Diane Kelly writes the most excellent Tara Holloway series and in 2013 released a short-story cross-over to this new series . It was good, but I'm not generally a fan of multiple POVs, nor am I a fan of an animal having one of the POVs - both of which Ms. Kelly clearly intended to include in this new series. But I really like her writing and I figured "what the hell" - and it languished on my TBR pile for almost a year.

Megan and Brigit inadvertently stumble across a bomb one day having lunch, ruining the bomber's plans by evacuating the building and avoiding any serious injuries. Eager to make detective asap, she volunteers to assist the detective-in-charge in her off-time. She meets Seth and his dog Blast from the bomb squad along the way, adding a bit of romantic tension to the story line.

The story started out rocky: the writing felt a bit preachy, with too much philosophising as Megan is introduced and we learn how she ended up with a K-9 partner. Everything felt too ramped up. The book also started off with an alarming number of lists, and Brigit's canine thoughts were ridiculous; fortunately both became non-issues as the story progressed. I also HATED the author's use of harm to animals, even though it was a small scene and ultimately crucial to the solution: she could have done it differently and I wish she would have.

After the first bomb went off, the story took off too: the writing smoothed out, the characters evened out and Brigid, though still getting her own very short chapters, acted more like the dog she is. I don't think it added anything to the story itself, save for keeping everything lighter, but it didn't hurt the story as I expected it to either.

I liked a lot: there's a realistic time-line; months go by instead of everything being crammed into a week. The romantic element isn't rushed; there's tension but nobody is rushing to bed and there's a lot of baggage on both sides (but no melodrama). Readers are going to discover Seth's baggage over time, right along with Megan if she sticks with him. Finally, this isn't a typical cozy plot: there's no "big reveal" and the reader finds out who the bomber is before Megan - assuming the reader is paying attention. All of this made for an incredibly refreshing change from the ordinary formula; so much so by the end I totally didn't mind having to read Brigit's thoughts.

I classified this as "cozy" on my shelf but it would seriously offend those with less tolerance. Ms. Kelly doesn't tippy-toe around profanity and the flashback of how Megan ended up part of a K-9 unit is flat-out vulgar: like I said, I'd have used a gun, screw the taser.


[PopSugar 2015 Challenge: A book with non-human characters.] ( )

Megan Luz is a police office in Fort Worth, Tx. She has aspirations of becoming a detective, but she's going to have to control her temper a bit better if she ever wants to fulfill her dream. After using her taser to shoot her former partner in the testicles, she's reassigned to another partner. A female partner. A furry female partner. Neither of them are that impressed with the other. Megan doesn't want a dog cramping her style. And Brigit has no respect for Megan. But, as they get to know each other, go through training, and work together, they soon form a team. Add in a cute fireman and his bomb sniffing dog and you get a great recipe for a fun, light mystery.

Paw Enforcement is the first book in this series. There are 7 books, with a new book coming out in November 2019.

For those who love cozy mysteries....this book is cozy-ish. There is no spurting blood. No graphic sex. No extreme violence. But...there is some cussing and a bit of adult theme. Nothing extreme....no F-bombs....but I would recommend reading this one before handing it off to a child/teen to read. Readers who don't like swearing....pass this one by. Those who don't really care -- there are a few words here and there, but not many. I didn't mind it. In fact, most of the time it was funny. :)

Megan Luz is a fun, entertaining main character. She wields a mean baton.....and is often tempted to use it as a tool of correction for lunk heads. Both Megan and Brigit have some rough spots. Brigit loves to destroy shoes. And Megan's temper gets her in trouble sometimes. I didn't really care for her love interest much, but I'm willing to give the character a chance for more development in subsequent books.

I listened to the audio book version of this story. Narrated by Coleen Marlo, the audio is just over 10 hours long. Marlo reads at a nice, steady pace and does a great job of voice acting the different characters. Her performance made this an entertaining, fun listening experience! She has a pleasant voice that is easy to listen to.

All in all, a very entertaining start to this series. There were some spots where I had to suspend reality a bit....police department policies regarding K-9 dogs, etc. But....this is meant as a light mystery with Brigit being a main character and not a hard-hitting police procedural. I'm willing to let a few things go by for the sake of a fun plot. And this was definitely fun!

I enjoyed this first book enough to binge read the rest of the series. I have a review copy of the newest book in the series waiting in the wings, and the remaining books checked out or on hold from the library. Plus I purchased a novella, Upholding the Paw (book 2.5). I'm settling in with Megan and Brigit for awhile. The humor in this first book made this such a fun read that I'm looking forward to reading something light and fun for awhile!

Moving on to book #2, Paw and Order! ( )

Sadly this book did not live up to its corny-but-clever title and its cute cover. It made me smile a few times and made me laugh once in a little over 300 pages.

It was an easy, light read (if you can live with lapses of grammar and at least one continuity problem) but I had had higher hopes for it.

So, how do you fail to have a hit on your hands when you write about a rookie cop with a temper that led her to taser her partner's balls,being assigned to work with a talented but stubborn, shoe-eating, police dog?

Start by having a main character who is bad-tempered, childishly competitive, knows nothing about dogs and not much more about people, who demonstrates none of the skills she needs to move up from street cop to detective, and who bursts into tears or has heat "flushing through her core" so often that the only sustainable response is an eye-roll.

Add a dog to the story, even give it its own Point Of View chapters and then give it nothing particularly important to do and completely fail to get inside its head.

Stick to frantic fun even when the main character's life is in peril so that the tone and the pace stay the same throughout.

Lard in research on Texas murderers and psychopaths but don't make it relevant to solving the crime.

Finally, add a narrator who seems to be giving a sight-reading rather than a thought-through performance and who pronounces hypocrisy as HYPO - as in needle Crisy as in crisis, with no apparent awareness of its meaning. The are two more books in the series, so someone must have liked them but life's too short to add them to my TBR pile. ( )

Amusing novel about a law enforcement officer and her furry partner. ( )

3.5/5 stars. This book begins with Officer Megan Luz tasering her partner in the junk. He totally deserved it, even the Chief thinks so, but something has to give. That something is their partnership. Megan is given a choice, become the new K9 officer or lose her job. Very reluctantly she chooses the dog. Sgt. Brigit isn't very impressed with her new partner (as you will see from her short pov chapters) but she figures Megan is trainable.

If you're like me, I had you at "tasering her partner in the junk." (Seriously, he had it coming.) Brigit takes about as much shit as Megan does, so they're really perfect together. Once they go through some training, Bridget alerts on a food court trash can and she and Megan find a bomb and save the day. But that's only the first bomb...

There are also chapters from the bomber's point of view. Normally I don't like that sort of thing because in order to not give away the secret identity the chapters have to be sparse. In this case, however, they gave me enough information to keep me guessing right up until just a bit before the reveal.

Fun book with a good mystery, a great dog, and junk-tasering. What more could you want? (Provided by publisher) ( )