Stay

By: Magnolia Robbins

Narrated by: Joan Dukore

Length: 7 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's Summary

Dogs always have a way of finding people.

When a tumultuous past causes Alice Gray, the only woman Lou Pearson has ever loved, to leave her for good, she shrinks away from the world, trying to make amends. She dedicates years of her life to train service dogs and save rescues. Little did she know that a rescued dog would save her, too.

Caspian shows up in Lou’s life, and the dog guides her to a young girl who desperately needs him and to the girl’s mother, Alice, propelling Lou into a past she believed she’d never have to face again. To a woman who she assumed she’d lost forever. 

As an old romance and deep emotions resurface, Lou’s worst fears come crashing back and she can’t help but wonder: This time, if it all falls apart, will Alice stay?

©2019 Magnolia Robbins (P)2019 Magnolia Robbins

A good story

I enjoyed the interactions between characters. Anna is great. The dogs are great.

One random pet peeve. The brain dead stroke patient. Makes for a touching scene. As a rehab doc it makes me cringe. Most of the time it is not so simple and a diagnosis of brain death would rarely be made quickly within a few hours.

To portray that scene re-enforces misconceptions that lead patient families to expect that type of cut and dry diagnosis.

Better verbage would be... large stroke, poor prognosis, unable to maintain airway, brain swelling. Only thing that would save his life would be drastic surgery, but severe stroke deficits. Spouse stating that she knows he would not want to live like this. Neurologist agrees it is reasonable to withdraw life support.

I know that is a weird beef about a peripheral scene. Very har to realistically portray the intubated saying goodbye without getting into thorny medical or ethical issues.

End of rant.

Fate steps in!

Lou and Alice find their way back to one another in the most unexpected way. Alice’s daughter needs a service dog and it just so happens that Lou is the trainer of said dog for Anna. They have an undeniable connection. Guilt and shame has kept them apart for a good 8 yrs. Yet, they our forced to work together for Anna’s sake. In that time they get to know one another again. Their relationship begins to grow. Lou knows what she wants and is a bit hesitant with Alice. However, she's got some heavy baggage from her past and hang ups that hold her back. Alice wants to be strong for Lou, but she to has to overcome her own fears from their past. In the end when it's meant to be....it will. You can't fight fate.
Now, I truly liked this story. I just had difficulty with the narration. I felt like the characters were always in a kids voice. Specially Alice. It took some time and many chapters to get somewhat used to it. I did finish it and I’m glad I did because I really liked the story...would recommend just for the story in itself. 👍

Overall Good

Story overall was good, the narration didn’t fit into the story I thought. Given audio for my voluntary review and my honest opinion

Book was OK

I liked the story, liked the characters. Hated the narration, the childish voice was horrible, completely not united to the story. I kept going on because the story was good.

Decent love story

its your basic love story , 8 yrs apart and they fall back in love with each other. The story could of been longer, only because the author kept bouncing around. I felt like they could of wrote the scenes a little better or added some scenes in such as ) the proposal. the narrator would of been better with a children's book, I just couldn't relate her voice to the characters at all
I don't regret reading the book, I just don't think it will be one I'll read again

Heart Felt storyline

Wow! This book really pulled on the old heart strings! So emotional and warm! Well done!!!

Nice one

I personally love dogs so i was excited for this book.
Lou has been struggling with her life when the woman she loves leaves her as she close herself off she decide to train dogs for a living.
When she rescuse a dog name him Caspian it leaves her to a young girl name Anna who turns out to be the daughter of the woman she lost Alice.
I like that it wasn't to much drama that it's really about two people getting a second at love and learning that you can overcome yours struggles if you learn work through them and ask for help.
Joan Dukore did a fab job ;)