Review: Bedtime for Bonsai by Elaine Fox.

Publisher: Avon, Harper Collins

Hero: Dylan Mercer
Heroine: Penelope Porter
Grade: 4 out of 5

Penelope Porter longed for a baby. But now that her marriage is over, she’s turned to the next best thing—a cute, cuddly puppy. Mr. Darcy’s an absolute sweetheart, but he could use a stint in obedience school. He keeps sneaking over to the shop across the street, the one owned by Baltimore bad boy Dylan Mersey. Not that Penelope minds having to fetch her dog from his handsome new friend . . .

Mr. Darcy? Only a high-society hottie would name a mischievous pooch after a romantic hero. No, to Dylan this pup’s name is Bonsai . . . and his owner’s impossible to resist. Dylan’s more rough-and-tumble than refined, but he’s about to prove he’s exactly what Penelope needs to forget her heartless ex.

Soon things are heating up between proper Penelope and dangerous Dylan as they learn that misbehaving isn’t just fun for the dog. What Penelope considers unsuitable quickly becomes unstoppable, and she discovers that true love truly is worth the risk.

This is the second book by Elaine Fox that I’ve read and I enjoyed it. She did a great job of telling Penelope and Dylan’s story. Penelope is the good girl and Dylan is the bad boy. Penelope wants to reunite with her cheating ex-husband because she feels that they’re both in different places now and she wants to see if maybe now that he has his own daughter from the woman he left her for, he’ll be more receptive to having a baby with her now because she really wants to have a baby.

Right now she has a dog. She hasn’t named the dog yet but she’s got a dog and she loves it to pieces.

She’s doing great, she’s beginning to see her ex husband and she’s getting herself ready to spill the beans to her friends and family who she knows is going to flip out because Penelope has spent so much time hating Glenn (the cheating ex husband) that to hear she’s going to go back to that loser isn’t going to make anyone happy for her. She knows that they’ll eventually get over it and support her but she knows they’re not going to be happy about it.

So while she’s got all of that on her plate, enter her hero. The bad boy trying to form a fresh start for himself right across the street from Penelope’s pen shop.

Dylan and Penelope meet for the first time with her friends and then they meet again, not knowing who the other is when Dylan gets roaring drunk and comes back to his shop, only to find out that he’s locked out of his shop and so he goes across the street where he sees a light on and before he could ask to use her phone, she calls the cops on him and he spends the night trying to get out of that mess.

Over the course of this book we see Dylan and Penelope grow soft on each other with the help of Penelope’s dog, Mr. Darcy. She calls him Mr. Darcy but he hasn’t taken to the name, he answers to the name Dylan chose for him which is Bonsai.

This book didn’t take me very long to read. It was one of those quick, fun reads that zips right on by. It wasn’t this long drawn out drama fest and I liked that about it. I enjoyed the characters, lots of recurring characters from previous books and it was nice to see Ms. Fox include everyone without them taking over the story. I loved how Dylan got along with everyone even though he was really dressed down for Pen’s party and the book was just a fun read.

Dylan and Penelope together were just like any other couple I know. They get together, they get all dumb about it and then they realize they can’t live without each other and they live happily ever after but I enjoyed getting to know Dylan. I enjoyed getting to know Penelope and it was just a good, all around book.

Don’t expect a serious plot here, this book is all fun and I’m sure if you’re in the mood for quick and light, this is the book for you. Check out the rest of the dog books by Elaine Fox:

This book is available from Avon. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

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