Review: "Stay" by Allie Larkin

Savannah "Van" Leone is loyal to a fault. Despite the fact that her best friend, Janie, is marrying the guy that she's  been in love with since college, Van still dons a hideous pumpkin orange dress and stands up at their wedding as the maid of honor. Drowning her sorrows after the wedding with a Rin Tin Tin marathon supplemented with lots of vodka, Van wakes up the next morning only to discover that she has ordered a German Shepherd puppy off of the Internet. When "Joe" arrives and Van finds out that not only is he 100 pounds but he only responds to commands given in Slovak, Van has no idea what to do. But with the help of the local vet and with the assistance of the puppy that she's fallen in love with, Van learns that things may not always be as bad as they seem.

I have been hearing great things about Stay since it came out in hardcover, and when I received a surprise copy of the paperback in the mail, I was thrilled! Stay definitely lived up to its hype. Well-written with incredibly lovable characters scattered throughout, reading it was a pleasure. Van comes across as being flawed yet vulnerable, and that made me love her even more. The fact that she was willing to be the maid of honor in her best friend's wedding despite her strong feelings for the groom made her incredibly endearing, and I was rooting for her the whole way through.

You don't need to be a dog lover to adore Stay or to fall in love with Joe, the over sized German Shepherd and the star of the show. Filled with funny moments, lovable characters and topped off by the perfect ending, Stay is one of those books that I can wholeheartedly recommend to women's fiction fans.

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5
Challenges: 2011 100+ Reading Challenge