I loved that Elinor and her sisters were all named after Jane Austen characters. It was a delightful added bonus for this Austenite.

I just loved getting back to Pine Hollow and the world and characters Lizzie Shane created. I really, really enjoyed reading To All the Dogs I’ve Loved Before and was a bit sad when it was all over. I’m looking forward to book 4, about Elinor’s sister, but it will take some time before I can accept it’ll be a new story and won’t be focused on Elinor and Levi who I just adored.

Content warnings: grief (death of best friend and mother in the past and off-page), cancer (death by in the past and off-page and side character currently in remission), father-son strained relationship (some emotional abuse when growing up)

Read my review of The Twelve Dogs of Christmas
Read my review of Once Upon a Puppy

*An egalley of this novel was provided by the publisher, Forever, via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*