Stella Gale

A Rare Breed, Book I - "Only the Animals Is Innocent"

By: Nancy Kyle Kent

Narrated by: Lisa Valdini

Length: 16 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

In her post prison life, Stella Gale, a tough, charismatic, and paradoxical ex-madam from Georgia, has become a renowned Rare Breed dog breeder (Dogue de Bordeaux). In her world, people not only keep secrets from each other, but also from themselves. Bobby Kansas, Stella’s husband, has no memory of the first ten years of his life and he doesn’t know why - Stella does, but she’s not telling.

Annie Evans moves in with Stella and Bobby at age 17, but how she came to meet Stella is not what she believes.

Ultimately, the web of secrets that held them together unravels and each must choose a course of action. Interspersed throughout are the hilarious antics of individuals in the Rare Breed dog world, sparring for ribbons in the ring, and clawing for power and recognition.

The dogs of Galestorm Kennel - Big Bertha, Amazing Grace, Ivan the Terrible, and Oz - have a compelling role in the unfolding of this human drama.

An aside from the author:

When Stella Gale burst into my life, it was more than a decade ago on a cold and grey New England morning. I had just pressed an English muffin into the toaster and poured myself a steaming cup of black coffee when I heard her - loud and clear. "You need to sit your ass down and open your ears real wide ‘cause, honey, I got me a story to tell and you got a story to write!"

I dropped everything, except my coffee, and sat down. Why? Because in my gut I knew this was the beginning of something extraordinary.

©2014, 2019 Nancy Kyle Kent (P)2021 Nancy Kyle Kent

Critic reviews

"If you are a person who has loved a dog, or a reader who loves an unforgettable character, you will find Stella Gale: A Rare Breed to be difficult to put down. Kent’s greatest achievement is in telling the lives of some very wounded people in a world where “Only the Animals is Innocent” - there is a vision that is generous, a spirit that is compassionate, and humor that is healing in a sometimes desperate world. Expect to be moved deeply and to laugh heartily." (Pat Schneider, Amherst Writers and Artists)

Totally engaging with carefully attuned narration

This book was hard to listen to because the Stella character was dominant—in both her actions and amount of text in her voice. It’s dysfunctional with a capital D. While the narration gets top marks, there is no attention to the impacts being a prostitute had on Ane, A sexually abused child lured into prostitution by unscrupulous Stella just gets brief attention and yet that is HUGE. The big reveal is awesomely written but the happy ending just left me flat. A damaged “beautiful” woman scooped up by a man who is attracted to difficult women. Oh, and he just happens to be an architect from Chicago who drives a Land Rover. It sets up book 2, which I will read but does the author gives child sexual abuse and it’s subsequent damage that leads to prostitution adequate weight? No.

Compelling, inspiring and beautifully narrated

I loved the book but, even so, when I discovered that an audio version was out, I was hesitant to buy and listen to it. I couldn’t imagine anyone, other than the author, having the capacity to connect with, and bring to life, the ever-shifting and vastly complicated character of Stella Gale.

I was wrong - Kent has found the perfect narrator in Lisa Valdini, whose presentation of Stella Gale is spot-on and often mesmerizing.

To develop a character like Stella who is a compelling emotional contradiction, easy to love-easy to hate, is no small feat yet Kent makes it seem effortless Add to this Kent’s capacity to create a cast of people (one more wounded than the next) who ultimately just seem to "click" - it’s a testament to her profound understanding of trauma and all the ways in which we try, in the best ways we know how, to love and be loved in the face of our own personal wounds and limitations.

But… with this said, Kent’s first-class, engaging and sometimes irreverent sense of humor (whether subtle or right there) never lets the story get bogged down by everyone’s seemingly relentless pain.

Ultimately, Stella Gale: A Rare Breed celebrates the human spirit and, in so doing, inspires hope.