The New Yorkers by Cathleen Schine

From the author's website: This a novel about living and falling in love on one block in New York City. It’s a kind of love letter to New York City, the New York that I know, which has neighborhoods and seasons and the rhythms, sometimes, of a small town. In The New Yorkers, neighbors fall in and out of love, and it is their dogs– a dignified old white pit-bull named Beatrice, a puppy named Howdy discovered in the closet of a dead man, a boisterous Rottweiler named Kaiya, and Jolly, a vicious little mutt– who act as cupids.

I listened to this one on audiobook and it took me two tries to get going. I put the first disc in while driving to Greenville, NC with the Nurse from my office for a training. After disc one, I looked at her and said, "I can't take six more hours of this." and out it came. (Replaced by White Oleander.)

A few months went by and I tried again and this time, it clicked. I started to care about the characters both human and canine. It was still on the slow side, a contrast to the way New York actually feels to me - fast, fast, fast, but I stuck it out and enjoyed it. There were several storylines going at once but because nothing was moving too quickly, I was able to keep it all straight. It was all about relationships and that's my favorite kind of story.

My regret on this one is that I really considered saving it for the Literate Housewife's "The Dog Days of Summer" that will be coming back around again this summer but couldn't make myself wait. I'm in an audiobook dry spell - haven't come across any great ones at the local shops and haven't made the trek to Barnes and Noble over on Hilton Head so there was no postponing this book, I'm out of alternatives. Desperate times and all...you'll understand how true that is when I post my reveiw of the "Dr. Phil" book I am listening to now!