REVIEW: Rescue Me, Maybe by Jackie Bouchard

Rescue Me, Maybe by Jackie Bouchard: When Jane’s husband dies of cancer and her dog, Barnum, dies shortly after, Jane quits her job, determined to move from Philadelphia back to San Diego. She gets sidetracked however, when her aunt needs to go for hand surgery. She winds up in Arizona, running her aunt and uncle’s Bed and Breakfast, along with their employee, Selene.

Jane feels guilty because she was more upset over her dog’s death than her husband’s. She had planned on leaving him until his cancer diagnosis. She stayed by his side, never leaving until the end. Once he was gone, and Barnum was gone, she felt she had nothing left in Philly. Packing it up, she drives to Arizona. Stopping at a rest area, she encounters an abandoned dog wearing a tag that only said “Penny”. Not wanting another dog so soon after losing Barnum, she was going to drop her off at the pound but her aunt had other ideas, including renaming Penny Maybe.

Maybe is diagnosed with cancer shortly after, another blow to poor Jane. Yet she uses Maybe’s situation to overcome her shyness with the guests of the B&B. She also meets Kai, a man she can’t believe would be interested in her. While she’s not ready to jump into another relationship, she slowly drops her walls to let him in as a friend.

Rescue Me, Maybe by Jackie Bouchard is filled with heartbreak, but it’s lightened with humorous moments, such as when Jane attempted to steal some of her husband’s ashes and when she threw muffins at one of the guests. Jane thinks she knows what she wants, but learns that what she thinks she wants isn’t what she actually needs. With the help of Maybe and a few unexpected friends, Jane learns to forgive herself, let the guilt go, and discover happiness again. Rescue Me, Maybe, is well worth a read.
 

Book Info:

Publication: August 25, 2015 | Lake Union Publishing |

If you lost both your spouse and your dog to cancer within weeks of each other, but you were sadder about the dog, would you tell anyone? Maybe your closest friends. Unfortunately, Jane Bailey’s closest friends are on the other side of the country. That’s where Jane plans to go now that she’s free to leave Philadelphia, the too cold, beachless, street taco-deficient city her husband dragged her to six years ago. But with no job prospects in her hometown of San Diego, Jane is roped into helping out temporarily at her uncle’s southwestern small-town B&B. En route to her new role as innkeeper and breakfast chef, she finds a stray at a rest stop. With her heart in pieces from the loss of her dog, she’s determined not to let this mutt worm its way into her affections. She’s also determined to have next-to-no interaction with the B&B’s irritating guests, and the even more annoying handyman who lives next door. Can Jane keep her sanity—and her secret that she’s not really a grieving widow—while trying to achieve her dream of getting back to the place she thinks is home?