Thank you Netgalley for this ARC for an exchange of an honest review.

It was alright, kind of slow.

Oh my God. I would say that I hate to be the first person to leave a negative review about this book, but I'm really not. I honestly think I'm the wrong audience for this book. I am a queer woman in my late twenties and a book about a group of middle-aged white cis semi-wealthy gay men is not necessarily my idea of a good time. I wanted to like this book. It had potential to be fun and exciting and emotional, but I was bored out of my mind. Every time I look at how far I was in the book I would get a little bit more depressed that I had so much longer to go. I almost DNF this book at like 17% and I should have just done it because I dreaded reading this book every second. It just wasn't interesting. I honestly only kept reading because I received an arc through NetGalley and wanted to be able to leave feedback.

As for problematic moments, this book has a few. There is one character among the friend group who is older, I'm not sure exactly how old but maybe 50s or 60s, and he is honestly just garbage. He is really queerphobic to anyone who isn't cis gay or cis lesbian and he also has moments of being racist and sexist. There's a particular encounter that I should have just stopped, they're talking about bisexuals and he literally says " bisexuals aren't even real " or something like that. It only gets worse when all of the other characters attempt to correct him and tell him that bisexuality and pansexuality are valid but the character just is too set in his ways to change his mind apparently. These cis gay men just sit there and say wow he's never going to change his mind so it's not even worth it. That kind of attitude is why there is so much queer phobia, biphobia, transphobia, aphobia, etc within the queer community itself. Now this book has written by a gay man in his forties, I'm not sure if he's cis or not I don't know if he's white but the lack of an effort to correct this character on his intensely biphobic comment, struck me the wrong way.

Moving on, there are a couple other comments about how no one was meant to be alone or just vaguely amatonormative nonsense. There's also a Latino character among the group of friends but the only actual information we get about this is random words in Spanish. It's just not great.

So if you want to read about a middle-aged white cis gay man whose dog goes missing and him and his gaggle of white cis middle-aged gay men, with the exception of the single questionable POC character, who attempt to find the dog will also drinking copious amounts of alcohol and lots of outdated theater references, be my guest. I am extremely disappointed in this one

It should also go to say that this cover belongs to Finders Keepers by NR Walker and I can't get over the fact that it's literally the same stock photo with a brown piece of whatever cut down the middle. Save yourself some trouble and to go read that book instead because it's actually good.

This was such a fun read. The dog stories and love of dogs combined with a found family of gay men in DC came together beautifully for a quick, fun and in some ways, touching read.

I requested this on NetGalley because of the dog on the cover. She looks like she'd fit right in with the fluffy white dogs in my life. Turns out she's supposed to be a blond cockapoo but she reminded me of my smart and stubborn westie who passed away almost a year ago. The way Charlie thinks and talks about his dog is just perfect and rang so true. He loved her completely, he called her "girlie girl", he didn't consider himself alone when she was there. It was done so well and I know other dog lovers will relate to Charlie and probably see other similarities to their own dogs.

The human characters were also a lot of fun. I didn't love all of them or all of the side stories but they were overall a really fun group. But really, this story is all Mamie's and she's the star.

There were just a couple of things that took me out of the story that I didn't love which kept my rating at 4 stars. The whole storyline with Bunny seemed like an unnecessary addition to have a little smut and I could have done without the whole thing (except they still needed Drag Bingo, that was gold). I also don't really understand how the author wrapped up the story of the reward. It was an odd choice and felt a little forced and out of place, I just didn't understand why it was ended that way.

Overall, if you love your dog, this is a really fun and quick read.

*I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Loyalty, Love & Vermouth is a sweet novel about a man named Charlie desperately looking for his dog, Mamie, who has been stolen from his apartment. A nice cast of characters- rhyming lesbians, a drag queen, a couple with some issues, a ridiculously awful ex, and a truly atrocious human resources person- help and hinder Charlie's quest to find his lost pooch.

The characters are well-drawn and brought to life through the events of the novel and a series of flashbacks. Charlie's good and bad sides are both on display. Mamie haunts the book both as the missing friend and a metaphor for Charlie's mental state in general.

I read this book in a couple of hours tonight. It was delightful. The only criticism I have is the title. I would have called it Desperately Seeking Mamie. I guess I'm just that gay.....

This is a hundred percent not what the blurb states at all...I had to double check that I didn't read it incorrectly. If I had known it was a giant flashback in the beginning, I never would have requested it. Instead of what the blurb states, we're going back in time to have a timeline on his relationship? Then we just bop back to the story as if nothing happened? I also think there were too many characters, I had to go back and forth a few times to remember who was who.