Life on the Leash is not a great romance, and it’s not great as romantic comedy either. However, this book about a dog trainer does a great job when it comes to dogs.

This book is about Cora, a dog trainer. She’s very successful, with an upper-class clientele. When an engaged couple with a new puppy hires Cora, she gets a crush on the guy (Charlie). However, at around the same time a mutual friend introduces her to Eli, who is geeky and helpful and also actually single. Whatever will she do?

This book has a LOT of problems. Women, including Cora and Cora’s roommate, Maggie, are constantly putting down other women in ways both subtle and overt (making judgments based on appearance, for instance). Maggie’s best friend is a gay man who fills a stereotypical role as “work wife” and who never experiences lasting consequences for his mean-spirited “jokes.” Everyone is thin and beautiful and able-bodied and almost everyone is White. TW for some descriptions of mistreated dogs (they end up fine), depression, and hoarding.

Structurally, the plot wanders in a lot of directions. There’s a subplot about Cora’s ex who is in a reality show competition “America’s Hottest Landscaper.” This is a hilarious subplot, but why is it there? Cora has a client who is clearly suffering from severe mental illness (depression and hoarding). The fate of the client’s dog is resolved, but not the fate of the client. What happened?

Threads wander in and out with no apparent purpose or resolution.

In terms of romance, Charlie is such an obvious sleaze ball that we never wonder if Cora will end up with him, especially since she makes it clear that she is not interested in being “the other woman.” Eli is delightful, but has to call Cora out for the fact that she treats him like crap. I actually like Cora, but her relationship with Eli is so dependent on asking him for favors that I didn’t want him to end up with Cora either. Frankly, I want him all to myself. He’s a skinny nerd who salsa dances and sings to his dog. The only thing I have against Cora is that she doesn’t propose marriage to him on sight.

The one part of this book that works unequivocally well is the stuff about dogs and dog training. Any time a dog appears on page, Cora is her best self – tactful but firm, compassionate, capable, and realistic. The dogs’ misbehaviors are appropriately credited to bad training/ownership, inadequate care, or unrealistic expectations. All dogs are “good dogs” but alas, the same can’t be said for people.

There’s a plot line about Cora auditioning for a dog-training show that provides a fascinating look at the audition process. Cora hopes to get on the show because she wants to promote training using positive reinforcement as opposed to the more punitive methods that a rival dog trainer recommends. This plot line, like the other plot moments with dogs, feels authentic where other plot lines feel forced.

So much of this book seems to be there just because it’s expected to be – as though someone figured that a light novel about a woman needs romance and also a makeover scene. The truth is, this is really a book about Cora and dogs. Everything and everyone else, even my beloved Eli, are superfluous. More of the dogs and the dog TV show, and less of everything else, would have improved this book tremendously.