Unleashed Holiday by Victoria Schade – a Review
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Description:
When an old rival reappears right before the holidays, a professional dog trainer must decide if the melting frost between them can make up for their ruff past, from the USA Today bestselling author of Dog Friendly .
Chelsea Higgins is doing just fine. She’s heading into the holidays at the helm of a thriving dog training business, and she’s got a mellow senior dog at home to keep her warm at the end of the day. What more could she need? Enter certified gym bro Andrew Chelsea’s former nemesis, and now the newest neighbor in her business complex, who also wants to expand into the vacant space Chelsea’s been eyeing for months. Who cares if it’s the season of joy? Let the turf war begin.
When an unfortunate (and literal) run-in with Andrew’s lawless dog leaves Chelsea with a bum wrist, the two strike a Andrew will help Chelsea rehab the injury if she’ll work with him to train his adorably uncivilized boxer.
Their typical bickering soon turns to bantering, and Chelsea finds herself inexplicably drawn to the man she thought she had nothing in common with. As she gets to know Andrew and his parents, she realizes she needs to refocus on her own family, especially with a milestone Christmas speeding toward them. But Chelsea can’t help wondering if she and Andrew are training for keeps, or if this unexpected Christmas gift is just too good to be true.
Review:
Unleashed Holiday by Victoria Schade is a sweet romantic novel with wonderful dogs adding to the fun. We meet Chelsea (Chels) Higgins from the start, as she runs School of Frolic, a successful dog training business; she also has an older dog, Birdie to give her companionship. When one of her clients has to give up his dog, Edith, Chels offers to take her; so now she has two cute dogs, a young puppy and a senior dog.
To her surprise, Chels learns that the vacant building next store to her shop, has been rented by her old nemesis, Andrew Gibson; which he plans to turn into a gym for fitness training. Though they both share best friends, they have never really gotten along.
Andrew has a boxer dog, Dude, who is totally untrained, and Chels becomes annoyed at some of Andrew’s bad habits, parking in her space and not training his untrainable dog. One night, Dude, the wild dog (though very cute), accidentally injures her, and Andrew and Chels make deal; Chels will train Dude, and Andrew will give her strength training rehabbing her wrist injury. Slowly, the bickering between them changes to sort of a friendship, leading to lots of bantering; and both begin to have feelings for each other.
Chels gets to know Andrew’s parents, and sees that he and his father have their own issues; but in time she will get Andrews to try and find a way to reach out to his father. But Andrew’s mother is thrilled to have Chels available to train her goats. This was fun and I really like the mother. Chels also learns from being with his family, that she needs to spend more time with her own family, including her pregnant sister and mother.
When Chels and Andrew learn that the landlord is planning to sell the building, both are concerned. Chels’s family tries to convince her to use the money her deceased father left, but she refuses to touch the money. Now will the building possibly being sold; she will need to reconsider. How will Andrew react to this possibility?
Unleashed Holiday was a fun story, with a great couple, nice secondary characters, and all three of the cute adorable dogs. I have to admit, I loved all of the dogs, especially with Birdie’s surprise in falling for Edith, and her dominant ways. I loved Dude too. Unleashed Holiday was a sweet enemies to lovers romance, and so very well written by Victoria Schade. If you enjoy a second chance romance and fun dogs, you need to read this book.
Reviewed by Barb
Copy provided by Publisher
