“You meet them, they’re nice looking, but would you want to take a shower with them? You can think of all kinds of people who are nice-looking, but unless you want to take a shower with them you don’t feel the right way for a relationship.” — Page 235
Bedtime for Bonsai is Elaine Fox’s latest novel. No, it has nothing to do with the plant but everything to do with a cute dog (and romance). In this one, the highlight of the story is the socialite-looking, beautiful, good girl Penelope Porter. Penelope plans to get back together with her no-good ex-husband, and she also wants a baby. But it was for that very reason her ex-husband left her for another woman (he does not want any babies).
Penelope gets herself a cute puppy and names him Mr Darcy. The problem is that Mr Darcy keeps sneaking over to the shop across the street, owned by the new guy in town, Dylan Mersey. Dylan is a good-looking bad boy who apparently has a criminal past. He settles himself in the small town to start anew. At first, when Mr Darcy keeps showing up at his shop, Dylan doesn’t know whose puppy it is, so he gives the pup a name he thinks fits: Bonsai.
Penelope, prejudiced by what she heard about Dylan, calls in the police one night when she suspects Dylan is up to no good outside her shop. Dylan has his own problem when his old criminal friend calls him to repay an ‘old favour.’ Slowly, though, Cupid gets to work, and the barriers come down. How? What happened? All I can say is that what is unsuitable becomes unstoppable for Dylan and Penelope.
If you have read the earlier books in this dog series, namely Guys & Dogs; Hello, Doggy, and Beware of Doug, these other women in story—Megan, Lily and Georgia—will be no stranger to you. Penelope and they are good friends; they love dogs and meet regularly at the dog park. They all have their own story to tell. I have enjoyed them all, including this one, Bedtime for Bonsai. I’m glad I picked up a used copy of Guys & Dogs while I was in Singapore, which became my first Elaine Fox book, and I’ve been reading the series ever since.
