Review: Tiger Tricks by Edith Scott

Tiger Tricks by Edith Scott
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Tiger Tricks is the story of Rhett and Oscar. It is set in the town of Amberly, a cute small town that is open-minded and friendly. It is the second book in the Amberly series.

Rhett is a firefighter, one of those hunky ones they put in their calendars.

While he is assertive at work and pretends to be outgoing, he's actually a bit shy, so everyone constantly commenting on his hotness and sending gifts to the firehouse for him makes him really embarrassed. Getting mailed panties from the Junior club is really not his thing.

One day he gets yet another gift, but this is the worse gift someone could give someone. A courier delivers a little Dalmatian puppy. Everyone knows you should never give an animal as a gift, and a single firefighter who lives in an apartment is one of the worse people to own a Dalmatian. They're way too smart and active to be kept locked up all the time. And without intensive training and a ton of dedication they are trouble. Rhett thinks he can barely take of himself, let alone a high-needs puppy.





When he was 7 Rhett was abandoned by his mother and placed into foster care. He was passed around until he was 14 and was adopted. Knowing what it's like to have no home and be considered trouble, he can't stand putting the puppy in the same position, but he doesn't know what to do with the puppy except take it to the new animal shelter in town. There's no way a non committal guy like him can take care of a puppy, let alone one as much trouble as a Dalmatian!

Oscar used to be a big YouTube star until he broke up with boyfriend / cohost and had a meltdown. He moved to Amberley to get away and have a fresh start. He's taking a break from everything--social media, people, and especially, men. Spending his time fixing up the house he just bought and volunteering at the new animal shelter is his new life.

Rhett takes the little puppy into the shelter but he's fighting himself every step of the way. While he didn't want a pet and had nothing to do with getting it, he feels responsible for it now and he doesn't want to abandon his new puppy, especially when he finds out that Dalmatian puppies frequently get adopted but are quickly returned because they're extremely difficult to take care of and don't make good pets for most people. Oscar tells Rhett that having a Dalmatian is pretty much like having a pet tiger.

When the hot firefighter walks into the shelter with a cute puppy, Oscar can't help feeling sorry for the pair. He fights the urge, but eventually he volunteers his services as a dog trainer so Rhett can learn to care for the puppy, if in return Rhett helps redo his house.

He wanted to keep this puppy but was in no position to keep him. But it wasn’t that he was adopting him from anywhere, trying to take him on — a fireman wanting a vanity pet. God knows the last thing a dalmatian needs to be is someone’s decoration.

      The dog had been dropped in his lap and he was trying to do right by him.

      “Just tell me what I have to do,” he’d whispered. His face was so naked and vulnerable. Anyone who was this ripped up about an animal was a good person in my book.

      I wanted to help him. God help me.

      “He needs training. Not just pet store weekend training — real training.”

      He set his jaw and looked down at the puppy who had resumed worrying his sock. “Okay, how do I do that?”

      “Trainers are expensive,” I said. I knew where I was heading with this, but tried to stall. This was not a good idea. Was it?

      “But you know someone?” he said, his voice softer, his large hands petting his white puppy.

      I dragged my gaze back up to meet his. “Yeah. Me.”

The two make a deal, Rhett's home repair experience for Oscar's dog training talents. When Rhett gets kicked out of his apartment for having a puppy he moves into Oscar's guest house and the two and the puppy start spending lots of time together.

Rhett doesn't do commitments. His whole life he was abandoned and passed around. He knows no one would ever want him, so he only hooks up with guys, never tries for a relationship. Oscar is afraid of getting together with another guy when he's still recovering from the last one. Knowing that Rhett is a player does not make him want to chance getting involved with the guy either. But training a puppy together draws the two closer together and soon they're nearly inseparable. But their baggage may prevent these guys from taking the next step.





 Rhett must fight against his issues to host a firefighter charity event, while showing off Tiger's new skills, and Oscar must fight against his own issues to be in a social setting and get his man. Can all three achieve their goals?

 

Read my review on the book before this one, Stray Home, by clicking here: Stray Home.

Goodreads has Tiger Tricks listed as the first in the Amberly series, while in some places like Amazon, it is listed as the second in the series. While it's not incredibly important whether Stray Home and Tiger Tricks are considered in the same series because these books can standalone, this book features Mike, David, and Sarah from Stray Home, so I liked having read that one first and this really feels like the second book in the series.

Whether second or first in the Amberly series, Tiger Tricks was a much better one than Stray Home. The writing was smoother and the characters less of caricatures. I really think this writer will improve more and her books will only get better.

It was really refreshing to see a book featuring Dalmatians that reminds people of why they shouldn't get one. They're super cute dogs, but have a lot of health problems from being overbred because of the 101 Dalmatians craze. Mentions of their neediness and reminders of what the breed was actually originally bred for are worked in throughout the book, not heavily enough to be obnoxious but enough to educate people on this breed of dog.

There were cute little drawings throughout the book as well. Little images of Dalmatians puppies accompanied the text and were a fun surprise. A bit old-fashioned and different, but I liked it.

My only fault with the story is the haziness of the whole YouTube issue. The disjointed mentions didn't quite come together to really explain the whole problem with it and what went wrong that caused Oscar to run away from it. It sounded like he was posting dog training videos at first and then started doing things like the Cinnamon Challenge and got carried away? Not really sure. For a while it sounded like he had done a drunk posting, then it sounded like he almost killed himself by drinking and taking meds. But the entirety never quite coalesced into a complete image of his past. And starting making videos again was supposed to be a big deal, but we never heard how he dealt with the new comments or anything that he was bothered by so much before. It all just felt like there were missing pieces.

Otherwise I liked the book.  It was fun to see Sarah again. There were a lot interesting characters in the town and we got to meet more of them. And most of all, a shy yet hot firefighter with a cute puppy paired up with a pastel-wearing dog trainer? Who could resist?



I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the Amberly series.

Review: Stray Home by Edith Scott

Stray Home by Edith Scott
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This one is a MM gay romance novel featuring hotness and a puppy.

Stray Home starts with a big and buff, tattooed carpenter feeling all alone.

He's out of the military, he's bought and refurbished the family home. But he's feeling unfulfilled. Sad and alone in his big house, he wants a family. He has a sister and a brother and they have kids, but Mike wants his own partner, maybe his own kids. He's got a big house and yet he's all alone in it. Makes you want to sing 'All By Myself'.



Mike is making breakfast and wants someone to share it with him. Just as he gets it all cooked up he hears a sound outside. Is it a prowler? A raccoon? He checks it out and only finds his recycling can knocked over and some holes in the dirt. Going back inside he finds the miscreant--a dirty little Golden Retriever puppy chomping down on his bacon.







Abandoned and alone, the little pup is hungry and scared, and not even a big, bad man like Mike can resist those puppy dog eyes. Mike has never had a dog before, but it seems he's got one now unless he can find the owner. In the meantime, the puppy is dirty and hurt, so they head off to the vet where Mike gets another surprise. The veterinarian is none other than David, his long lost best friend and first love.




Mike and David grew up together and fell in love, but were forced apart by David's father and his homophobic views. Mike joined the military to cope with his sadness while David reluctantly married. Now, years later, David is divorced with twin girls and Mike is home. Can the pair get back together as they bond over the puppy? Or will David's father step in and tear them apart once more?

This book has some of my favorite elements. Big, buff tattooed guy. Sweet puppies. Geeky and awkwardly shy love interest. Friends to lovers. It's everything one could want in a mm romance, but sadly, it fell a bit short.

I liked this book, don't get me wrong. But it had some major issues that will cause a lot of people to not enjoy it. David is really weak-willed. He's so passive he'll do anything if someone tells him to do it strongly enough. One moment he is promising himself to Mike and the next he's reverting back into his shell. And of course his wishy-washy behavior hurts Mike. Some of that is needed for the story, but David never really gets back to that likeable stage for the reader. The redemption arc just sort of falls flat.

For a new author, the book is actually fairly decent. It has flaws and definitely needs some tune-up, but the bones of the story are great. The execution just needs some work. There's some great descriptive language used and it really is refreshing. Everything from hairs on his clothes to crossing the parking lot has evocative descriptions, but at times they seem a bit like someone just went over the book and added them in. They don't quite flow enough. It's almost there. So close. But the sentence structure just pulls you out of the story. I think a few more run-throughs and edits would have helped it become more cohesive.



So, this book was worth reading to me because I can never get enough of hot guys rescuing puppies, but it didn't quite hit the mark. I have high hopes for future books from this author as with experience I think she'll get better.

This is the first in the Amberly book series, so I'm off to read the others. The next one features a hot, tattooed firefighter with a dalmation puppy and a cute dog trainer ;-)