The Twelve Dogs of Christmas

by Lizzie Shane

I love a good Christmas themed book, that has a HEA. I did wonder at one point if there was actually going to be a HEA. I’m so glad that it did and that all of the dogs also found their fur-ever homes. There were some really funny parts to this book that had me laughing out loud. It was also quite touching at times too. If you want a feel good Christmas read then read this.

Ally Gilmore has gone to stay with her grandparents in Pine Hollow for the Christmas break, and to help out with their dog shelter. As her grandmother is still recovering from surgery to her arm.

Ally isn’t there for very long when she finds out the council man Ben West has cut all of the shelters funding. Leaving Ally four weeks to find homes for all of the dogs at the shelter, not including any that might turn up during this time.

Ben West is a reluctant council man. He is known to everyone in the town as the Grinch. As he is the person everyone goes to for funding different town projects. More than not he has to decline everyone as the council budget gets smaller each year.

Ben is only doing this job to fulfill his late brother in laws commitment to doing this job. When his sister and brother in law passed away he became the guardian of his ten year old niece who is obsessed with dogs. But suddenly becoming a single parent over night with no idea as to what he should be doing is making him feel as though he is failing at everything.

Ally goes and confronts this Grinch of a council man. Only to find out that the man isn’t anything like she had been told. He is far more reasonable than anyone led her to believe and he was very hansom to boot.

Ben feels so bad about cutting the funding he offers to help Ally find all of the dogs homes. He comes up with different ideas to help, the first one is by offering to put photos and little stories about each dog in to the local council news letter. He also names the article “The twelve dogs of Christmas” to try and get peoples interest in the dogs and the shelter.

Every time Ally turns around Ben and his niece are always there doing what they can to help with all of the events they have planned for the dogs. Along with Ally’s friends doing all they can to help.

Ally and Ben are spending more and more time together. It’s obvious that they are attracted to one another and the tongs of the town start to wag. But Ally keeps insisting that once she has found homes for all of the dogs, she’ll be going back to her old life! What can Ben do in this short time to make her realise that this is where she is meant to be, with him, his niece and the dog shelter in Pine Hollow?

Pages: 357, Publication Date: 29 September 2020. My Rating: