This really is such a lovely and heartwarming story about friendships and second or even third chances at life and love.
When I first glanced at the cover I immediately and wrongly thought this book was going to be about two people who find a dog and have to share ownership; a sort of enemies to lovers rom-com. Sharing of the dog doesn't take place until after the halfway mark of the book. The Dog Share is more of a buildup of events leading up to people sharing the dog. And it is such a lovely read.

At the beginning of the novel, Suzy is in a relationship with an utter eejit or an absolute gobs***e as he would be called here in Inishowen. Ricky is in a brief relationship with someone completely not right for him. She was not very nice and completely indifferent to Ricky's son, Arthur. On a small side note, I didn't really like that 'the childless woman' was yet again portrayed in literature as heartless and lacking in warmth. Ricky's own mother did something terrible but she had issues and reasons for her awful actions to explain it away.

The dual narration of this audiobook was very effective. We got the best of both worlds with a mild Scottish accent for Ricky and the English accent for Suzy. Both narrators were excellent and complemented each other nicely.

I love the main characters in the book. Ricky's grumpy father is annoyed with Suzy but he is the one person she needs on her side. Luckily Scout, the dog, helps to break the ice here. I couldn't help but cheer Suzy on as she tried to make things better at the distillery and slowly win over the locals. Ricky and Suzy also seemed perfect for one another so their burgeoning romance was a delight to read.
What I really loved about the book though is how Suzy grew as a person. She took on a new and scary venture when she knew the possibility of failure was very high. She began to understand herself better and where she'd gone wrong in the past i.e. masking her true self in a relationship in order to fit into a man's perception of her.
I loved that Suzy's move to the island actually made her world so much bigger. With the help of Scout her social contacts grew, she had a new love interest and new friendships were formed.

The setting of the story made me want to get a wee dog and put the Hebrides on my list of places to go visit next.

Ok if you're going into this book thinking this is going to be all about dogs then far not. Scout is a main character in this book but Suzy is really our main character and she is great fun to spend time with. We also get to meet Ricky who is a male character who get's to have feelings and insecurities-huzzah! The thing that I really loved about this book thought was the setting. I love spending time in Scotland and we got to see a Scottish Island, distillery, Glasgow and Oban in this book-what more could you want.

Fiona Gibson has a talent for writing female character later in life. We always get to read about the happily ever after but what about when that happily ever after comes to an end and you're turning fifty and you want to know what comes next? Fiona Gibson allows her characters to get to that point and guides us as readers as to what happens next. She tells it like it is and Suzy reacted in a great way to every that Fiona threw at her. She was just a sensible human and we all need more of those in our lives right now!

As already mentioned Ricky is a male character who is allowed to have insecurities and emotions of his own. Due to the fact that we have chapters from Suzy's point of view and chapters from Rickey's point of view we get to explore what is going on inside Ricky's mind. He has had it just as tough as Suzy and I love that he is having to care for both his son and his father on his own. We get to see the toll that takes on him and how it causes him to look for love an affection is the most unlikely of places.

Yes of course we have Scout the dog and we get to see him go through the recuse process and all of that entails but can we talk about the Whisky distillery for a moment please? I may not be a dog person but I am a whisky person and I loved the idea of Suzy having this distillery hanging over her. She visits the distillery with her husband during happy times but now it is hanging a little like the rock around her neck and I loved learning about the ins and outs of running that business-it really stuck out as a unique feature of a romcom novel to me.

The things I really took away from this book were the fully formed characters, the great setting and the inclusion of a distillery in this novel. Fiona Gibson once again weaves a great tale. I listened to this on audiobook and the narrators did a great job even with the different between an inner Hebrides accent, an Oban accent and a Glasgow accent. Highly recommend!

This audio book is narrated by Cathleen McCarron and Robin Laing. The chapters were split between the POVs of the main characters and portrayed Suzy, a middle aged mother from Yorkshire and the Scottish accent of teacher and single parent Ricky. Both voices were age appropriate and relatable to the characters personalities.


I was immediately drawn to The Dog Share because it features a small, scruffy abandoned dog called Scout. He enters Suzy’s life just when she needs a friend, and from that moment onwards life begins to feel much better.

Suzy has to visit the Scottish island where her ex partner’s whiskey distillery is located to sort out a huge financial mess and speak to the employees.Not only has her ex deserted her but he also moved quickly on, leaving employees worried for their jobs and the future of the island. She has to face anger and resentment from the locals and feels responsible, although she didn’t make the business decisions herself.

The chapters are split between the POV of Suzy and teacher Ricky who returns to the island to visit his father. Ricky is accompanied by his son Arthur who makes an immediate connection with Scout when they meet on the beach. Suzy learns that Ricky may know just the person to make the distillery profitable once more.

All the characters are likeable and you find yourself rooting for them to find happiness. The island of Sgadansay is described beautifully with quaint cottages, old fashioned shops and breathtaking walks along the clifftops.

This is an easy, uplifting read (listen) which everyone will enjoy (not just dog lovers!). It shows how connections can be made and avenues opened through mutual love of our furry friends.

I really enjoyed this audiobook apart from sometimes I felt that the accents were a mixture of Welsh and Scottish.

The story itself was lovely and easy to listen to, I'm sure if I had it in book format I would have got through it in no time.

Would definitely recommend as an easy reader/beach read when the time comes!

Thank you NetGalley & the publisher for this ARC.

The narrator really got to me on this one sadly it might be a book I’d reconsider as a physical book but the Yorkshire accent felt really put on (sorry to the narrator if she genuinely is from yorkshire but I am and it didn’t sound realistic) it was just really jarring for me and I found I had to stop listening.

This is such an adorable listen. I loved the storyline and the narrators were excellent. I love dogs so I was drawn to this book straightaway. I found this so uplifting, what she went through and how she turned things around when she could have easily walked away. I remember going to a distillery in Scotland as a child and the smell was disgusting!! But the rest of my time there was amazing and it brought back some lovely memories.
This is the perfect escape.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK Audio for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I received an audio copy of this book and thoroughly enjoyed the narration of this book. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the actual book. This is the first of Fiona Gibson's books I've picked up and I was really disappointed. For a romance book, there was approximately 10 minutes of romance. The 'Dog Share' is barely touched on until around 50% of the way through and still burns out fast, and the two romantic leads don't even know eachothers names until 75% of the way through the book, the rest is absolute waffle.

This was a cute and easy audiobook.
It was quite predictable though and it didn’t manage to surprise me, but I still enjoyed it. And the dog was a cute touch :)
The narrtors were good as well.

I’d like to thank NetGalley and Harper Collins Audio for approving me for an ARC of this audiobook.

As soon as the word dog was mentioned I knew I wanted to give this one a go. Having two dogs myself I love reading anything that includes our cute companions. As with all the audiobooks I’ve listened to the narration was brilliant. I love having two narrators as I find the story plays out more in my imagination. This is the second audio I’ve listened to where Robin Laing narrates and I love his voice, it is so easy to listen to and his execution is brilliant. I particularly liked the voice he gave Harry! This si my first audio with Cathleen McCarron and she did a superb job.

Everything about this book was adorable. I loved Scout and how popular he was with all the characters, even convincing those who weren’t a dog lover to be his new friend! Fiona Gibson did an excellent job in portraying just how much a dogs love becomes infectious.

Having been to Scotland many times the scenery was described perfectly. I have never been to Sgadansay but my family and I always enjoy a visit to see family up in Lossiemouth and are always dazzled by how beautiful it is. My husband also enjoys the whisky tours and I couldn’t agree more with the Sgadansay distillery about the three vital ingredients for the perfect whisky!

I felt that Suzy was a little bit of a pushover at the start where Paul was concerned. As I listened to her list the different ventures he tried I couldn’t believe she had stuck with him for so long. Even I could see where this distillery business was going to end up. As the book progressed I admired her determination to get the business back up and running. She could of easily walked away from it all but she took the harder route and did a brilliant job. Both Ricky and Suzy had a fantastic relationship with their children and I often found myself giggling at the WhatsApp conversations or, in Ricky and Arthur’s case, their conversations about Meg’s job.

The only thing missing for me was a little more romance between Suzy and Ricky. I felt that it was a little rushed at the end and would of enjoyed a bit more courtship or drama surrounding them. Having said that I did enjoy the listen and felt this was the perfect pick me up I needed. The story made me laugh, smile and was a joy to listen to.

An easy listen audio book - it took me a while to get into the different characters but all in all an easy listen

*I was given an arc of The Dog Share in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Avon and Fiona Gibson*

Synopsis:

Suzy Medly is the co-owner of a struggling Scottish distillery on the island of Skagdensy. After her now ex-partner runs it to the ground she has taken it upon herself to sort out his mess. All of the distillery workers hate Suzy and during her stay on the island, she comes across a stray dog who she takes in and names Scout.

Ricky is a music teacher who grew up on the island. Visiting his dad, who worked at the distillery, he and his son Arthur come across Scout on the beach one day. Arthur wants a dog but Ricky isn’t sure, they decide to form a dog share with Suzy as a trial to see if he is ready for his own dog.

Review:

Let’s start off on a positive note. I received the audiobook version of this and I’ve found that I’m coming to enjoy them more. The narrators did a great job with this and although the reading at times was slow it didn’t affect the reading experience too much as I could play it at a quicker speed. Both narrators were excellent representations of their characters.

Now for the parts that I didn’t like. Unfortunately, there are a lot more negatives for me as this book just did not work. Don’t worry there are a few positives, but I’ll talk about those at the end.

For a book called ‘the dog share’ there was not a lot of dog sharing. This concept isn’t even discussed until over halfway through the book and honestly, the dog just was not an important element.

This brings me to my second point of the book taking way too long to get started. Again not much happens for the first half of the book and the main focus was on the distillery. The dog, Scout, is a part of the book by then but he does not feel important.

I feel like the title was not right for this book and it may actually benefit from a change. The dog and the sharing of him is very much second thought, but he does bring our main characters together. Well kinda, they would have met anyway because both Suzy and Ricky are linked to the always present distillery so basically Scout did not matter.

Which honestly is a huge shame because I had really high hopes of loving this book.

Speaking of love, The Dog Share was supposed to be a romance. I would like to ask where that romance was. Imagine my major confusion when it turns out both main characters are already in a relationship with one of them continuing for over 60% of the book.

When it did come to the main characters forming a relationship it came from nowhere and personally I thought it felt forced. For the longest time, I was left wondering whether this was actually a romance. I would say it isn’t.

As for the positives, the island sounded like it would be a wonderful place to live and I would have loved to see more of the community side. Scout sounded absolutely adorable and I really liked Arthur (Ricky’s son) as I think he was the most developed character.

The book was not bad but it has definitely been marketed wrong. The title led me to believe that this would be a fluff-filled romance that centred around a dog. Instead, it was just general adult fiction that centred around a whiskey distillery in Scotland and a dog just happened to be involved. The story could have been interesting but my expectations were definitely not met. I do believe that I would have enjoyed this a lot more if the cover and description didn’t make it seem like the book was solely about the dog.

I’m not one to leave books unfinished, however, if this wasn’t the audiobook version I think I may have abandoned it somewhere before the halfway mark.

I had to force myself through this audiobook. Whatever I thought it was going to be about was lost quickly and I felt like I was attempting to stride through thick treacle the more I got into it. It picked up a little about 40% of the way through (finally the title made sense) but not enough to change my mind.
The concept was a wonderful idea for a book but it felt poorly executed. Several characters were lovely but had no place in the story making me wonder why they'd even been included. The plot and text felt clunky and honestly? A little dull.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an audio arc of this book, all opinions expressed here are my own.

The Dog Share by Fiona Gibson is the first book I have read by this author.

Unfortunately it wasn’t what I was expecting. Tagged as funny and uplifting with a guy and girl sharing a dog on the cover I thought it would be very much a chick-lit/rom-com style book. It was much more do-over/fresh start with a very slow burn romance and the main dog sharing happening between two female friends.

Suzy and her flakey ex bought a thriving whiskey distillery which he ran into the ground, leaving her to pick up the pieces.

Music teacher Ricky and his son Arthur return to his island home to check on his elderly father Harry who worked at the distillery forever.

Told in dual POVs this is very much a family drama where Scout the scruffy lost dog helps heal hearts and join people together.

I really struggled with the narrators of this book. The male and female were each using thick accents which my brain was taking a while to adjust to at each change. I also had an issue with the female voice being louder than the male, do I had to continually adjust the volume. I recommend reading, not listening to this book.

The story was nice, if not what I expected. The location and characters were well written and interesting. Overall 3 stars. The Dog Share by Fiona Gibson releases on the 4th of March.

Suzy is the kind of narrator you either love or hate. She’s well-intentioned but seems to rather drift through life and doesn’t always look out for her best interests.
When we first encounter Suzy she’s recently single and trying to salvage a very bad situation. Her ex-partner has left her to deal with the aftermath of another whim-his purchase of a distillery on a beautiful Hebridean island that he has now run into the ground with his bad decisions.
Suzy doesn’t turn tail and run. Having fallen in love with the island when she rescues a stray dog she makes the decision to take on this challenge and try to sort out the distillery.
Suzy faces a lot of her own prejudices and some concern from locals. She has a run-in with the head distiller but determines to stick it out.
Alternating her story is that of Ricky and his young son, once a native of the island and also something of a lost soul.
Brought together by the dog that seems to form unlikely bonds with strangers, it’s pretty apparent how things will go. We can predict most of the story and yet there’s a charm to this that will appeal if you’re in the right mood.
Thanks to NetGalley for the audiobook ARC.

**Listened to audiobook**

This is a sweet book, I enjoyed listening. It wasn't as romantic as I was hoping though.
It took a long time to get going. You follow two separate stories with both of our central characters before they intertwine. However, it was 60% of the way through before any 'intertwining'
I really liked the narrators - however, both of their Scottish accents were not great! I thought they were doing Indian accent at times!
It was sweet, but not enough romance, and not enough substance in there.
(That being said, I am so desperate for my own pup just like Scout!!)

A really enjoyable uplifting read
I wouldnt describe it as hilarious but it did have me chuckling in places
Suzie starts life on the island on the wrong foot and comes back to try and fix things, when she finds am abandoned dog that's when things really change, it's amazing how having a dog can change your whole life, she meets new friends and they in turn all look after Scout (the dog) what follows is a really lovely story about life, love , friendship and (wo)man's best friend.
I was lucky enough to receive an advanced audio copy of this book and I highly recommend it , wether you read or listen you will absolutely love The Dog Share.

The Dog Share - Fiona Gibson
Narrated by Cathleen McCarron and Robin Laing

I was given a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review thanks to HarperCollins UK Audio and Netgalley.

Suzy Medley is having a bad day…

… when a shabby terrier turns up at her door. Just like Suzy, Scout has been abandoned, although only Suzy has been left with a financial mess and a business in tatters thanks to her ex.

Suzy takes Scout in and her chaotic world changes in unexpected ways: strangers have never been more welcoming and her teenage kids can’t wait to come home to visit.

Then a chance encounter on a windy Hebridean beach makes things more complicated, because Suzy isn’t the only one who needs a friend.

Scout has plenty of love to go round… but does Suzy?

The Dog Share is a warm tale with down to earth, hard working characters. This story is told from both the perspective of Suzy and Ricky. Whilst their stories are connected it takes a while before the characters actually meet, which allows the readers to get to know the characters individually.

I would recommend this book if you enjoy stories about pets, friendships and fresh starts.

Rating 4/5

I think I need to read this now as opposed to the audiobook. I really enjoyed this book and loved the premise of Scout really bringing not only individuals but also the community together. Scout is definitely the character that I’m going to remember for the longest!

The only problem I found with this is that I drifted off on quite a few occasions, although the change in narrator really helped with this as I was able to easily distinguish between the characters and who was speaking at what time.

I did get a bit confused at first because I thought the first chapter was relating to Rick and his dad rather than Rick and Alfie. Once I’d figured this out the whole story started to make a lot more sense to me.

Ultimately I did really enjoy this book but feel like I would benefit from reading it where I can take in more of the little details and give it a thorough review

OMG I really want to share Scout I am totally in love with this little dog in the story and loved this book. As we follow Suzy as she tries to sort out the mess her ex boyfriend left her and their business in a little lost dog comes into her life and not only changes her but also a number of new friends she makes along the way. I don’t want to say too much because it will spoil it but it’s a beautiful heartwarming book with great narration and will cheer up your day.

This book is absolutely brilliant, there’s so much going on, all tied together in some way by a dog. It showcases relationships, friendships, families and the pure love of a dog.
Thoroughly enjoyable read.